Venus Williams Took Inspiration From Her Mother to Fight For Pay Equality in Tennis
Venus Williams is a fierce warrior both on and off the court.One of the all-time tennis greats and formerly ranked No. 1 in the world, she has advocated for pay equity for women in her profession for many years.
For Williams, playing Wimbledon as a young athlete was an eye-opening experience in that regard.“Getting there and realizing, ‘Wow, I’m not being paid equally,’ was just definitely a slap in the face to a 16-year-old. … It hit me hard,” says Williams, who at age 25 formally began crusading to close the pay gap so that women would earn equal prize money to men.When she won her first major singles championship at Wimbledon in 2000, she was paid less than Pete Sampras, who took the men’s title.
Seven years later when she won Wimbledon, she became the first woman to be paid equally to her male counterpart, Roger Federer. “Two short years later, after 30-plus years of fighting for equal prize money, we finally arrived.
It was a wonderful moment,” says Williams, who at 41 is training rigorously for a forthcoming tournament following a break after playing Wimbledon last July.The battle to eradicate pay discrimination has also been hard-fought by other professional athletes, including soccer star Megan Rapinoe.
