It's been a big year for women's sports, but there are mountains still to climb

It's been one hell of a year. 

As 2023 comes to an end, I keep thinking about the strides in women's sports in Canada. For example, we're on the cusp of the new Professional Women's Hockey League starting and the excitement is growing.  

But along with the steps forward, one can't help reflect on the barriers to progress that women here and all around the world must deal with. The piles of not-so-nice matter that had to be navigated and the way in which people mobilized to do it. 

There were profound losses and frustrations, but then there were historic moments and beacons of light. In one year,  Canada's women's soccer team went from a poor result in the SheBelieves Cup to testifying about maltreatment in front of the Heritage Committee in Ottawa to exiting the World Cup in shambles after the group stages to joyfully qualifying for the 2024 Olympics in Paris when even superpowers like Sweden and England failed to make it. Then they feted and said thank you to the greatest Canadian soccer player to ever lace up her boots. 

There are three major lessons that I have learned this year and they are that growth is not linear in women's sports, dirty laundry must be aired, and there are tremendous examples of bravery and resilience in front of our eyes and in our backyards. Yes, the national soccer program is an example of all three, but even beyond soccer in Canada we see these themes woven throughout the past 12 months. 

For equity-deserving groups, no amount of work or accomplishment comes easily. There is planning, strategizing, mobilizing. We have not come close to adequately combatting systems of racism, nor have we resolved pay gaps and inequities nor made everything accessible in a proper way.

But there are moments to