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Gender Differences 101: Hockey Edition

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Being the manager of Ithaca College’s Men’s Ice Hockey team was, to say the least, quite the interesting experience during my time as a Sport Management student there. For over three straight seasons, I spent my weekend evenings shivering profusely in the scoring box of Lynah Rink, running the clock, and keeping the score sheet as my team fought to rattle tough opponents. And for my last two years there, my Tuesday and Thursday nights were consumed by attending late-night practices from 10PM-12AM.

I have to give myself credit for the dedication I had to the team during those days, mostly because going to practice is one of the most boring experiences a manager of team could have. Maybe if I had ever played hockey (or knew how to skate for that matter), this would be a different story – but that wouldn’t have made a difference, anyway. If I don’t bring homework, I had find other ways to keep myself entertained, like doing a “puck walk”, which meant I circled the outside of the ice and finding all the lost pucks. Other times I would search for broken sticks since one of the guys was collecting them for a bar he was building.

This pretty much sums up my life.

This pretty much sums up my life.

One of those weeknights, I had arrived late to practice due to my night class. When I parked my car at The Rink in Lansing, New York, the town over from Ithaca, I saw a herd of high school female hockey players scurrying to their cars and speeding out of the lot. (Kind of a scary moment – not going to lie.)

My main job at practice was to keep the water bottles filled, which requires several trips back and forth from the ice to the locker room. Sometimes, I’ll take the scenic route – which involves walking around the front of the ice into lobby where the concession stand and skate rentals are located. It was on one of these occasions where I first saw it.

It was unlike any other I had ever seen before, and it caught my eye instantly. On the padded flooring of the rink, I spotted a light blue puck – the first one I’d ever found that wasn’t black.

It’s beautiful! I thought to myself, proceeding to tuck my new treasure safely into the zipper-protected pocket of my hockey jacket.

As I continued back to the locker room, my mind was swirling with questions about my discovery.

mms_picture (7)

Why is it blue? Why is there a faded 49 written on it? Why does it feel so light?

When I returned to the bench with the team’s source of hydration, I immediately displayed the light blue puck in front of head coach Brad Buell’s face.

“Look what I found!” I exclaimed. He seemed surprised that I was so excited about finding a puck.

“Nice. Must be from the women’s team that had the ice before us,” Buell responded. “They’re lighter and easier to play with.” He blew his whistle, and the team came to the bench for a water break. I put the puck back in my pocket and waited for the freshly-filled bottles to become empty again.

It was that moment when I first learned that there were different pucks for men and women. I had never heard of there being different pucks for different genders.

How? I thought to myself. The difference in size must be so miniscule. Is there really a point in that? I could hardly tell the difference between the light blue puck in my pocket and the one that had just bounced over the boards and onto the bench.

When I got back to campus that night, I had to find out more. Through several internet searches typing in different phrases such as “men’s vs. women’s hockey puck”, “light blue hockey puck”, and “are there seriously gender differences in hockey that go as far as the size and weight of the hockey puck?!”, it became evident that my discovery might not be common knowledge after all. There weren’t many useful answers on the web, so it was time to come up with some of my own.

I don't think this picture is to scale.

I don’t think this picture is to scale.

After a couple measurements, I discovered two things. Both the black “men’s” puck and the blue “women’s” puck were the exact same width and height –  three inches in diameter and one inch thick. However, a significant difference was present in the weight of the pucks. The “men’s” puck was evidently heavier than the “women’s” puck by touch – and the scale didn’t lie as it weighed in at 5.71 ounces. The “women’s” puck only weighed 4.41 ounces. This means that 1.3 ounces separates the genders in ice hockey.

It was hard for me to grasp why this difference exists, so I tried to rationalize why women played with a lighter puck. I assumed it would travel across the ice more smoothly and would require less elbow-grease when shooting, passing, and receiving passes, and since women are considered fragile and weak when compared to men, this 1.3 oz. difference might make blocking shots slightly less painful. Along with extremely restricted rules on hitting, for example, this discovery, in my brainwashed Ithaca-College-Sport-Management-Gender-Issues-Classes mind, qualified as an example of gender inequality in the sport of ice hockey.

It’s all we used to talk about in our classes, aside from finance or legal issues. We would spend hours analyzing Title IX, the law passed in 1972 which brought gender equity to schools, and discussing in immense detail the true differences for each gender in the world of sports. For instance, men are paid higher wages while women are unfairly paid less. In other cases, women’s sports have many more physical restrictions compared to men’s for various factors, such as protecting their reproductive organs.

I stared at both of the pucks in front of me. Although different colors, it would be hard for the average person to notice the difference between them. Even most of the writing on the puck was the same. For instance, both pucks had the words “OFFICIAL” and “MADE IN USA” printed on the side. I was almost insulted by my findings on behalf of my fellow females. I concluded that men must play with a heavier puck because they are perceived to handle more force and weight coming at them, but in the end, does 1.3 oz. really make that much of a difference?

“It’s almost insulting, in a way, to bother making them different sizes when the difference is so small,” said my close friend and former IC classmate, Meghan Herlihy. “Honestly, I’m not all that surprised to hear it. The fact that I almost subconsciously expected a difference speaks volumes in my mind.”

What if it’s just a youth puck? I then questioned myself. But, no, our tenured coach immediately assumed it was a women’s puck. 

And it was then when I noticed a gender difference in the physicality of the puck, besides the light blue color. The women’s puck had an additional word on the side – “Jessica”. Sorry, Jessica, but I don’t plan on giving the puck back. Two years later, I still have too many unanswered questions.


Filed under: ICE HOCKEY Tagged: hockey, ice, ice hockey, ithaca, ithaca college, lynah rink, men, New York, puck, rink, title ix, women

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