Women have had to fight for equal treatment since the earliest days of sports, from Billie Jean-King’s “Battle of the Sexes” in the 1970s to the equal-pay lawsuit filed by the U.S. women’s soccer team earlier this year. Just this past summer, 200+ professional women players have joined in on that fight.

“It is all of our responsibility,” says Blake Bolden of the National Women’s Hockey League. Bolden has broken several barriers in the sport of women’s ice hockey, one of which is being the NWHL’s first black female professional athlete. She says, “I didn’t even know I was the first – I guess I had blinders on. One day my teammate yelled, ‘Yo, you’re the first!’ I understood that as I’m some sort of role model. I guess I should own that.” And that is exactly what Bolden and the growing number of her fellow players are doing: owning their worth and demanding the recognition and equal rights they deserve. 

200 and counting female athletes have refused to play professional hockey in North America.

For years professional hockey has been divided in North America for females and on May 1st, 2019 the Canadian Women's Hockey League abruptly announced that they were shutting down operations due to lack of “economic stability.” 

“No one knew what to expect,” Bolden recounts, having felt somewhat hopeful when she first heard the news. It seemed as if the NWHL was on board to help the teams after the collapse, even raising the possibility of Hubs in Canada to expand the league. At the time Bolden played for the Buffalo Beauts of Amherst New York, a team privately owned by the Pegula family since December 2017. The Beauts were among the NWHL’s first four teams, winning the Isobel Cup Championship in 2017. Just one week after the news of the CWHL closing its doors, Kim Pegula announced that she was relinquishing control of the Buffalo Beauts. Pegula did not state specific reasons behind this decision, but made it clear that her goal has always been “fostering the growth of women’s hockey across all ages.”

In the wake of this demise, a movement started rising. Making a bold and risky statement, 200 and counting female athletes have refused to play professional hockey in North America. This statement was signed by many of the top professional hockey players in the world, including Bolden. 

“We cannot make a sustainable living playing in the current state of the professional game. Having no health insurance and making as low as two thousand dollars a season means players can’t adequately train and prepare to play at their highest level.”

The NWHL salary cap is set at $270 thousand, which has never been met. To get a comparison of just how far this gender pay gap goes, the 2019-20 cap for the NHL is $81.5 million, a number that was delivered as “sad news” because it is a bit lower than previously expected. 

It comes as a shock to fans and spectators alike that players in one of the most aggressive contact sports in the world don’t at the very least, receive health insurance. The notorious toothless grins and the fact that these athletes maneuver on actual blades provides some perspective on the actual risks being taken every time they step onto the ice. 

And if that isn’t enough to have fans strongly considering flooding the NWHL’s social media with Gloria Steinem quotes, here are some other contributing disadvantages for the women’s league: most players don’t get meals before games, they pay their own trainers, buy their own tape and sit for hours in airports because there is no funding for a team bus. 

The best players in the world who deserve to play full time and be compensated for that… those are the 200+ players who you won’t see on the ice this year.

Responding to questions about the NHL stepping in, the NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman replied, “The NHL isn’t looking to put anyone out of business. However, if there is a void, they will take a look at the possibilities and see what is appropriate.” As of now, the monetary support the NHL regularly contributes to the NWHL is only fifty thousand dollars per year. When you consider that amount is being absorbed by an entire league yearly, it equals only one-thirteenth of the average NHL player’s annual salary. 

Bettman says, “I don’t think we have the responsibility to fund the business of other leagues. They have investors, they have a business plan.” On the other hand, he has made it clear in both private and public discussions with the CWHL and the NWHL that he “…doesn’t believe that either league’s models were sustainable in the long term.” Unfortunately, so far his prophecy has been correct for the CWHL. 

Bolden’s full stop comes at a very steep price: not playing professional hockey. Still, she says, “Doing the thing that you love most is sacrificed for a year, but the possibility of things getting better is worth pushing the needle.” 

Blake and step-dad Leslie Dean, who first introduced her to hockey.

The NWHL is still running, so obviously some players decided not to boycott. Of this decision, Bolden says, “Of course, and it’s because of circumstance. Every player has a different need. Some have other careers as teachers or bankers at Morgan Stanley. The best players in the world who deserve to play full time and be compensated for that… those are the 200+ players who you won’t see on the ice this year.”

With the extensive talent base behind these signatures, there is no doubt NWHL will soon see that the success of professional sports as a lucrative entertainment product comes right down to these players themselves. Female athletes deserve equal pay, fair treatment, and a better future to play hockey in a safe and sustainable environment.