The Sporting World Wasn’t Made For Women. Let’s Change That.
Hello! My name is Jessica Bergen, and I am a passionate advocate for women in sport and physical activity. I’ve been a collegiate field hockey coach for the last 17 years. I’ve also spent time coaching club field hockey, working with USA Field Hockey’s Olympic Development Pathway, teaching college courses, and conducting research on women in sport.
The idea that the sporting world wasn’t made for women was abstract to me for most of my life. Sure, I grew up idolizing Michael Jordan, because there was no WNBA yet, but I had a father who played and loved sports, as well as a mother who was a Title IX pioneer, teaching Physical Education and coaching as many girls teams at the high school level that the school would allow (for a tiny stipend). Of course I participated in sports. From youth softball, to 5th grade basketball, to middle school field hockey… I played three sports in high school and two (almost three) in college.
As I entered my collegiate field hockey and softball playing career, I became increasingly aware through my undergraduate studies that the field of exercise physiology was missing… almost half the population generally. I was so determined to study female athletes that I searched for a faculty member willing to do the work with me (shout-out to Jen B! Still a favorite person of mine). Jen sported a masters degree in public health from Harvard (among other degrees), and she helped me conduct research on the then-named Female Athlete Triad in the college population of women. We surveyed women on campus – athletes and non – utilizing the Eating Attitudes Test-26 (EAT-26) among other questions regarding menstrual and bone health. What we found in 2008, was that that non-athletes actually showed more susceptibility to the triad. We proposed that a more all-encompassing name, such as the “female exerciser triad” would be more fitting (and now look – it’s called “Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport” today – we can’t take credit for that though).
I then moved to my masters degree – Sport & Exercise Psychology at Springfield College. Sport psych is fascinating, and the time spent learning from Mimi Murray has impacted everything I do within my sport coaching. My masters thesis was a bit more focused, and this time, I investigated body image and disordered eating in female athletes participating in objectively- vs. subjectively-scored sports. Think of gymnastics versus basketball. To briefly summarize my study, women athletes who exhibited lower overall body esteem were more likely to exhibit disordered eating behaviors and patterns. Major body esteem scale flags for this included women athletes’ perceived sexual attractiveness, concern regarding their weight, and concern over their physical condition. More research is clearly required to fully understand this, but knowing how society expects women to be perfect (always too much, or never enough), this feels significant for helping women feel as though they are enough in their bodies (someone get me in touch with Ilona Maher).
Following my masters degree, a few years later, and quite a few field hockey club and college coaching opportunities later, I found myself attempting to begin a family with my husband. I found even more gaps in the research and data surrounding women. Following a long, difficult, and eye-opening three years, I was informed that I have polycystic ovarian syndrome. Years of my life and significant struggles finally made sense. With the diagnosis came a high-risk pregnancy, preeclampsia, and more questions. Understanding the natural menstrual cycle became a major driving force for me, and I even did a bit of health coaching during the pandemic (there was an increased need as people were in lockdown, etc.).
In my time as a collegiate head field hockey coach, I’ve also taught many college courses on healthy lifestyles, stress management, strength & conditioning, cardiovascular training, and motor development across the lifespan. These have allowed for informal research and data collection in the grey spaces of stress management scales completed by students, comments in classes, and the framing of social media as a central part of our society for the student cohort.
Aside from the formal educational side of my life journey, I am now not only a woman in the coaching world designed by and for men, but a mother as well. I have had an uphill battle to get simple things like a private space to express breastmilk. Choosing between my family and my career. I have learned quite a bit through my journey as a mother, educator, researcher, and coach. The number of times I’ve been asked, by women, “how do you do it?” would surprise you.
And now I sit here, reflecting on over a decade and a half of life experience as a woman in the sporting world, and I realize I should be doing my best to make this journey easier for other women. So the posts will come, as I find time to build and share them, on as many topics regarding women as I can: sport participation, coaching, physiology, healthy habits, nutrition, exercise, motherhood, menstrual cycles, and likely more. I am excited to share, and I hope you’ll join me on this journey.
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