A Comparative Analysis of Women’s Sport Advocacy Groups in Canada and the United States

Abstract

This article compares women’s sport advocacy groups in Canada and the United States from an institutionalist perspective. Women’s sport advocacy groups address similar issues and have similar mandates in both countries, but yet differ markedly in their evolution and strategy choices. We seek to understand the extent to which their institutional environment constrains and/or enables group strategies to enhance our understanding of which factors influence advocacy organizations in the sport policy sector. The article concludes by arguing that institutional, cultural, and economic factors as well as differences in the political opportunity structure (POS) help explain the differences in the development and strategy choices of women’s sport advocacy groups in both countries.