Carleton Athletics hosted a Women in Sport event Thursday featuring female athletes, coaches and executives in the athletics department.
The event was part of the year-long Thursday Night Live series featuring guest speakers and conversations related to Carleton Athletics.
Guest host Roberta Drummond, captain of the women’s rugby team and spokesperson for the Carleton Athletics Gender Equity Committee, spoke with assistant vice-president of recreation and athletics Jennifer Brenning about her career. Brenning is one of nine women currently serving as a university athletics director in Ontario University Athletics (OUA).
Brenning said she did an internship at Athletics Canada in her fourth year of human kinetics at the University of Ottawa. Later on, she worked as a national program co-ordinator for 11 years at the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union (CIAU), now known as U Sports.
During her time at CIAU, she said the board was dominated by men and there was little discussion related to women’s sport.
“How I navigated that was I got to know people. Some of the men in the room became my friends,” Brenning said. “I felt I had to work hard, prove myself in order to get their respect. Respect doesn’t come easily, you have to earn it.”
Brenning said U Sports has created more opportunities for women to participate in sports, but there is a need for more women in leadership roles.
“The leadership roles are the same statistics today as they were 15 to 20 years ago, so we haven’t moved the needle on leadership. There’s obviously barriers there,” Brenning said.
Carleton recently increased gender equity in coaching when Nadia Doucoure was hired as offensive assistant and receivers coach for the men’s football team, becoming the first female coach in team history. Carleton alumnus and former Ravens kicker Jeff Morris interviewed Doucoure at the event.
Doucoure started coaching her local team in La Courneuve, France in 2002 and served as technical advisor of France’s National Federation of American Football beginning in 2006.
As an offensive assistant and receivers coach, Doucoure will work with wide receivers coach Youssy Pierre and head coach Steve Sumarah. She said she will be mainly responsible for helping plan practice and assisting the other coaches.
As the first female football coach at Carleton, Doucoure said she is proud to inspire the future generation of women who are interested in sports and coaching roles.
“I didn’t have the chance when I was young to have somebody who showed me as a woman what to do, what to not do, how to do it,” she said.
Weber spoke on some challenges female sports professionals face, such as how they are objectified and portrayed in the media, as well as how they experience a lack of respect from the public and their male peers.
She also said sports activities being primarily controlled by men has pushed women to take on characteristics traditionally considered masculine.
“It sets the example that for women to be successful and accepted, they must fit into this narrative of masculinity within sport,” she said.
To “level the playing field” for women, Weber said it’s important to encourage them to participate in sports at a young age, which will pave the way for them to take on executive roles within sports.
Hunt also announced Korry Brankin as the new president of the Ravens Sports Business Club, making her the third female president. The club was created in 2017 to help Carleton students gain real-world experience in the sports industry.
“We’re really excited to see what Korry is capable of and keep introducing all the students, including females to all the various opportunities that are in sports, and hopefully helping to dismantle some of the barriers,” Hunt said.
Other female athletics leaders showcased during the event included head athletic therapist Nadine Smith and welcome centre administrator Erin Messaros.
Doucoure said seeing more women in sport is a step forward.
“In the past, a lot of people were saying women cannot do that, but now they can,” Doucoure said. “There is no doubt they can.”
Featured image from screenshot.
