Billie Jean King won 39 Grand Slam titles during her tennis career, and has long been a pioneer for equality and social justice.
Why you should listen
Named one of the “100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century” by Life magazine and honored with a Presidential Medal of Freedom, Billie Jean King is the founder of the Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative and the co-founder of World TeamTennis. She founded the Women’s Sports Foundation and the Women’s Tennis Association. In August 2006, the National Tennis Center, home of the US Open, was renamed the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in honor of her accomplishments, both on and off the court.
King grew up playing tennis in California public parks and won 39 Grand Slam titles during her career. She defeated Bobby Riggs in one of the greatest moments in sports history, the Battle of the Sexes on Sept. 20, 1973. She now serves on the boards of the Women’s Sports Foundation, the Andy Roddick Foundation, the Elton John AIDS Foundation and is a member of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition.
Billie Jean King’s TED Talk
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Culture
How the ‘Battle of the Sexes’ influenced a generation of men: Billie Jean King’s TEDWomen update
September 23, 2017
Forty-three years ago this week, the number one tennis star in the world, 29-year-old Billie Jean King, agreed to take on 55-year-old Bobby Riggs, in a match dubbed the “Battle of the Sexes.” The prize was $100,000 — which compared with today’s million-dollar-winning pots wasn’t much — but it was the first time that women […]
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5 talks for Women’s Equality Day
August 26, 2016
Today marks the 45th anniversary of Women’s Equality Day, which was designated in 1971 to celebrate the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote in 1920. In commemoration of that milestone, and the miles we still have to go, here are five TEDTalks from past TEDWomen conferences about the state of […]
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Leaders with an eye for justice: The talks in Session 4 of TEDWomen 2015
May 29, 2015
Momentum is great. But how do you sustain it? This session will examine what it takes to keep on keeping on, from speakers who are just starting out and those who’ve been at it for decades. Short recaps of the talks in this session… The number one abuse of human rights. Former president Jimmy Carter begins with […]
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