Women in hockey (and everywhere) have for years received far less respect than they deserve. But on opening night I believed once again that girls can do anything
I sat on the couch on Jan. 1, 2024, with tears streaming down my face. I was watching the first ever pregame show of the Professional Women’s Hockey League. Tennis legend Billie-Jean King was on screen, talking about how last year American hockey phenom Kendall Coyne asked her to help build a sustainable women’s professional hockey league.
The first inkling I had that perhaps girls-can’t-do-everything was during my first year when a generous law school alumnus volunteered his busy Bay Street time to have me shadow him for the day. Spending time at his firm’s office, I couldn’t help but notice how few women were around, let alone in leadership positions. Hmm, I thought, maybe Bay Street is not for me.
In the legal profession, sexism hit me hard. While my colleagues and I were mostly women, the lawyers and judges we interacted with were not. I can’t tell you the number of times I came home angry and defeated, having been spoken down to or dismissed because I was a woman. My racialized colleagues had it even worse, being mistaken for the interpreter or client when they were at court to prosecute the case.
The PWHL has proved them wrong. Record numbers attended the inaugural games with more than 13,000 showing up at Minnesota’s first match. And Toronto faced off against Montreal on Feb. 16 at the Scotiabank Arena to a sold-out crowd of 19,285. Guess what, people want to watchplay! The stands are filled with girls who were ecstatic to watch their Olympic idols and other women on the ice. Representation matters.
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