Well, two weeks ago, sprinter, Allyson Felix, was celebrated for beating the gold-medal record of Usain Bolt at the World Athletics Championship. This was such a sweet, sweet victory, but not because Felix is a female. It was a sweet victory because not only did this win come after giving birth 10 months prior, but because Nike was probably kicking themselves for losing a sponsored athlete due to their poor policy on pregnancy.
In March of this year, Allyson Felix told her story through the New York Times describing how Nike had asked her to take a 70% pay cut post pregnancy and could not guarantee that she would not be punished should she not perform as she did prior to pregnancy. After advocating with other athletes, Nike changed their policy and many other brands have done the same.
However, this past weekend, WNBA star Skylar Diggins-Smith, made headlines for a tweet about her pregnancy experience as a professional athlete. In her tweets Diggins-Smith revealed that she was pregnant throughout her 2018 season, while remaining an all star player and told no one. She explained that after delivering her baby she had to take two full months off because of challenges she faced with postpartum depression with limited resources to assist her both, mentally and physically. In addition, she expressed that she felt it was unfortunate to not have any support from her organization, the Dallas Wings.
Therefore, it appears that while female athletes are fighting to get paid equally as their male counterparts, they also need to fight to be mothers. How ridiculous is this? What are your thoughts? #SHEthletes
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