Canadian Women & Sport

Published purpose

Through this 32-month systemic change project, Canadian Women and Sport will scale its Gender Equity Playbook initiative to new regions in Atlantic, Ontario, Prairies, and Pacific and to stakeholders across Canada to advance women’s equality through representation in leadership and decision-making roles in the sports sector. The project will address systemic barriers and existing norms, practices and approaches that limit women’s opportunities for leadership, employment, and participation in sport, including diverse, Indigenous and BIPOC women, women with disabilities, and 2SLGBQTI+ people. To do so, the project will engage participants in GBA Plus and online training, organizational needs assessment, community of practice, action planning, change implementation, and support and engagement in a network of champions and changemakers. A measurement and evaluation plan will be implemented and a pan-Canadian and regional reports will be produced to disseminate the project’s results. With the supplemental funds and extension provided in early 2026, Canadian Women & Sport will refine and scale the Playbook model to function as a permanent organizational change resource for the sport sector. This includes strengthening the learning framework, digitizing tools within a learning management platform, and embedding evaluation mechanisms to track measurable policy and governance changes. The organization will also support sport organizations to implement reforms that advance women’s leadership and decision-making while fostering peer learning through the Champions Network. Together, these efforts will position the Playbook for long-term sector uptake and support sustained progress toward gender equity in sport leadership.