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

[ZeldaFighter]

I'm a bit late to the party on this but I've been waiting for someone - anyone - to say it. How come the world's best ever women's tennis player is having to give up so she can have a baby? Why is no one outraged at the lack of work/life balance?

Children have wrecked my career (couldn't take a new job as pregnant and wouldn't have qualified for maternity pay) so this is a bigger issue than just Serena!

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.

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

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.

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.

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 love Serena - I think she's amazing and I wish her all the best in everything she does next.

My thoughts are not meant in criticism of anyone - I was thinking about how it denies biology to accept a transgender person as the sex they have transitioned to. You could have gender reassignment surgery but you are still essentially your sex at birth.

And then I thought about how none of us can really escape our biology - Serena is an amazingly strong, fit, talented woman - but she couldn't escape the rigours of pregnancy and birth. I can't escape the oncoming menopause either!

I'm still trying to decide my position on these issues - someone posted recently about always being progressive in outlook and now feeling on the "wrong side".

So I appreciate your thoughts on my musings - thank you, we debate and learn.

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 always think I write nicely....until someone else puts it across so much better. What you said!