Men-Women: The Continuing Struggle

A couple days ago, I wrote an article relating to a subject that is very present in the world of sports today: feminine inequality. However, as one of my readers pointed out, my article was incomplete.

So I decided to write another article to complement the first one. First of all, here are some quick stats on feminine sporting in some of the most expanded sports in the world (they also appear in my original article):

Hockey

NHL: formed in 1917

NWHL: formed in 1999

Soccer

FIFA: formed in 1921

FIFA women's: formed in 1991

Football

NFL: formed in 1920

IWFL (Independent Women's Football League): formed in 2000

Basketball

NBA: formed in 1946

WNBA: formed in 1996

Baseball

MLB: formed in 1869, and I found no women's leagues in my research. (Help me out, drop me a line on my profile to fix this.)

Volleyball

FIBV (Fédération Internationale de Volleyball): formed in 1947

AVP (Association of Volleyball Professionals): allowed women from their start in 1983

Rugby

The Rugby League International Federation: formed in 1948

The Women's Rugby League: formed in 2000

Now here are some feminine firsts in some of the same sports and others:

Hockey

First woman to play in the NHL? Manon Rehaume. Played one period with the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sept. 23, 1992.

She never played in the NHL again.

Football

Has any woman ever played in the NFL?

No, but there is a truly fascinating story of women taking a stand in college football.

Katie Hnida played with the University of New Mexico and had the winning point in a game against Southwest Texas. She played originally with the University of Colorado but left the University after being allegedly raped by a teammate.

After this event, she left the sport to recuperate. Determined to play and prove herself again, she sent in sports videos to colleges around the United States. The University of New Mexico was the only one to ask her to join. She wrote a book on her struggle to play the sport she loves.

Basketball

After looking long and hard to find some women's firsts in basketball, my search ended negatively. However, I did find an impossibly discriminating Web site claiming to describe the "Best Women In The NBA."

According to them, the "best" women are the Miami Heat Cheerleaders. Is this world so shallow as to say that the best women out there are the ones with the nicest bodies and the least clothing?

Baseball

From 1943 to 1954, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) was in play. It marks the true beginning of feminine sporting and a feature film, A League of Their Own, was screened to honour these pioneering bat-girls.

They were forced to play in skirts to appeal to the male spectators which resulted in a large amount of knee and lower leg problems, when trying sliding in the rubble to take a base. In 1954, the league was closed down.

Auto Racing

There have only been five female drivers in F1 history, the first being Maria Teresa de Filippis of Italy in 1958 and the most recent being Giovanna Amati, also of Italy, in 1992.

The only race that multiple female drivers were in was the British Grand Prix in 1976 when Divina Galica and Lella Lombardi (dubbed as the most successful woman in the F1 with 12 starts and 0.5 career points) both started in the race.

Many more...do you know any? Share them with us.