Sports Icon Billie Jean King: Women Should Be Brave, Not Perfect

One of the most respected athletes and change makers of the 20th century, tennis legend Billie Jean King, is still making her mark today as a champion for social change and equality.  

I recently caught up with King at the Women’s Sports Foundation Athletes Leadership Connection in New York where she was being honored for her 75th birthday and where I heard her speak at a Q&A session and had the opportunity to interview her. She shared her personal insights on why women’s leadership is so important, how being involved in sports helps girls develop leadership qualities, and what her call to action is for women and girls everywhere. 

Sports as a Platform for Change 

King explained that at the age of seven she knew she wanted to do something great with her life. As she got involved in tennis, she began to gain confidence as an athlete and as an activist. She said, “At twelve I had an epiphany. I was daydreaming, and I thought, [in tennis] everybody wears white shoes, white socks, white clothes, we played with white balls in those days, and everybody who played was white. And I said, ‘Where is everybody else?’ That was the moment I promised I was going to fight for equality for the rest of my life.” 

She went on to become the world’s number one tennis player—winning 39 Grand Slam titles, including a record 20 titles at Wimbledon, and defeating male opponent Bobby Riggs in “The Battle of the Sexes” match, considered one of the greatest moments in sports history. King founded the Women’s Sports Foundation in 1974, a powerful organization dedicated to ensuring all girls have equal access to sports and physical activity and the tremendous life-long benefits they provide.

Women’s Leadership Matters 

When I asked King why it’s so important to have women in leadership positions, she told me, “They have proven now with data that if you have more women on your board in business, net profits go up to 16 percent more. Also, you want to hear different ideas, so you should have different cultures and you should have women. What happens is you stay ahead as a company; you’re going to fall behind if you only listen to yourselves all the time. They’ve proven it over and over. So it is good to have women represented in C-Suites, and 96 percent of women in C-Suites played sports, so sports really go hand in hand with leadership.”  

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