Addressing the state of curling on International Women’s Day
When Jennifer Jones started curling, the only real opportunity for women to play on arena ice and on television just like the men was during the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
Jones has seen how much that has changed over the years during her legendary career, particularly in the Grand Slam of Curling as women’s teams now play in all five events alongside the men’s teams with equal purse money distributed in both divisions.
It wasn’t always like that and it’s why Jones has always said the Players’ Championship is her favourite tour event as that was the one where it all began in 2006.
“It felt like the first time that we were really included and you could see and feel the growth of women’s curling the moment that happened,” said Jones, who retired from women’s curling following last year’s Players’ Championship. “Eventually we were included in all the Slams and you can see from that how much the women’s game has grown exponentially in terms of talent and the depth across and around the world and within Canada it’s been crazy. It’s definitely been an evolution.”
Jones, Team Lawes second Jocelyn Peterman plus skips Anna Hasselborg and Rachel Homan spoke with John Cullen for a special edition of The Broom Brothers podcast on International Women’s Day to discuss the state of curling, the challenges women’s curlers face and the future of the sport.
Peterman talked about the uniqueness of curling and how women are able to continue playing while pregnant. She wished to see more done to highlight the challenges, both physically and mentally, returning to the sport is as well.
“From my experience in particular, there’s so much going on afterwards,” said Peterman, who gave birth to her son Luke in 2023. “Everyone is on their own pace in terms of what that means to recover and balance the challenges of being a new mom or a mom again and what that looks like.
“There are so many challenges that women face on that end after pregnancy that I think deserves to be shined a light on and respected for the resilience and the hard work that those women have put into to continue to compete.”
Hasselborg looked at the expectations facing women’s curlers and how she believes they are treated differently from men with regards to their behaviour on the ice.
“I think that just by what society looks like, the perception of my broom slam feels worse for someone seeing,” Hasselborg said. “It feels worse. It’s more aggression than a male broom slam because that is what’s expected from me or what’s expected from a (male curler). But I think we’ve come a long way.
“My dad was a brilliant junior coach. He told me when I crossed the line, for sure, and that’s crossing the line as a human being and not as a girl. When he thought other people were crossing lines saying something about me, he said … don’t mind, it’s on them.”
Homan, whose daughter Bowyn is set to turn four in a couple of weeks, said her perspective on women’s sports hasn’t changed since becoming a mother to a daughter, but she is more hopeful for the opportunities in the future.
“She’s already saying she wants to be the best curler in the world,” Homan said with a smile. “It’s really cute, but if she wanted to play other sports I would hope that there was opportunity for her to do that and be able to fully invest in that sport and play at a professional level I think is something that everyone dreams of. When I was young there was no such thing as professional women’s hockey or basketball or soccer. Now there’s so much to choose from. It’s exciting.
“You don’t feel disadvantaged just because you’re a female right now, which is really exciting, and I hope that keeps snowballing and gets to the same monetary value as the men’s, whatever sport it is, at the same equal pay. That would be the dream for sure. Hopefully it could happen or at least be at some sort of level where you can provide for your family and still play a sport that you love.”
Women’s sports are on the rise across the board. The WNBA has welcomed the Toronto Tempo as its first Canadian franchise and will begin play next year. The PWHL has seen attendance numbers soar in its second season with expansion on the horizon. The Northern Super League, the first professional women’s soccer league in Canada, is set to debut in 2025.
There’s still more work to be done for women’s curling in that regards and Jones is excited to see what the future holds.
“Hopefully there’s going to be a professional league one day where you can actually make a living doing this,” she said, “and then inspire even more generations of young curlers to say I want to be a professional curler and I want to do this and I want to make money and this is what I’m going to do similar to what the PWHL has done in hockey.”
The Broom Brothers podcast drops every two weeks on YouTube, Apple and Spotify.