Girls on the sidelines: Making gender inequality in school sports visible

For many students, school is their first and only chance to play organized sports. Participation can build confidence, leadership and teamwork skills, yet girls in Canada still face unequal access despite laws meant to guarantee equality.

National surveys like the 2024 Rally Report found that nearly 40 per cent of girls miss out on organized play, and one in five stops playing during adolescence. The report notes that financial pressures, lack of role models, and body image concerns impact girls’ participation.

But those numbers and insights don’t reveal whether girls have equal opportunities to play organized sports at school. That’s the focus of Girls+Sports, a Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) research project that combines data, law and digital tools to reveal gender gaps in access to school athletics. It also gives students resources to help them advocate for their rights against discrimination.

Exposing inequities

The Girls+Sports project is led by Jennifer Orange, a human rights adjudicator, lawyer and professor in the Lincoln Alexander School of Law at TMU. Motivated by her own experiences of inequity in university softball in the U.S. and by watching her daughter face similar barriers in Canada, professor Orange set out to find concrete evidence of the problem. “I just want girls to be able to have the same access to sport as boys,” she said.

She began by gathering data from the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), one of the largest school boards in Canada, on all teams available during 2021–2023. The dataset shows how many girls’, boys’ and all-gender teams were offered at elementary and secondary schools across 27 sports, from badminton to volleyball.

The results are striking. While the opportunities in volleyball appear fairly equal, sports like basketball and soccer show significant imbalances in opportunities across the genders. In high schools, for every 10 basketball teams available to boys, there are only about 7 for girls. In soccer, the gap is even wider – in 2022-2023, girls had access to fewer than 6 teams for every 10 boys’ teams.

From data to action: Tools for students and families

To make this information accessible to everyone, professor Orange turned the project data into an interactive website with the help of her research team, comprised of TMU law and computer science students. Website visitors can filter by school, sport, gender and region at either the elementary or secondary school level to see where opportunities are balanced, and where they aren’t. The data reveals patterns of disparities across the schools.

“Visibility matters,” noted professor Orange. “Without data to show where inequities lie, systemic problems often remain invisible.” By mapping patterns across the entire school board, Girls+Sports makes hidden gaps more obvious, giving educators, policymakers and families the evidence they need to push for change. “This could mean allocating more resources, adjusting team offerings or revising policies to ensure equal access,” said professor Orange.

A digital toolkit available on the website clearly explains what students and parents need to know about the legal frameworks in Canada that protect them from discrimination at school based on sex and gender. It outlines school board policies and steps families can take if they believe discrimination is happening. To make the toolkit even more engaging for young audiences, professor Orange’s team is developing videos and interactive features.

Next, Girls+Sports will dive deeper into the reasons behind the numbers. Professor Orange plans to interview TDSB teachers and staff to better understand the barriers that keep girls from joining sports teams.

Changing the game

Girls+Sports has created a public-facing tool that is both rigorous and accessible. It has attracted attention from educators and holds promise for expansion across Ontario and eventually Canada. For professor Orange, the goal is simple but vital: to ensure that every child, regardless of gender, has the opportunity to play, compete and grow through school sports.

Visit the Girls+Sports website to learn more about the project. (external link, opens in new window) 

The research mentioned in this article is funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Development Grant.