Female coaches, players and reporters are changing the male-dominated sports industry. (Video: Breanna Carter, Julia Nowicki and Subi Anandarajah/RSJ)
More females are pursuing careers in the historically male-dominated hockey industry, spearheading a change in sport gender demographics.
According to registration numbers compiled by Hockey Canada, the women’s game has enjoyed a steady rise for the past 30 years, with the biggest increase coming in the 1998-99 campaign following its first year as an official Olympic sport.
Kori Cheveri, the assistant hockey coach for the Ryerson Rams men’s hockey team, became the first full-time female coach for men’s hockey in the history of Canadian Interuniversity Sports.
“I don’t wanna say that you need to know more than the guys, but you definitely need to be able to sit through a discussion, and you need to hold your own in conversation around the water cooler about hockey.”
Cheverie – who had spent spent the last three years as a skate training specialist at Ryerson – was already familiar with most of her team before taking on the role of assistant coach.
“I already had a really great relationship with the guys and there was definitely mutual respect there, but I did have to develop and gain some trust and had to prove how much I knew about game once I got to the coaching position,” said Cheverie.
After retiring from the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, Cheverie began to focus her coaching career with the Ryerson men’s hockey team.
“I’m trying to just do my job as well as I can and be a good role model. Hopefully I’m paving the way for younger girls to have this opportunity down the road.”
Ailish Forfar, forward for the Rams female hockey team, agrees that female athletes need to be role models for younger girls interested in hockey.
“Something I try to do is reach out to younger athletes and show that it is really great to be a female athlete and, as one, you should work hard to achieve your dreams,” said Forfar.
Forfar, who had played hockey on boy’s teams since the age of three, said female athletes need to break the status quo when being compared to male players.
“We’re definitely seen as lesser athletes than men and that [affects] our funding. I think men get much more money than us, which is disappointing. They have more sponsorship dollars because their leagues are bigger, they have more fans and there are so many more male hockey reporters.”
To date, there have only been two female anchors for Hockey Night in Canada, despite it being the longest running broadcast in the world. Other organizations, like ESPN and Sports Net, have a 10-1 male to female sportscaster ratio.
“In our news room for hockey, we don’t have any [female reporters],” said Cory Wilkins, NHL news editor at theScore. “We do have a couple in other sports, but there aren’t many female reporters in general for the hockey industry.”
Wilkins believes that although newsrooms are starting to hire female sports reporters, there are still many misconceptions about women in the locker room, which limits their representation.
“Historically, it’s a very male driven industry, so [you have to] break through that barrier. Everyone can work in the same field, whether you are male or female, but we have to work through that initial phase.”
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