The project is intended to raise awareness on gender disparities for student athletes
Law and computer science students from the Toronto Metropolitan University have teamed up to create the website for the Girls+Sports Project, which aims to raise awareness on the gender disparities in sports opportunities within schools operated by the Toronto District School Board.
The project is being led by human rights lawyer Dr Jennifer Orange and aims to back efforts improving the fairness and accessibility of sports for all students through policy and practice amendments.
Orange pointed to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which stipulates that education must aid children in developing personality, talents, and mental and physical abilities without any kind of discrimination. Thus, school sports should be open to participation from all students regardless of gender.
Per the 2024 Rally Report published by Canadian Women and Sport, 90 percent of children aged 6-12 are involved in sports through physical education classes and breaktime activities; however, girls are 10 percent less likely to join organized school sports. Just 40 percent of 13 to 18-year-old girls join intramural sports while 50 percent of boys that age do.
Orange and the Girls+Sports Project team gathered data from the TDSB from 2021 and 2023. Two computer science students collaborated with the team to convert the data into an accessible format for website publication.
“When legal researchers and computer scientists come together, they can do creative work that makes society better for us all,” Orange said in a statement.
She confirmed that in the project’s next phase, she would interview teachers and staff participants in school sports to clarify reasons behind the gender gap in school sports. She also expects to expand the project across Canada.
“I hope that the Girls+Sports Project will make the differences between girls’ and boys’ participation in school sports visible, give people the tools they need to advocate for change, and demonstrate the power of interdisciplinary research teams,” Orange said.
