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For more than four decades, Canadian Women & Sport has challenged the barriers, assumptions, and decisions that have shaped women's and girls' experiences in sport. Our focus has never been on changing what women and girls bring to sport. Instead, we focus on changing the system around them. We work across sports, organizations, and jurisdictions to help create the conditions for every woman and girl to participate, lead, and thrive.
In 1981, Canadian Women & Sport was founded around a simple but urgent idea: women and girls deserved greater opportunity in Canadian sport.
The goal was to see more women and girls participating at every level, as athletes, coaches, officials and leaders, while challenging the barriers standing in their way.
What began as a push for fairness and opportunity grew into a broader movement to change not just who gets to participate in sport, but how the sport system works.
Originally known as the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity (CAAWS), we became Canadian Women & Sport in 2020.
Our evolution has been about more than a name change.
What began as a call for greater opportunity has grown into a national effort to change the policies, practices and decisions that shape sport.
Today, our influence reaches across sport, organizations, and jurisdictions. We connect people and efforts across Canada, bringing a national perspective to challenges that no single organization can solve alone.
The Role We Play
Changing a system takes evidence people can trust, leadership willing to challenge the status quo, and the ability to turn commitment into action.
That's where Canadian Women & Sport comes in.
Governments look to us for insight that informs policy and programs. Sport organizations and leaders rely on our expertise to put gender equity into practice.
We connect people working toward common goals, ensure women's and girls' realities shape the decisions that define sport, and advance gender equity on the national agenda.
Our impact lives in the decisions we help shape, the leaders we bring together, and the changes we help make possible across Canadian sport.
For more than four decades, we've challenged the sport system to do better for women and girls. Today, we’re building on that momentum to shape what comes next.
Our vision is a Canada where every woman and girl thrives in and through sport. That means building a system that recognizes her needs, values her contributions and creates the conditions for her to pursue her own goals and match her ambition.
There’s more progress to make—and we’re ready to lead the way.
Our partners are essential to advancing our mission. By fueling programs and initiatives that remove barriers, they help open doors for women and girls to thrive in sport. Together, we’re shaping a sport system that’s more inclusive, equitable, and empowering.
Ready to make a difference?