Policy Brief: Sport for Women and Girls in Canada

Policy Brief: Sport for Women and Girls
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Institutional Affiliation
Policy Brief: Sport for Women and Girls
Summary/Background
Canadian Heritage has strived to offer quality sporting experiences to women and girls through active participation and equitable support in different roles. These efforts are aimed at extending meaningful opportunities to women and girls by encouraging them to be engaged and develop in sports based on their abilities, interests, choices, and talents in their lives. The Policy on Sport for Women and Girls came into effect on January 1, 2009, and replaced the Sport Canada Policy on Women in Sport of 1986 (Canadian Heritage, 2009). This policy strengthens the sports systems where women and girls actively and fully participate as important members and leaders in quality and equitable sports. The Federal-Provincial/Territorial governments endorsed the Canadian Sport Policy that works with the Physical Activity and Sport Act to ensure the Government of Canada increases sports participation among all Canadians, including women. These efforts are due to a recognition of the role of actively engaged women and girls in realizing the goals of the Canadian Sport Policy. Canada is one of the strongest supporters of actively engaging women in sport and has been involved as a signatory and in the establishment of several declarations and conventions that support sport among women and girls.
Canada has witnessed unprecedented transformations in the sports landscape since 1986, including that for women and girls. Human rights cases have particularly entitled women and girls to be active participants in sports, thus opening avenues for improved access to sports programs among the population. Women have more opportunities in sports participation where the Canadian female athletes have regularly achieved podium success at Olympic and Paralympic Games and World Championship (Canadian Heritage, 2009). Furthermore, sports organizations are open to both genders, and women are increasingly championing national sports organizations as senior leaders. Nevertheless, the number of women coaches, especially in high-performance contexts, has remained low, signaling that not much has been achieved in every aspect of sports involvement. In addition, girls’ participation in athletics has also remained lower than boys’. These observations have led to persistent concerns that the contributions of Canadian women in sports have continued to be undervalued, not only by their male counterparts but also by women themselves.
Policy Recommendation
Program improvement is one of the four areas that demand improvement to ensure that Canadian women and girls participate in sports, including strategic leadership, awareness, and knowledge development. In program improvement, it is necessary to align and refine activities and programs in enabling sports organizations and other stakeholders of the system to deliver innovative and quality experiences in sport for women and girls. This is an area where service providers should assess various aspects of sports such as hiring and recruitment practices, resource allocation, facility booking, participation rates, activity programming, and promotional materials to ensure gender e...