Serena Williams Comments on Equal Pay for Women, More in 'Glamour' Interview

Serena Williams is the biggest star in women's tennis, and the world No. 1 used her platform to advocate for financial equality within the sport during a recent interview with Glamour's Melissa Harris Perry.

Responding to a question regarding the United States women's national soccer team's fight for equal pay, Williams offered a strong take on the issue:

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These sports have a lot of work to do. And I really hope that I can be helpful in that journey because I do believe that women deserve the same pay. 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? 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.

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Williams is the highest-paid female athlete in the world, according to Forbes' Kurt Badenhausen, but the 34-year-old and her peers are still underpaid compared to their male counterparts.

In April, the New York Times' Ben Rothenberg reported female tennis players earn 80 cents for every one dollar that men earn. He also noted "the median pay gap between a woman in the top 100 and her opposite number on the men's tour is $120,624."

On a tournament-by-tournament basis, the monetary disparities can be even more glaring. According to Rothenberg, the Western & Southern Open pays women 63 cents for every dollar men earn. As a result, Williams received $495,000 for winning the 2015 U.S. Open tuneup, whereas Roger Federer made $731,000 for his victorious effort.

Williams, who lost in Saturday's French Open final to Garbine Muguruza, also discussed how she's able to rebound from crippling defeats like her recent clay-court stumble and last year's U.S. Open upset at the hands of Roberta Vinci, per Harris Perry:

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I work harder. I study to see where I went wrong. But I carry the loss. My coach has said to me, "When you win a match or a tournament, you don't even think about it—the very next minute you're like, 'Now I've got to focus on Wimbledon.' You should take the losses the same way." I need to look at those losses as learning experiences.

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Serena has come up short in both Grand Slam finals so far this year, but she'll have a chance to avenge those losses when Wimbledon gets underway June 27.

A year after dropping just two sets en route to a title at the All England Club, Williams should enter the grass-court proceedings as a heavy favorite even though she's shown signs of vulnerability in her last three Grand Slam appearances. As she told Harris Perry, she's looking forward to it:

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I'm going in as defending champ. So that'll be exciting. I want to have fun. Serve big. Play aggressive on the grass.

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