International Women’s Day 2021

Janette Lepisto came back from an injury during the season to lead Lapua to the playoffs in 2020


To celebrate International Women’s Day I decided to update and re-write a post I published last year. Even though the blog focuses on the men’s Superpesis, I am a big fan of the women’s game too - sadly the team I support disbanded their women’s team some time ago, so I have mainly followed the men’s game (mostly due to my many competing demands on my time). In 2020 we saw the Women’s Superpesis regular season start before the men’s and draw in a lot more attention, with more and more people realising how competitive, athletic and thrilling the women’s game can be.


Popularity of women’s sport

For decades (if not longer) women’s sport in general has taken a back seat to men’s and in some cases (such as the Football Association in England) been purposefully oppressed. In the modern age, many sports are playing “catch up” when it comes to promoting a women’s competition. 2019 saw the creation of the Women’s Super League in Rugby League for example, which helped to boost equality and publicity in the game, even though Rugby League has been a competitive sport since its split with what is now known as Rugby Union in 1895. Pesäpallo on the other hand has a long history of equality and inclusion in the sport, which is one of the reasons why I am so passionate about it. Women’s Cricket also has grown popularity, with the Women’s T20 Cricket Word Cup in 2020 being perhaps the largest and most exciting international sporting event last year!


Women in pesäpallo

Unlike some sports, women have been part of pesäpallo from its early stages, with the first national women’s championship being held in 1931. The championship has been held every year, except during the Second World War, with some of the sport’s greatest names emerging. In 2012, to mark the 90th year of the sport, the Pesäpalloliito (Pesäpallo association) inducted 20 names into a Hall of Fame. In 2014 5 more names were added. Amongst those inducted are 5 women - as equals in the sport, alongside their male counterparts. I am not aware of any other sport having such a system and often female athletes and players have a separate system of recognition for their achievements (if at all). Such names as Seija Happonen, Päivi Ikola, Tuula Rantanen, Anja Rummukainen and Tuula Salonen are an inspiration to budding Pesis players, irrespective of their gender. To honour all of the players in the hall of fame I will be writing a post for each person ahead of the anniversary year (2022), so I will not go into details here at this time.



The 2020 season was one of the most anticipated in some time, given the fear of the Coronavirus and the fact that many sports internationally were cancelled. The Women’s Superpesis became a shining beacon of hope to the world in what was otherwise an incredibly challenging time. Names such as Emma Körkkö, Susana Puisto, Virpi Hukka and Janette Lepisto became the heroes of the summer that kept our spirits high and gave us the strength to carry on.


Conclusions

One of the things that inspires me is how the women’s and men’s game attracts strong support and equal exposure in terms of game coverage. I am not aware of any other sport that has such an arrangement with the media and it is a credit to Ruutu that this is the case. The closest sport that has a solid women’s game and coverage that springs to my mind is Cricket, in particular the women’s Big Bash League (T20) in Australia. With my background steeped in cricket in the North of England, I fondly remember women’s cricket being a step ahead of other sports and wondered why other sports didn’t recognise gender equality. Today I am pleased to see the many advances in promoting women in sport, but sadly many sports do not give equal recognition or credit to women. In my opinion, pesäpallo is far ahead of many other sports.


Wishing all women around the globe a happy women’s day. Hyvää Naistenpäivää! 


Photographs

Cover - (c) Lapuan Virkiä-Pesis 2020

Photograph 2 - (c) Jyväskylän Kirittäret 2020

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