World's best ever women's tennis player forced to give up work to have children

I agree @ZeldaFighter - she specifically said that she was retiring to expand her family and she couldn't focus on both. She had huge health problems after giving birth to her first and I don't think she has won a grand slam since.

She even said in her article that men do not have the same pressures on them when they have children because they do not the physical impact of carrying the baby, giving birth and breastfeeding.

Yes, she may be extremely successful but I don't have less sympathy for her on this subject because of that. She worked hard to get where she is. No one handed it to her on a plate. Federer is only retiring because he's been forced to as a result of injury. Serena W is retiring because she believes she can't focus on tennis and having a second child.

I'm surprised there is so little recognition and sympathy on here of the different biological impacts that sportswomen experience if they want to have children. It is going to impact their performance, their time spent competing and their earning potential. I too thought how frustrating it must be for female athletes to combine both compared to the ease that men have in combining a sports career and fatherhood.

I agree Sasha.

Sports scientists are starting to get a handle on how Women’s strength, speed and endurance changes with the monthly cycle and to adapt training schedules to suit.

I think this is a really positive step forward and the last thing we want is for research and innovation around Women’s sporting excellence to be curtailed because of some misguided attempt at equalisation. We need a society that is able to mitigate the negative impacts of difference, rather than one that pretends there is no difference.

Women’s bodies are different to men’s bodies and that’s ok.

Serena, having worked incredibly hard for decades is now in a position where she is able to prioritise family and that’s a great thing. It’s hard to juggle a top flight sports career with motherhood, crikey knows most of us struggle to find work/family life balance.

The tributes to Serena in this short Guardian piece from last month are lovely:

theguardian.com/sport/2022/aug/09/greatest-player-billie-jean-king-leads-tenniss-tribute-to-serena-williams

I really hope Serena carves a similar ambassadorial type role as her predecessors, Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova have.

If Serena wants that, of course.

Wanting to be a stay at home mum in the short, long or medium term isn’t something any woman should be ashamed of.

’Having it all’ all of the time is a fantasy, but having it all consecutively is a bit more manageable!

That Williams did all pretty much all that Federer did AND grew a baby inside her while doing it is a positive thing. It’s kind of ridiculous to expect her to do all that AND have another three babies, as the only way to equalise would be social surrogacy which just pushes the physical burden onto less financially successful women.
Or telling Federer he can only have one kid!

I’m not saying it’s a tragedy though. I don’t think it is at all. It’s just a neutral fact neither tragedy or non tragedy that female athletes and sportswomen have to delay starting families due to being the sex that gestates the baby, gives birth etc and the negative impacts of that only affect females.
It’s not controversial to say that is it?
It’s one of the many reasons why sport is sex segregated after all, as all females have this disadvantage and males do not.

also worth noting the women mature as tennis players much earlier than men. Federer was 22 when he won his first major, Serena was 17 so she has had a longer career than her male peers. If you want to be the best in the world at any profession you inevitably have to make sacrifices, granted women more than men but that is just biology which I think we all believe is important.

yes well said starting a family is not a symmetrical burden.

But - so what?

We all have limits. It's not a tragedy that we all have limits.

If you are male, you won't have to deal with the effects of the female reproductive role.

If you are a human, you can't breath under water, either.

Sure there are social things that come out of it, but raging against the basic reality is ultimately just not mentally healthy. Men and women face some different choices and problems, and always will.

Being a top level professional athelete is not the kind of job that is very compatible with being a hands on parent.

And tbh, being a top level professional athlete in a lot of cases isn't going to be all that compatible with gestating children. Depending on how many she has and how her body responds.

Maybe it's that I have four children of my own, but I think if she wants to be a mum and be hands on, that is a valid choice and worthwhile. SHe is not obligated to play tennis till she drops. This idea that no one should have to make choices like that is just not in touch with reality, IMO.

This tweet thread made me think of this thread.

twitter.com/WomenReadWomen/status/1576238909042069504?t=QgzKkHfPZfsiu4JlJ_ErRg&s=19

It's the same side of the absurd coin we've reached.
Where just the fact that you have a reality of your biological reproductive role means you should be compensated for that unfairness of that reality.

Not being able to play elite tennis while pregnant. Terrible unfairness and discrimination which should not be tolerated.

Men can't get pregnant. Terrible unfairness and discrimination which should not be tolerated.

I agree somewhat with your comments OP, I do think it’s harder for women in sports than men, for obvious biological reasons. But she’s also competing against other women who are up against the same biological restraints and timelines, which evens things out.

Serena is amazing, I’ve enjoyed watching her play over the years, and I’m sure her decision was difficult for her, hence the angst. I wish her well.

I think it is denying biology to pretend that top tennis players can carry on without age affecting them. She's retiring at what is a normal, maybe a bit later than normal, age for top tennis players.

Personally I find it a bit sad when top athletes don't recognise that it is time to go, actually not just top athletes lots of people hang on to a career when they are past their best.

I did think of replying to this but your post makes so little sense I don't know where to start.

Who is denying biology?

Is this about women in work or gender ideology?

Pregnancy is extremely hard on female bodies. It is going to impact an athlete’s performance during the pregnancy and for at least some time afterward.

I don’t follow sport closely so I don’t know the current rules and practices. Elite sport could accommodate pregnancy/maternity leave and not penalize women in their rankings for taking it. Sponsors could celebrate female athletes as they continue to train while pregnant and breastfeeding. We still can’t change the reality that female athletes are unlikely to be able to perform at the same level while having a baby. This is a case where equality doesn’t mean the same.

Children have wrecked my career

Maybe you shouldn't have had multiple children then.

I heard he can even pee standing up without having to buy a she-wee! So unfair! 😤

Weird that you're angry about a woman choosing to have children. Also, "children wrecked my career" - what a horrible way to talk about the children you created.

How has she sacrificed her career. I think she's great but the reality is she isn't as good as she was and age has caught up with her, like Federer it was the time.

Charles Darwin and Old Father Time?

Who is forcing her?

😅

Don’t push it too far Malaga that’s the sort of good intention that leads to a Hell of surrogacy farms, lab based artificial wombs and uterus transplants for men.

What?! Who's forcing her?

That's nonsense. She's retiring from elite sport at 40, as has been pointed out Federer is doing the same at 41.

The OP's point is nonsense too. She sounds like someone in my office who having completed 3 maternity breaks with over a year off between each and less than 10 months actually back after each, working 3 days per week, is complaining that other colleagues, male and female, are ahead of her. She seems to think her contemporaries have to put their careers on hold.