Women’s hockey, like many other women’s sports, is wildly underrepresented compared to the men’s equivalent. While there is an argument to be made that there are simply more men’s players and leagues, the truth of the matter is that women’s sports, no matter how much more dominant they are compared to the men, has always been seen as a niche.
When it comes to reporting on women’s hockey, there isn’t much coverage until the Olympics or if they’re fighting for equal pay. Of course when it comes to the fight for equal pay, men’s hockey has to be part of the conversation for “mainstream” sports media.
There have been some “mainstream” media outlets that have reported on the women’s hockey stories outside of the Olympics, but also their ongoing struggles with those leagues. However, there are very few places available to watch games or get updates on the games themselves. While finding men’s hockey games to watch, view replays and highlights, see stats, and get box scores is exceedingly easy. There are even full websites dedicated to looking at the analytics of men’s hockey.
While there has been an increase in women’s hockey coverage, and there seems to be growing popularity for the sport, there is still a large gap to fill. It’s disappointing as a hockey fan to see the lack of coverage, but not at all surprising given that women’s sports has always seemed to take a lesser role to men’s sports in the United States. My hope is that as more and more women become not only athletes, but active sports fans, that women’s sports will continue to gain popularity. It seems like women’s sports are gaining more fans, and with that hopefully will gain more media coverage.
