Hockey isn't wholly segregated; lotusice plays hockey with men.
On the other hand, when you are going at top speeds on ice in a walled-in space, having the women's team being shorter and lighter on the average turns out to matter to injury potentials.
Also, the US has a law about equal access, Title 9, that often means gender-segregated teams were what got promoted. There are all sorts of stories of girls playing incognito in younger leagues before there were girls' leagues, and that generally went fine, at least at the ages when there wasn't as much average size differential.
no subject
On the other hand, when you are going at top speeds on ice in a walled-in space, having the women's team being shorter and lighter on the average turns out to matter to injury potentials.
Also, the US has a law about equal access, Title 9, that often means gender-segregated teams were what got promoted. There are all sorts of stories of girls playing incognito in younger leagues before there were girls' leagues, and that generally went fine, at least at the ages when there wasn't as much average size differential.