Women's Hockey Still Facing Sexism even at the International Level

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Jay Tup
November 11, 2021 (10:27 PM)

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The Canadian National Women's hockey team is currently in Helsinki, Finland taking part in a 3 game mini series in preparation for this year's Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. The 3 game series began today and the Canadian Women defeated the Finnish squad 4-2 on the back of some strong performances from multiple members of the team including Canadian Captain Marie-Philip Poulin. Poulin scored the second goal of the game for Canada making the score 2-0 and ended up going on to be named Canada's Player of the Game.

Unfortunately that's where things took a negative turn and things got embarrassing for the organizers of the series. Both Poulin and Finland's Sanni Rantala were named as the Player of the Game for both countries and they were both presented with a gift. In most International settings these usually end up being a wrist watch or something similar, but for this tournament that wasn't the case.

One fan on Twitter did happen to catch what both women were presented with and the list of things that could be more embarrassing isn't very long at all. Over her career Poulin has won her fair share of Player of the Game awards, but I highly doubt she was ever given something as disrespectful as what she received today.

That's right she was awarded with a Remington Hair Straightener and not a very good one.

Let's just stop for a minute and think.

Could you ever imagine someone awarding Sidney Crosby with a 5 pack of razors and a BBQ grill brush? Even that analogy doesn't do this level of disrespect justice. I mean seriously what do they have planned for Player of the Series? A mop and bucket? Broom and dust pan? Vacuum? New set of pots and pans?

It's hard to believe in the year 2021 that women in this sport still have to face this kind of adversity and sexism. It's impossible for me to believe that someone signed off on this and truly believed this award was a good idea. Every woman in the Olympics dedicated their entire lives to this sport and they deserve better. Marie-Philip Poulin definitely deserves better, Sami Rantala deserves better, women's hockey deserves better and all the young women watching hockey at home aspiring to be here someday deserve better.

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