Female Athletes Who Are Demanding Equality in the Sports World

Billie Jean King (Tennis)

We can’t have a conversation about equality and equal pay in sports without talking about tennis great Billie Jean King, who used her international fame to fight for social justice before many of the other women on our list were even born.
King, who won 39 Grand Slam championships during her career, is in the International Tennis Hall of Fame and the Women’s National Hall of Fame, and she received the Presidential Medal of Honor for her work toward gender equality in sports. She made headlines in 1973 when she agreed to a $100,000 “Battle of the Sexes” match against Wimbledon men’s singles champion Bobby Riggs. King won handily, in front of a television audience 50 million strong. The match is considered a turning point for women’s tennis.
She recently told The Guardian, “It’s not about the money, it’s about the message we send. We are sending the equality message out that this is the right thing to do. Yes, the men are better than us in some ways. Yes, we’re better in some ways. It doesn’t matter. Don’t you want to share in this world? I do.”
King's story inspired the film Battle of the Sexes, starring Emma Stone. 

Abby Wambach (Soccer)

During her time spent on the U.S. women’s national soccer team, from 2001 to 2015, Abby Wambach became a two-time Olympic gold medalist and a FIFA Women’s World Cup champion, but she was also an outspoken figure in the sports world, tackling the gender pay gap and organizing protests for gender equality.

In 2015, Wambach and 60 other players spoke out against FIFA's decision to play the Women's World Cup on artificial turf, claiming gender discrimination because the Men's World Cup always used grass. Not only was artificial grass more difficult to play on, but it also posed a greater risk of injury. The female players filed a lawsuit against FIFA and the Canadian Soccer Association but ultimately dropped it because the organization was being "stubborn." 

"There were companies (that) offered to pay for these grass fields to be put into these stadiums… They offered FIFA, offered the Canadian Soccer Association to do it for free (in) all the stadiums," Wambach told ESPNW. "To me, it wasn't about that there was grass or no grass, it was about FIFA not wanting to do anything that anybody else wanted except them wanting to do what they wanted to do."

Since then, Wambach continues to be vocal about gender equality, remained vocal about gender equality and women's issues. 

"I started to reflect on my career and I started to get pissed," Wambach said at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Next Gen Summit in San Francisco in 2015. "I'm not, like, male-hating. I believe we need them, too. But the reality is that people are brought up thinking that women are inferior."

You might even remember seeing Wambach campaign for Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election.

Alana Nichols (Basketball, Alpine Skiing, Canoeing)

Alana Nichols knows a lot about adversity and equality. The three-sport Paralympic athlete was paralyzed from the waist down in a snowboarding accident in 2000 but has never stopped fighting or excelling. Nichols won a gold medal at the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing with the United States wheelchair basketball team, and she has medaled five times in Paralympic alpine skiing events in Vancouver and Sochi. She also recently took up the sports of paracanoeing and adaptive surfing, because why not? 
Nichols, who doesn’t seem to tire of setting goals and fighting to be the best, hasn’t sidestepped the issue of equal pay in sports. She told Shape magazine, “I think payment needs to move away from gender. It needs to be about: ‘How hard is this athlete — not female — working and how much do they deserve to be paid?’”

Breanna Stewart (Basketball)

Breanna Stewart is used to making headlines. The four-time NCAA champion and University of Connecticut Huskies forward was the No. 1 draft pick in the WNBA in 2016 and won Rookie Player of the Year out of the gate. She also snagged a multiyear Nike endorsement deal along the way. 
Last summer, when she won an ESPY award for Best Female Athlete of the Year, she spent her mic time speaking out for gender equality.
"During my time in college, I received an enormous amount of media attention. I’m grateful for that. And now that I’m in the WNBA, playing with other amazing female athletes, I’m trying to understand why we, as professional female athletes, don’t receive anywhere near the fame. This has to change," Stewart said. "Equality for all takes each of us making an effort. Thank you for this honor, and together let’s be better."

