Athletes for Change

The sport of hockey has for long been seen as exclusive in nature and limited in expression. However, there has been a shift in the culture of the sport that has made it more inclusive. The growth of women's hockey in North America specifically has been unprecedented in sports. In 1990-91 Hockey Canada had 8,146 registered female athletes. Compare that to 2009-10 where the number of registered female athletes rose to 85,624. One of those athletes was Harrison Browne, a hockey player in the NWHL (National Women's Hockey League) for the Buffalo Beauts. Harrison grew up in Oakville, Ontario and for most of his life identified as a girl. Going through school and later girls hockey, he revealed to many of his peers that he was gay. Although it was at first difficult to deal with from his classmates at his all girls elementary school, people were understanding of Harrison and understood that he had the right to express himself freely. In hockey Harrison felt free from constra...

The lack of female coaches in North American is an ever-growing problem. We live in a generation that has more woman playing and succeeding in sports than ever before but, there are still a lack of female coaches. This problem is evident in all professional sports, but it is also a problem right here at Wilfrid Laurier. In a generation where there are more options for female sports and more females participating in sports, doesn’t it make sense to hire more female coaches? Apparently not. Here at Laurier there is currently only one female head coach. Lynn Orth is the coach of Laurier’s woman’s lacrosse team and is the only female head coach currently at Laurier. According to the Canadian Journal of Woman’s coaching, a 2008 national survey showed that women outnumber men in playing 6 of the 10 most popular sports. Here at Laurier there are a growing number of woman sports available, still not as much as men, but the number is growing. All but one of these are coached by males. ...

       In running competitions women run the same distances as men in track events and road races. However, in cross country races women run shorter distances. It has been this way for numerous years because people believe that men are physically superior to women. A women’s motivation is also called into question, as there is a concern that fewer females will want to partake in cross country races as it gets more challenging. Victoria Coates, who runs for Canada’s national cross country team responds to these arguments by stating that “if we keep expecting less from girls and women, we are going to keep achieving less”.   In Ontario, the Queen’s University cross country coach, Steve Boyd, is also an avid supporter for equality among men and women’s race distances. Queens hosted a race in 2016 that became the first ever university cross country race in North America where both men and women ran the same distance. Boyd fiercely believes equalizing the distances...

No matter how you look at any career, corporation, class structure, or even country, there will always be a gender pay gap. The most known stat is that the average woman makes 76 cents to every dollar men make. Now looking at the non-average people, such as professional athletes, one would assume a woman and man would be closer to being equal. They are both professionals, they both put the same amount of effort and sweat into becoming a professional, and its only right for them to finally be on the same level. This is not the case, woman continue to get paid significantly lower than men, no matter the professionally. In terms of professional sports, I have came to the conclusion that its not about the woman as an individual, but the audience. The viewers are the ones who determine how much an athlete gets paid by simply turning on their TV and watching them compete. The advertising market has developed stereotypes and norms that the public are suppose to follow which influence what the...

This graph represents the Male to Female sports covered ratio on TV. Woman make up 5% while men are 95% covered.