Women have slowly but surely had multiple turning points in sports history. According to the National Women’s History Museum, the nineteenth century was a time when women were expected to be idealized with modesty, therefore participating in sports was poorly looked upon.
During the Gilded Age, women of the elite status were associated with sports that were deemed acceptable for aristocratic ladies such as tennis, croquet, archery, and bathing-beauty swimming.
The modern day Olympics were brought back in 1896. However women weren’t allowed to compete in the events until 1920 with a special ¨Women’s Olympics¨ in 1922 through the 1930s. During this time, only five events were determined to be acceptable for women to compete in: tennis, sailing, croquet, golf, and equestrianism. These events were chosen because they were viewed as being the more ¨lady-like¨ sports.
Despite these expectations put into place, women such as American tennis star Helen Wills and American swimmer Gertrude Ederle took ¨leisure-class¨ and ¨feminine-fashion associated¨ sports such as tennis and swimming as an opportunity to model a new form of athletics for women.
Since then, women have only gotten more vocal about fighting for their spots in sports history. Research done by the International Olympic Committee shows that the number of women competing in the Olympic Games has increased from ¨34 percent of the total at Atlanta 1996 to a new record of 48 percent at Tokyo 2020.¨
Female athletes like Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky, Olympic skier Mikaela Shriffrin, and so many others have become household names as inspiring female athletes.
But women have also made their debuts one by one in high leadership positions such as coaching in popular sports leagues such as the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Baseball (MLB), and National Hockey League (NHL).
October 8, 2024 marked an important progression in not only the history of the National Hockey League (NHL), but in women’s history as a whole. On this date, the Seattle Krakens had their home opener against the St. Louis Blues, and despite their loss, a new light was shined towards the bench of the team.
Jessica Campbell, age 32, took on the position as the assistant coach for the Krakens in July of 2024 and has been named the first woman to hold a full-time coaching job in NHL history, now sitting as the Krakens full-time assistant coach.
Campbell brings a spring of knowledge from her own experiences playing ice hockey in the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA), the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, and Canada’s women’s national team.
Campbell joined the Krakens two seasons ago as the assistant coach for Coachella Valley in the American Hockey League (AHL), where she was named the first woman to coach in AHL history.
Seattle general manager Ron Francis became aware of Campbell and her success from her work with the Men’s National team in Germany. From here, Francis took a chance and gave her a position as a coach for Coachella Valley. From there, Campbell continued to strive and dedicate herself to her players and own coaching style.
Now starting in her new position as the Seattle Krakens’ assistant coach, she has received nothing but constant support from the team, Krakens fans, others within the management team, and other teams within the NHL.
¨Maybe in a naive way, I’ve had the courage to believe that this could be possible,¨ Campbell tells NHL.com. ¨Even though I didn’t see it, I believed I could do it. And I think that with that inner belief, whatever it is, in sport, in life, you can create whatever you believe in.¨
