King, Williams Lead Panel Talk On Breaking Down Gender Barriers
Published to Sports Business Journal on July 29, 2019
Billie Jean King, Venus Williams, and other female leaders in sports gathered Friday evening to talk gender equality in pro sports. Hosted at St. Joseph’s Univ. in Philadelphia before the WTT Philadelphia Freedoms’ match against the Washington Kastles, the conversation focused on breaking down barriers in sports. Williams played for the Kastles later that evening. “When a woman leads, she’s an example for everybody, not just girls,” King saidWomen’s tennis champion Billie Jean King is best remembered for her 1973 exhibition match, known as “The Battle of the Sexes,” with self-proclaimed male chauvinist Bobby Riggs. But King also had a remarkable career, both as a tennis player and as a trailblazer for women: She won a record 20 Wimbledon titles, six of them for singles, and she led an uprising of underpaid female players to demand fairer treatment and compensation in professional tennis.