Women’s hockey players fight for equality today, with their eyes set on future generations
Nearly 13 million Canadians watched as the Canadian women’s hockey team stunned the United States with a come-from-behind 3–2 overtime win in the gold-medal game at the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games, the nation’s fourth consecutive trip to the top of the podium. Four years later, at the Pyeongchang Winter Games, roughly 3 million Americans stayed up into the wee hours of the morning to see Team USA exact revenge to win gold in a shootout, the most-watched midnight-hour program in NBC Sports history.
Hundreds of those viewers and fans packed a local practice rink in Voorhees, New Jersey, on the outskirts of Philadelphia on a Sunday in early March to see 68 of the game’s finest, many of whom had played in those same Olympic finals, participate in a split-squad four-team tournament, dubbed the “Philadelphia Women’s Hockey Showcase.”
The weekend-long showcase was organized by the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association (PWHPA), one of six stops organized by the group as part of their Dream Gap Tour that has taken them from Toronto to Chicago, New Hampshire, and Arizona. 175 players, including 42 Olympians, have put aside their bitter club rivalries and even national team allegiances in an effort to effect change. They have foregone playing professionally anywhere in North America, instead uniting as one under a collective banner. Canadian and American crests have been replaced with a singular PWHPA logo on the front of their jerseys.
While the players were not competing for a gold medal this time around, they, nevertheless, were playing with a purpose. They aimed to highlight the gap that exists between males and females playing the sport, all the while “promot(ing), and advance(ing) a single, viable, professional women’s ice hockey league in North America.”
The fight for equality has not just been taken up by professional hockey players. The U.S. women’s national soccer team attempted to bring U.S. Soccer officials to court on grounds of gender discrimination in a $67 million lawsuit. However, on May 1st, a judge dismissed the claims of unequal pay when compared to their male counterparts. The players say they plan on appealing the decision. A trial date is still set for June 6th to deal with allegations of discriminatory travel accommodations and insufficient medical support.
The barnstorming tour comes following a bombshell announcement last March by the league some 150 players called home just one week after awarding its championship trophy. The Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) folded after 12 seasons of existence, with the league’s board of directors citing poor revenues and an unsustainable operational model.
“We’ve been in a lot of different locations,” said defender Meaghan Mikkelson. “I think that what we have seen that has been consistent from one city to the next is the commitment from everybody that is a part of the PWHPA that has worked so hard to put on great events. Also, the fans have really come out. It’s so great to know that what we are doing, obviously, is really special and powerful to know that we have the fans behind us as well.”
Those fans included Kira Furlong, daughter Aurora and teammates Payton and Eliot. The girls were decked out in their Reading Independence jerseys, the mixed boys and girls ice hockey team for which they play, and came clutching colourful hand-made signs crafted in their hotel room the night prior.
“We don’t really have girl teams,” said Furlong during the first intermission of the day’s first of two contests. “I think it’s important for them to see powerful women out on the ice.”
Furlong is appreciative of all that her minor hockey program has done for her daughter and her teammates. Nevertheless, she has her reservations for the future.
“I don’t mind that she plays with boys right now,” said Furlong. “I think it makes her pretty tough. I’m just afraid that when she is older, there aren’t going to be as many options as there are for boys.”
Canada’s Rebecca Johnston, a three-time Olympic medalist, remembers being in a similar situation as a youngster. “I grew up in a smaller city and I played on a guy’s team growing up,” said Johnston. “There were definitely hard moments for me, with guys on other teams saying ‘you don’t belong here, why are you here?’ I think you just come down to the people that love you and support you. You just turn to those people. My teammates were great and my family is so supportive, so just having those people that you can turn to and know that you do belong and you can make a difference and just follow your heart and what you want to do, whatever that passion is. If that is hockey and you have an end goal, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to achieve that.”
Players in the CWHL had been receiving between $2,000 and $10,000 per season, amounts that had only come into play in 2017 with players playing gratis prior to that. As a result, the majority of the league’s players worked 9-to-5-day jobs, with training time and league games scheduled for nights and weekends.
“It’s definitely a lot different than having a league where you are playing for a championship,” said Johnston. “For us, we have to hold each other accountable and making sure that we are staying in shape and that we are pushing each other because it is a different year for us. We’re always on a different team or playing with different people. The chemistry is different. We have to be very adaptable. It’s also very exciting, getting to play with different people that you’ve played against for years. There’s so much talent so to be able to play with that talent is just helping women’s hockey grow.”
There does remain an alternative for women’s hockey players. The National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL), in operation since 2015, boasts teams, hailing from Boston, Buffalo, Connecticut, New Jersey and Minnesota. The league’s commissioner, Dani Rylan, has committed to paying her players, with each team working with a US$150,000 salary cap this past season, an increase of 26 per cent from last year. The players also received a 50–50 revenue split from league-wide sponsorships and media-rights deals, which includes a partnership with the streaming site Twitch.
“A lot of the media stories have been us vs. the NWHL,” said Hilary Knight. “It’s kind of a shame. They’re doing what they’re doing and the PWHPA is doing what we are trying to do. Maybe they are different visions, maybe they align. It’s for business models and people behind the scenes to work out, but I don’t necessarily see them as a problem.”
The NWHL has since announced its expansion into Canada for next season. A new team will take up shop in Toronto, having signed five former members of the PWHPA in the process. Nevertheless, the majority of the group are refusing to back down from their positions. In fact, players have agreed to a regional structure for next season, with training hubs set up in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, New Hampshire, and Minnesota to further “improve access to resources such as full-time dressing rooms, access to strength and conditioning facilities, support staff and coaches.”
