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New Research: Women in Sport Leadership Snapshot 2025–2026 Learn More →

WOMEN IN SPORT

Leadership Snapshot

The Women in Sport Leadership Snapshots highlight and celebrate recent successes in sport leadership diversity at the national and provincial and territorial levels.

They also challenge sport organizations to continue to embed gender equity in their organizations and bring diversity, beyond gender, to their boards and senior leadership teams so more women, girls, and gender-diverse people are represented in the sport system and can benefit from the power of sport.

2025–2026 Key Insights

1. More women are at the board room table, but fewer are in the C-suite.

Women hold 45% of board seats and 48% of board chair positions, but only 34% of CEOs and Executive Directors are women—the lowest since 2018.

2. Diversity ≠ equity for all women.

To mirror Canada’s population, 2.4x more racialized women, 2.0x more Indigenous women, and 6.4x more women with disabilities would need to hold board seats.

3. Policy without practice keeps change fragile.

While 6 in 10 national organizations have a broad EDI policy, only 1 in 10 have a standalone gender equity policy—and less than 10% link policy to strategic plans or programming.

Beyond the Numbers

This year's Snapshot goes beyond the numbers, combining national and provincial data with lived experiences from women leaders across the country to examine.

Leadership shapes culture, funding, and decision‑making. Understanding who holds power — and where barriers persist — is essential to building a stronger, more inclusive sport system.

This year’s National Report, along with provincial-specific Leadership Snapshots for British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and Saskatchewan can be downloaded below.

Download the Report

Previous Reports

2023

In recent years, commitments from all levels of governments, dedicated funding sources and strong leadership from within sport organizations have continued to drive gender equity in sport leadership forward.

Over the past five years, the percentage of women holding board seats in the national sport system has increased by 9 points (from 34% in 2018 to 43% in 2023).

0%

of National Board Members are Women (+2% from 2022)

0%

of National Board Chairs are Women (+2% from 2022)

2021-2022

The 2021/2022 survey of nationally funded sport organizations in Canada shows that public attention, and dedicated funding from Sport Canada, continued to drive change for the national sport system. Compared to 2019, after the government commitment was announced, the percentage of women holding board seats jumped by 5 points.

Download the Provincial/Territorial ReportDownload the National Report

2020-2021

In a year when women’s progress faced unprecedented setbacks, Canadian sport showed signs of resilience—and areas demanding urgent change. The Women in Sport Leadership 2021 Snapshot reveals where representation is rising, where the glass ceiling still holds, and how sport compares to corporate Canada in advancing gender equity.

Download

2019-2020

The 2019-2020 report summarizes the composition of decision-making at National Sport Organizations (NSOs), Multisport Service Organizations (MSOs) and, new this year, Canadian Sport Institutes (CSIs). The good news: Sport in Canada is making steady progress in including perspectives from women. The challenge: We still have work to do. Let’s create conversation and spark action.

Download

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