Athletic Gender Equity Policy in Canadian Universities: Issues and Possibilities

Establishing gender equity in Canadian inter-university athletics has been a challenging endeavor for policymakers. The problem of crafting and implementing an effective policy has taken considerable time and continues to be a difficult task for administrators. However, success in this undertaking is important to higher education because such policy provides an environment of opportunity and fairness for participants. Furthermore, its establishment in post-secondary athletics demonstrates a natural promotion of tenets central to tertiary institutions. This paper investigates whether U.S. Title IX athletic gender equity policy could be adapted for use in Canadian higher education. This focus is relevant to Canadian inter-university athletics because American Title IX legislation has been in place for over thirty years and has withstood challenges in the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of government. A discussion of how U.S. policy directives might be implemented in the Canadian environment and whether an adaptation may be in the contexts of a partial exercise rather than a wholesale application is put forth. (Contains 1 table.)