Serena Williams (Tennis)

Don’t call Serena Williams one of the greatest female athletes of all time or she will correct you: “I prefer the word ‘one of the greatest athletes of all time,’” she said at a press conference last summer. 
The unmatched tennis player is currently ranked the best player in the world by the Women’s Tennis Association and holds the most major titles of anyone playing today — and twice in the past, she’s held all four major titles simultaneously, which has never been done by anyone else. 
When not dominating on the tennis court, Williams is strongly outspoken about equal pay and gender equality in tennis, picking up where Billie Jean King left off. 
Williams told ABC News, “I definitely think there is a difference between the way male and female athletes are treated. I also believe that as a woman we have still a lot to do. Tennis has made huge, huge improvements. We just have to keep that… going for all other female sports, as well.”

Carmelita Jeter (Track)

Three-time Olympic medalist and world-class sprinter Carmelita Jeter can run 100 meters in 10.64 seconds. Overcoming a two-year hamstring injury that almost had her benched permanently, Jeter returned to the track to secure a number of titles and records on the world stage, including gold, silver and bronze medals at the 2012 London Olympics. 
Jeter fights for equal rights for women on and off the track, and not just so she can pad her paycheck, she told Shape magazine. 
"Sometimes you won’t reap the benefits, but someone else will," she said. "Back in the '70s and '80s, pro female runners weren’t getting million-dollar contracts. They would get a TV and maybe some granola bars. It was different then. It wasn’t your primary job. They are looking at us now and saying, ‘Wow, we didn’t have it that good.’ We might not get what we want, but maybe my younger sister will."

Miesha Tate (MMA)

Mixed martial artist Miesha Tate is used to fighting for things, so fighting for equal pay and better sponsorships probably comes naturally to the former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion. 
Known for her outstanding wrestling and jujitsu skills, Tate rose through the MMA and grappling ranks beginning in 2007. In 2012, her fight against Rhonda Rousey caught the imagination of the fight world and paved the way for female fighting divisions in the UFC. In 2016, Tate won the UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship by submitting Holly Holm. She retired in November 2016, and she recently joined Fox Sports 1 as an analyst. 
Here’s what she had to say to CNBC in 2016 about receiving equal pay: “Why not? Of course, if I put butts in seats. It’s just MMA. We’re all going out there doing the same thing, and if I draw a crowd, then I draw a crowd, so I think the pay should be equal.”

The US Women’s National Soccer Team

When it comes to female soccer players who haven’t kept quiet about equal pay and equal rights for women, there is no way to pick just one. In March 2016, just before the Summer Olympics in Rio and just after the team's World Cup victory, stars Carli Lloyd, Becky Sauerbrunn, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe and Hope Solo filed a joint complaint on behalf of their team with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, putting forth that they are unfairly paid less than their male counterparts — in fact, they are paid literally millions less, even when they win games and the men lose. 
The team, which is ranked first in the world by FIFA (the men’s team is ranked 24th), has fought hard for equal pay and has even been backed by the U.S. Senate, which passed a nonbinding resolution in 2016 demanding equal pay for the women. 
Lloyd wrote about her thoughts in an essay for TheNew York Times. The EEOC complaint, she said, "had everything to do with what’s right and what’s fair, and with upholding a fundamental American concept: equal pay for equal play. Even if you are female. Simply put, we’re sick of being treated like second-class citizens. It wears on you after a while. And we are done with it."

Kathryn Bertine (Cycling)

Kathryn Bertine is a lifelong athlete who also has also found success as a sports journalist and filmmaker. In recent years, her attention has turned toward gaining greater equality in the cycling world. 
Bertine began her athletic career as a figure skater, performing in shows like Ice Capades and Holiday on Ice. She also competed on the collegiate level in rowing and cross-country running before becoming a professional triathlete for several years. While writing for ESPN, Bertine attempted to compete in the Summer Olympics in cycling in 2008 and 2012, though she failed both times. She’s currently a member of the Cylance Pro Cycling team.
Bertine is a co-founder of Le Tour Entier, an organization trying to return women to the Tour de France. She also made the 2014 documentary, Half the Road, that examines the world of women’s cycling and gender issues in the cycling world. 
She told the Reno Gazette-Journal, “To think cycling is still so far behind is appalling. The audience now sees that. When they watch Half the Road and get a sense that the good old boys' network… has not changed tremendously, the audience doesn’t let that go.”