In 1940, a study of 314 women in New Zealand and Australia was done. Most of the women in the study were middle class, conservative, Protestant and white. The study found that 183 participated in sport. The twenty-fourth most popular sport that these women participated in was ice hockey, with 1 women having played the sport. The sport was tied with baseball

Women's baseball in Australia

In the 1880s in Victoria, there were school competitions for girls involving interschool competitions for rounders, an early form of baseball. The competitions were abandoned in the 1890s. Girls who played rounders/baseball during the 1880s and 1890s were required to wear long sleeved shirts and...

, bowls

Women's bowls in Australia

The first women's bowls match played in Australia took place in Stawell, Victoria in October 1881. The first women's only bowls club was not created for another seventeen years, when the Rainsford Bowls Club was created on December 16, 1898 at the home of J. Rainsford Needham, who lived in...

, and ice hockey

Women's ice hockey in Australia

In 1940, a study of 314 women in New Zealand and Australia was done. Most of the women in the study were middle class, conservative, Protestant and white. The study found that 183 participated in sport. The twenty-fourth most popular sport that these women participated in was ice hockey, with 1...

.

In 1983, the Australian Ice Hockey League

Australian Ice Hockey League

The Australian Ice Hockey League is Australia's top-level ice hockey league. It is sanctioned by Ice Hockey Australia and is run by its own Board of Directors....

 dealt with the issue of Karen Sommerville trying to compete in a men's ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

league by amending the organisation's constitution to prohibit mixed gendered competitions. The organisation cited a need to protect women from harm, and stated that their decision "has nothing to do with sexism or discrimination."

During the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, women's ice hockey saw a large expansion in the number of competitors.