March marks Women’s History Month, with International Women’s Day celebrated worldwide on March 8th, 2025. Both the University of Guelph-Humber and Humber Polytechnic marked the holiday with on-campus events happening throughout the month, to honour the great contributions and achievements of women.

One of those events was the second annual Women of Distinction event which took place on March 8th at Guelph-Humber. This event celebrated students, staff, and alumna who made outstanding contributions to the community.

Dr. Laelie Snook, a bio chemist and Kinesiology instructor at Guelph-Humber, was one of this year’s recipients of the GH Women of Distinction.

The five other award recipients were: fourth-year Kinesiology student Ashnaa Narumathan, Staff Superintendent with the Toronto Police Service and Justice & Public Safety alum Kelly Skinner, Alumni Advancement Coordinator Sandra Fazio, Department Head of Student Services Susan Thomas, and second-year Psychology student Paulina Sieczka.

Snook says, “Knowing that someone else had seen [the work] I was doing and thought that it merited recognition was pretty special.”

Snook began teaching at Guelph-Humber back in 2018. Comparing her earlier years at the school, she says that Guelph-Humber has made significant progress in putting together initiatives honouring Women’s Month.

“We’re playing catch-up, but I think linking [the event] to International Women’s Day and bringing light to the fact that it’s 2025 but there’s still inequity all over the place, it shines light where a light needs to be shone.”

Over the decades, Snook has seen some notable changes, with more women being appointed leadership roles, gaining recognition for their research, and breaking barriers in science and sports medicine.

According to the departmental website, the Kinesiology department at Guelph-Humber currently has 18 female or female identifying instructors.

“My chair and program head at Guelph and Guelph-Humber are both phenomenally strong women – so it’s getting better, but it’s not perfect,” said Snook.

The push toward gender equity has also become increasingly visible in collegiate athletics. At Humber Polytechnic, women’s varsity sports are thriving, with female student-athletes making their mark both on and off the courts.

Half of Humber’s 20 varsity sports teams are female or female identifying, making up over 100 of the student-athlete population. These athletes continue to break barriers, overcoming the challenges that women continue to face in sports.

The women’s volleyball and basketball teams both recently took home silver at the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) championships.

Kia Watts is the shooting guard for the Humber Hawks women’s basketball team.

“We’re super grateful we even got that far,” she says, “we worked hard to get there, and we defied all odds. I don’t think people thought we would get there considering how we finished last year.”

This was Watts’ fifth season playing for the team. During her time as a student-athlete, Watts has seen steady changes in how the women’s varsity teams are perceived and supported, but those shifts have been noticeably slow.

“People find men’s sports more entertaining than women’s. The videos that they get, and the amount of fans they have – compared to us – there’s definitely a difference, 100 per cent.”

Another matter has been media attention, or more accurately, the lack thereof.

According to Women’s Sports and its Relationship With the Media by Casey Dobson (CJRU, 2021), women’s sports only accounts for four per cent of all 35,000 hours of sports media coverage.

Brooklyn Johnson is the power forward for the Hawk’s. She says there is hope at the college level.

“I think that Humber does a good job [promoting both men’s and women’s sports]. Whenever they post a mixtape for the men’s team, they also do it for our team.”

Watts says greater media coverage of women’s sports matters now more than ever.

“I feel like representation is important so the more media coverage there is out there for women’s sports and women athletes, it kind of motivates everyone who’s not at that pro-level yet. It motivates women who want to someday get to that pro level.”

Johnson says a great way to better support women athletes at Humber would be an increase in attendance at games.

“They do a lot of good advertising for our games. Hawks Nation, and our women’s basketball pages do a lot to bring in people to the games, but I think we still have room to improve [within the support of women’s sports].”

As progress continues, the focus now is shifting towards the future – one where women in sports at Humber are continued to be supported and acknowledged.

Snook says Guelph-Humber and Humber should continue to follow through with things like award ceremonies that celebrate the accomplishments of women at Humber.

“I think events even leading up to International Women’s Day, and additional activities after the event might be cool.”

 

Photo By: Cottonbro Studio, Pexels, Creative Commons License