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September 24th, 2025
For many young people, school is their first and sometimes only chance to participate in organized sports. These experiences build confidence, leadership, and teamwork, yet girls in Canada continue to face barriers despite laws promising equal access.
The 2024 Rally Report revealed that nearly 40% of girls miss out on organized play, and one in five drop out during adolescence. Financial pressures, the absence of role models, and body image concerns all contribute. Still, those numbers don’t answer a critical question: do girls actually have equal opportunities to play school sports?
That question drives Girls+Sports, a Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) research initiative that uses data, law, and digital tools to uncover gender gaps in school athletics. The project also equips students with resources to help them understand and assert their rights against discrimination.
Led by Jennifer Orange human rights adjudicator, lawyer, and professor at TMU’s Lincoln Alexander School of Law the project was inspired by her own experiences with inequity in U.S. university softball and her daughter’s struggles in Canada. “I just want girls to have the same access to sport as boys,” she explained.
Professor Orange and her team analyzed data from the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) covering all sports teams between 2021 and 2023. The dataset tracks girls’, boys’, and all-gender teams across 27 sports in elementary and secondary schools.
The disparities are clear. Volleyball opportunities appear relatively balanced, but basketball and soccer show significant gender gaps. In high schools, for every 10 boys’ basketball teams, only about 7 exist for girls. Soccer is worse: in 2022–2023, girls had access to fewer than 6 teams for every 10 boys’ teams.
To make these findings accessible, Professor Orange’s team built an interactive website that allows users to filter by school, sport, gender, and level. Families, educators, and policymakers can see exactly where gaps exist.
“Visibility matters,” she noted. “Without data, systemic inequities remain hidden.” By highlighting disparities, Girls+Sports offers evidence to support change—whether by reallocating resources, adjusting team availability, or updating policies to ensure fairness.
The website also includes a digital toolkit that explains Canadian legal protections against discrimination in schools, outlines school board policies, and provides step-by-step guidance for families who want to challenge inequities. To better engage students, the team is developing videos and interactive content.
The project will now explore the “why” behind the numbers. Interviews with TDSB teachers and staff aim to uncover the barriers preventing girls from joining sports teams.
By combining rigorous research with practical tools, Girls+Sports has created a public resource that shines a light on inequities in school athletics. Already drawing interest from educators, the initiative could expand across Ontario and eventually Canada.
For Professor Orange, the mission is clear: to ensure that every child regardless of gender has the chance to play, compete, and thrive through school sports.