Women in sports have always had to work a little bit harder in order to be treated with equality. However, this is not to take away from the hard work of male athletes, but women have faced several challenges just to be able to perform. Women’s role in sports, particularly in other countries, has always been seen as less than men both in opportunity and attention.

I played hockey for nearly ten years of my life and one thing I always noticed was men were put ahead of us, nearly always. My team would have instances that referees would not make calls or ignore rules just to get the game ended earlier, not like the men’s team who was accurately called and always had commanded presence.

It was hard to not feel inferior when you played six days a week, but still had no chance to match up.

The current system of women in sports needs to change. Women are notoriously underpaid in their own sports and written off as less than men because of the way it is set up both nationally and internationally.

Equality needs to exist within the sports world, specifically to set an example of respect among athletes. Women are still battling to be equal among all of their male counterparts and it’s not right. These athletes work their entire life to be at the highest level of their sport, but it’s sad that people won’t even consider them as just as good as men.

Even if I was a better athlete than the male hockey players, my team still got the worse ice time and treated as almost a joke when we practiced. Let me assure all the nay sayers, female athletes work just as hard if not harder than male athletes. You can call that statement as controversial as you want, but they do. Women not only have to fight for their stance, but they also have to be the absolute best at their craft. While men rather have a system made exactly for them to succeed and flourish. Women work hard despite never being able to hoist the Stanley Cup or win a World Series.

Men will never understand what it is like to play a sport and not lose motivation because the world is telling you, “Well how far can you really go as a woman?”

It’s a discouraging system for several, young female athletes. I admire all female athletes who are at the height of their sport, despite being told to take a seat or quit because they’re as far as they can go. The main thing that kept me going even though I wasn’t considered the priority was my love for the game.

I love hockey more than any other sport because I grew up playing, watching and attending games. Now what breaks my heart is that in spite of all my dedication to the sport, I am still laughed at when I talk about the game. I know and understand the game of hockey extremely well, but even if I were speaking with a man who watches the game “once in a while” he still knows more.

When did people decide that women cannot love the game as much as a man. Hockey is a huge part of my life and my sex has nothing to do with my knowledge, love of the game. I refuse to be treated as such and the women who feel the same way should never tolerate that behavior.

The first famous person I wanted to meet wasn’t Justin Bieber (just an example), it was my hero Steve Yzerman. For Christmas I wanted toys, but for the best Christmases I got a brand new hockey stick or a mini-stick hockey set, that I destroyed in two months.

It’s time for women to not only be considered equal in sports, but also encouraged to love the game. Shaming women in order to keep “a man’s sport, a man’s sport” is a ridiculous ideology. Men lose nothing by embracing the female athletes who adore the game the same way they do.

Women’s sports still have a long way to go and the first step is to understand how hard female athletes work, to only be forgotten about by our society.