Pregnant gamers on the girls’s tennis tour now can obtain 12 months of paid maternity depart, and those that turn out to be dad and mom by way of associate being pregnant, surrogacy or adoption can get two months off with pay, below a program sponsored by the Public Funding Fund of Saudi Arabia and introduced Thursday by the WTA.
“Impartial contractors and self-employed people don’t sometimes have these sorts of maternity advantages offered and out there to them. They need to exit and type of determine these advantages for themselves,” WTA CEO Portia Archer mentioned. “That is actually type of novel and groundbreaking.”
Greater than 300 gamers are eligible for the fund, which is retroactive to Jan. 1. The WTA wouldn’t disclose how a lot cash is concerned.
This system — which the WTA touted as “the primary time in girls’s sports activities historical past that complete maternity advantages can be found to unbiased, self-employed athletes” — additionally offers grants for fertility remedies, together with egg freezing and IVF.
It is a part of a wider pattern: As girls’s sports activities rise, there’s an emphasis on assembly maternity and parental wants.
What number of moms are on the ladies’s tennis tour now?
The WTA says 25 mothers are energetic on tour; one, Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Belinda Bencic, received a title final month after coming back from maternity depart in October.
An increasing number of professionals in tennis have returned to motion after having kids, together with previous No. 1-ranked gamers and Grand Slam title winners corresponding to Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, Kim Clijsters, Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka.
Azarenka — a member of the WTA Gamers’ Council, which Archer acknowledged performed a key position in pushing for this fund — thinks these advantages will encourage lower-ranked or lower-earning athletes to take as a lot time without work as they really feel they want after turning into a guardian, slightly than worrying about shedding out on revenue whereas not getting into tournaments.
“That’s definitely one of many goals of this system: to offer the monetary assets, the flexibleness, the help, in order that these athletes, no matter the place they’re ranked, however significantly those that earn much less, can have that company … to resolve when and the way they wish to begin their households,” Archer mentioned.
And, Azarenka mentioned, this might lead some gamers to resolve to turn out to be dad and mom earlier than retiring from the game for good.
“Each suggestions we’ve heard from gamers who’re moms — or who should not moms — is like, ‘Wow, that is an unbelievable alternative for us,’” mentioned 2012 and ’13 Australian Open champion Azarenka, whose son, Leo, is 8. “I consider it’s actually going to vary the dialog in sports activities. However going past sports activities, it’s a worldwide dialog, and I’m completely happy that we’re (a part of it).”
Different steps the WTA has taken lately to profit gamers embody steering extra girls into teaching, implementing safeguarding, trying to stem cyberbullying, and rising prize cash with a watch to pay that equals what males obtain within the sport.
What position does Saudi Arabia have in tennis?
The Public Funding Fund, or PIF, turned the WTA’s international associate final 12 months, after a lot public debate — Corridor of Famers Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova have been among the many critics — over questions on LGBTQ+ and ladies’s rights in Saudi Arabia.
The dominion now hosts the season-ending WTA Finals and an ATP occasion for rising stars of males’s tennis. The PIF sponsors the WTA and ATP rankings.
“We wouldn’t have been capable of present the advantages have been it not for this relationship and the funding that PIF offers,” Archer mentioned.
What are maternity depart insurance policies in golf, soccer and basketball?
In golf, which like tennis is a person sport with out assured salaries, the LPGA launched an up to date maternity depart coverage in 2019 that lets athletes have the identical taking part in standing once they return.
In soccer, each the NWSL and the U.S. girls’s nationwide group have collective bargaining agreements that permit for being pregnant depart and parental depart; the NWSL pays the total base wage whereas an athlete is pregnant.
In basketball, the WNBA’s CBA ensures full pay throughout maternity depart.
For tennis, Azarenka mentioned, the PIF WTA Maternity Fund Program is “only the start.”
“It is an unbelievable starting. Monumental change,” she mentioned. “However I believe we will look into how we will broaden this fund for larger, higher issues.”
