It’s 2016 and women are still fighting to be paid the same wages as their male counterparts. Serena Williams, who is now the world’s highest paid female athlete, doesn’t think that this fight should be necessary.
In an interview with Melissa Harris-Perry for a piece in Glamour, she was asked about the U.S. women soccer team’s current fight for equal pay. Her response killed the wage gap argument with a simple question.
“We work just as hard as men do. I’ve been working, playing tennis, since I was three years old. And to be paid less just because of my sex — it doesn’t seem fair. Will I have to explain to my daughter that her brother is gonna make more money doing the exact same job because he’s a man? If they both played sports since they were three years old, they both worked just as hard, but because he’s a boy, they’re gonna give him more money? Like, how am I gonna explain that to her?”
The questions that Williams posed make so much sense, they make you wonder why this issue still exists. She then went on to speak about her sister Venus’ fight to get equal wages for women tennis players at Wimbledon in London, UK.
“In tennis we’ve had great pioneers that paved the way — including Venus, who fought so hard for Wimbledon to pay women the same prize money they pay men, and Billie Jean King, who is one of the main reasons Title IX exists,” she told Harris-Perry.
Serena’s interview with Glamour will appear in the magazine’s July 2016 issue, which she is covering.
Thrilled to cover the July issue of @glamourmag! Read my interview with @MHarrisPerry here: https://t.co/3kmp2uCsiV pic.twitter.com/HD6TaJqyNQ
— Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) June 7, 2016
How will Serena wow us next?!
