Championing gender equity in sport: Dr. Tara-Leigh McHugh named Canada Research Chair

Dr. Tara-Leigh McHugh has spent most of her life in sport, first as an athlete and coach, and now as a leading scholar whose work centres the experiences of women and girls. That lifelong commitment has been recognised with her appointment as Canada Research Chair in Gender Equity in Sport and Physical Activity.

McHugh’s interest in equity is rooted in both lived experience and scholarship. Growing up in sport and then coaching, she saw firsthand how girls and women encountered barriers that boys and men did not. Now, as a mother of two teenage daughters who are also athletes, she is seeing similar patterns repeat.

"I certainly experienced what I would call gender inequities in sport, and I bore witness to them," she says. "Seeing my daughters experience many of the same challenges that I faced over twenty-five years ago is quite disheartening. That has always been part of my drive to do this work."

Her research programme focuses on the psychosocial factors that shape the experiences of women and girls in sport; an area she notes has received relatively little attention in the broader sport science literature. Central to her approach is community based participatory research that is grounded in the voices of women and girls themselves.

Rarely is research truly grounded in the experiences of women and girls. My work is about centring their voices and partnering with them to shape the questions, the ways we generate data, and how we share the findings so they can inform real change.

McHugh is building a transdisciplinary network that connects researchers, sport organisations and decision makers locally, provincially, nationally and internationally. She collaborates closely with colleagues in the Sport Injury Prevention Research Centre and across areas such as sport psychology, epidemiology, exercise physiology, as well as with sport organizations that support women in sport. Her goal is to create a Canadian based network or centre focused on advancing gender equity across all roles and all levels of sport.

Her work is already informing policy at the highest levels. McHugh holds Tri-Council funding and a research grant from the Olympic Studies Centre to develop evidence-based policies and practices around pregnancy and parenting in high performance sport. This builds on national work with Sport Canada that has contributed to recent changes in policy to support pregnant and parenting athletes. She also serves on the steering committee for the 2026 International Olympic Committee Consensus on Recreational and Elite Athletes during Pregnancy and Postpartum.

McHugh’s recruitment to UCalgary was made possible in part by the Joan Snyder Fund for Excellence in Kinesiology, a transformational gift dedicated to advancing opportunities for women and girls in sport. It is support she describes as both rare and powerful.

"It is almost unheard of to have such a significant gift focused specifically on women and girls in sport," she says. "To be in a faculty that benefits from that kind of vision and generosity is incredible, and it creates real momentum for this work."

Looking ahead, McHugh hopes that by the end of her term there will be a formalized Canadian network focused on gender equity in sport and clear evidence of policy and practice changes that improve equitable participation for women and girls.

"There is a tremendous need and a lot of space for work in this area," she says. "What encourages me is that decision makers are asking for research to guide evidence informed change. Our responsibility is to build the body of knowledge they need to make sport more equitable for women and girls."