A women’s sports league removes the gender qualifier from its name

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! We heard opening statements in the Theranos trial, a Congresswoman shares her experience freezing her eggs, and the National Women’s Hockey League gets a gender-neutral rebrand. Have a reflective Thursday.

– No gender qualifier needed. The ‘women’ or ‘female’ qualifier has long been controversial in sports.

Recall how Serena Williams responded to a reporter who asked her in 2016 how she felt about being “one of the greatest female athletes of all time.”

“I prefer the words ‘one of the greatest athletes of all time,'” Williams said. No gender qualifier needed.

Now a women’s sports league is taking that same stance in a big way.

The National Women’s Hockey League, the first women’s professional hockey league in North America to pay players a salary, is dropping ‘women’s’ from its name. Going forward, the league will be known as the Premier Hockey Federation. The rebrand reflects a series of changes ahead of the league’s seventh season, including restructured management and an influx of private ownership, the AP reports. The name change is also more inclusive of all gender identities and the word ‘federation’ better reflects the international makeup of the league’s players, says commissioner Ty Tumminia.

But the rebrand is also about removing the gender qualifier that is never applied to men’s sports and defining players “by their talent and skill” instead, Tumminia says. “It’s not like they’re female phenomenal,” she said. “You’re just phenomenal.”

Claire Zillman
claire.zillman@fortune.com
@clairezillman

The Broadsheet, Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women, is coauthored by Kristen Bellstrom, Emma Hinchliffe, and Claire Zillman. Today’s edition was curated by Emma Hinchliffe.

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