It may be the 21st century but being a woman is still a struggle. From absurd dress-codes to unequal pay and ridiculous double standards on how to balance work and life, there’s a lot that women are still having to fight for.
Sometimes it’s easy to forget that even the celebrities we look up to are facing the same issues. Serena Williams, the tennis queen (23. Grand slam titles. What. The. Heck.) reminded us of this when she opened up about motherhood in a recent interview with Time magazine.
Serena Williams is married to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. She gave birth to daughter, Alexis Olympia, in September and has since shared her journey through motherhood on Social Media. From postpartum symptoms to missing her baby’s first steps because she was preparing for Wimbledon, the journey has not been an easy one for Williams.
It was her experience breastfeeding that made Serena really consider the ever-present division between men and women. Her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, said that she would have to stop breastfeeding in order to step up her game. Eventually, Serena did make the difficult decision to give up breastfeeding for her career, which really sheds light on the struggles of women pursuing a career and a family in the modern world.
“It’s absolutely hard to take from a guy,” Serena told Time. “He’s not a woman, he doesn’t understand that connection, that the best time of the day for me was when I tried to feed her. I’ve spent my whole life making everyone happy, just servicing it seems like everyone. And this is something I wanted to do.”
Despite the difficulty of the decision, Serena did return to tennis after giving birth. As explained by Time, it was upon her return that the U.S. Open “pledged to incorporate maternity decisions into its seeding process.” And Serena’s response vocalizes the thoughts of women across the world. “It would be nice to recognize that women shouldn’t be treated differently because they take time to bring life into this world.”