“We have 200 players that have banded together and the leadership has been phenomenal,” said Mikkelson. “For me, it’s the end goal and the vision of the PWHPA that resonated with me and with all of us to have that professional women’s league. That was it for me, it wasn’t one versus the other. It was that goal and that vision that I wanted to be a part of. I wanted to be a part of making history with so many other incredibly strong women for all those other girls out there that want to play professionally.”
Former CWHL head coach Rob Morgan has been monitoring the evolution of the women’s pro game from afar and sees some positives in the NWHL’s model.
“They do have a business plan in place for their league that is more in line with what professional hockey looks like,” said Morgan, who now coaches the Long Island University Sharks women’s hockey team. “Their salaries aren’t there yet, the size of schedule isn’t there yet. They have some things to work on, but, at the same time, there is some involvement with ownership, sponsorship, their marketing plan and social media. They have done a really good job there.”
He is hoping both sides come together sooner rather than later for the greater good of women’s hockey. “I am not a big fan of seeing the split,” said Morgan. “I’d like to see them sit down and work this out and find a way to take what’s working really well right now with the NWHL and create the necessary partnerships with those interest groups that want to see women’s professional hockey be successful.”
Loren Gabel is a graduate from Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York last year and winner of the Patty Kazmaier Award as top player in NCAA Division I women’s hockey. The Kitchener, Ontario native admits it has not been easy finding herself without a team to call home following her senior season of college hockey and hopes a league following the model of college hockey could be the solution for the group.
“It was definitely hard for me coming out of college and not really having a league to play in,” said Gabel. “I think, in the future, we obviously want to look for something that we’ve all done at college and maybe a schedule like NHL players have. Obviously, not as many games but whatever we can get would be great.”
“Loren is the top player in college hockey and she has to step into a situation where she’s starting her career on the national team and she doesn’t even know what she’s going to step into post-college,” said Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson. “That’s really unfortunate that that is the reality for so many college players that are still developing and haven’t even peaked yet as athletes. They are faced with the situation of whether they continue or go and get a job. That’s the unfortunate reality that so many of us face.”
Knight also points to the lack of television attention directed to the women’s game as an obstacle and major point of contention. “The biggest frustration for us as players is knowing that we have a great product but not the right visibility components,” said Knight. “We don’t have the right platforms to really showcase our product. That has what has been instrumental this year, is we’ve had these channels and opportunities to increase the visibility of the game and we’re going to continue to do that. Weekends here with the Flyers, having the streaming with ESPN + and Monumental Sports Network coming on board, those are big opportunities and thing we haven’t seen with the sport before. I think we’re all very grateful for where the pioneers before us have led the game and we’re just doing our part moving forward.”
Many contend that the success of the women’s game passes through the National Hockey League. The league has supported women’s hockey through their inclusion of female players across its All-Star weekends. In 2018, the league invited four players to its mid-season showcase to demonstrate skills competitions performed by NHL stars. Last season, it took a step further by inviting Team USA’s Kendall Coyne-Schofield to compete in the Fastest Skater Competition alongside her male counterparts.
This past January, in St. Louis, the NHL included a 20-minute 3-on-3 Team Canada vs. Team U.S.A. contest in the middle of its Skills Competition. Knight and Canadian Marie-Philip Poulin were also voted in by fans to face-off in the NHL Shooting Stars challenge with some of the NHL’s brightest stars.
“The NHL is an extremely successful organization,” said Knight. “Whenever you have them supporting women’s hockey with the industry knowledge that they have, it’s going to be successful. All-star weekend was a phenomenal opportunity for players, younger fans, people who maybe have never seen women’s ice hockey on such a big stage. Hopefully, as the NHL has shown, they continue to support women’s hockey and that support is only going to grow as we progress in the future.”
“I think, for the NHL, they should want to be involved,” said Morgan. “I don’t think it should be by giving up full ownership and power of their league. I would hope that it would be an independent league of the NHL. It could still have a working relationship together. I got to believe that there is a creative way to make that happen.”
“It doesn’t do a service to the game or the sport to say do it because it’s the right thing to do because that’s patronage,” said Susan Cohig, Executive Vice-President of NHL Club Business Affairs. “It’s patronizing to the athletes who have spent their whole lives developing their skills. It’s a matter of creating an environment that is nurturing for the players to grow.”
Cohig says the NHL supports women’s hockey across multiple platforms by providing funds to both the NWHL and PWHPA, in addition to its “investment in the growth of girl’s hockey programs and engagement towards women” by both the league and its individual teams.
Cohig refused to speculate as to whether or not the NHL might one day back a singular league, instead focusing on the league’s current initiatives towards bettering the women’s game.
“We are the leaders in the sport so what we do is use our platform,” said Cohig. “We’re doing it now. Are we running a league? No, but we’re using our megaphone and our voice to create more exposure in the things that we do like at All-Star, more than what they might be getting otherwise anywhere. We’re committed already. The question of when will the NHL get in it? We say, we’re already there.”
Furlong is hopeful that avenues for girls, including for her daughter Aurora, will continue to open up before too long.
“I think there will be more opportunities eventually,” said Furlong. “She is only seven, so I’m hoping that within the next five, six years, there will be better things.”
Mikkelson, a mother of two young children, including a 16-month old daughter named Berkley, empathizes with Furlong and is using her story and the story of other girls as inspiration in their fight for recognition and equality.
“We’re doing this for the young girls,” said Mikkelson. “This isn’t about us. Obviously, we might benefit from it, but we’re doing it for them so we can continue to break those barriers so that it doesn’t have to be like that all the time. I would also say that, and I would also say this to my kids, anything worth having is hard to get. The beauty of the PWHPA and what they are doing is they are helping to share our stories and to tell our stories and to know where we’ve been and what we’ve gone through, the things we’ve had to overcome. It takes strength and it’s not easy, but they can do it.”
