I’m writing this on my way to the Ottawa-Montreal hockey game. It has been an exciting season and series, and I can only hope that there will be one final game after tonight.
I didn’t expect to become such a big fan. I had watched Hockey Night in Canada as a kid because that was the only option in my two-channel, one TV household. A girls team was formed when I was in high school, but I wasn’t allowed to join. Later, I became a hockey mom for my son’s sake; but that wasn’t about the brilliant hockey – sorry kiddo!
As a feminist and a Canadian, I celebrated the achievements of Canadian women at the Olympics and other international tournaments. I was proud to see the achievements of some of those stars after their playing days ended.
I should have cheered even more for the dedication of those women who played for years with minimal sponsorship and no salaries, and only the occasional tournament to hone their skills.
But suddenly, women’s professional sports are having a moment.
The atmosphere at games over the three years of the PWHL’s existence has been phenomenal. It’s almost as much fun to watch the excitement of young girls dreaming of playing professionally as it is to watch the pros themselves. Attendance is skyrocketing (I expect a new playoff attendance record will have been set by the time you read this).
When the season ends, there will be options for the first time in my life: I can go to professional soccer games here in Ottawa, or follow the new basketball team in Toronto. New mixed team configurations in both traditional and para-sports are drawing my attention to things like curling, speed skating and athletics too.
Of course the women earn a pittance compared to their male counterparts, but there have been some modest moves towards parity in certain sports, and there is definitely a sense that the PWHL Players Association will be negotiating aggressively for more lucrative contracts now that they are a proven commodity.
Maybe that’s part of the reason so many of us older women are such fervent fans. We fought so hard for equality in our careers that we want to do what we can to help advance the careers of others.
I know for a fact that many of us are there celebrating a future our fourteen-year-old selves couldn’t have imagined.
