An Organizer’s Origins
I DECIDED TO FIGHT FOR EQUALITY”
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King’s on-court energy matched her fierceness as an activist and businesswoman.
In 1955, 12-year-old King was among a cohort of budding stars invited to compete in the Southern California Championships, her first sanctioned tournament, held at the swanky Los Angeles Tennis Club. It’s where she’d earn her first junior ranking—and confront her sport’s exclusionary culture.
There, she was dismissed from a group photo for wearing shorts instead of the traditional tennis skirt (“My poor mother, who made me those beautiful shorts, was mortified,” King wrote in her memoir).
When she returned to the club that same year to watch a pro match, she noticed everyone around her was also white, clad in white outfits, even using white tennis balls. She bristled at this world in monochrome.
King, now 80, refers to the moment as her “epiphany”: She realized then she’d spend the rest of her life promoting diversity and lifting others up. “Sports are a microcosm of society,” she says. “I was going to speak up for anybody who gets a raw deal.”
In 1972, less than a year after becoming the first woman athlete to top $100,000 in total earnings, King won the U.S. Open—only to discover her $10,000 award was dwarfed by the $25,000 paid to the men’s champion.
She was “so ticked off” that she dropped a gutsy announcement during the press conference: Women players wouldn't be returning to the next U.S. Open without equal prize money.
“The journalists were in hog heaven with that,” King says. “And I thought, what can I do to make a difference?” She set out to recruit sponsors to join the cause, eventually securing a big-name brand to back her campaign and make up the difference in winners’ payouts at the following year’s championship.
Thanks to King’s grit and the sponsor’s donation, the 1973 U.S. Open became the first sporting event in history to grant equal prize money to men and women. “I’m always surprised when we get a yes,” King says, but “I knew the one thing that would talk is money.”
King becomes the first woman in sports history to top $100,000 in prize money.
King wins her first major singles title at Wimbledon and is ranked No. 1 in the world.
King collects 3 Grand Slam singles titles at the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.
The U.S. Open becomes the first major tournament to guarantee equal prize money.
For the first time in history, all 4 Grand Slam tournaments guarantee equal prize money for men and women.
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“One thing sports teaches us is no matter at what level of competition you may be … you have to have funds,” said King during the Senate hearings for the Women’s Educational Equity Act of 1973.
In Pursuit Of Pay Equity
WE’RE WAY
BEHIND”
King’s bold stand after the 1972 U.S. Open marked a pivotal shift for sports and shined a spotlight on the pay gap that persists in American society today.
The disparity has hardly budged since the turn of the millennium: In 2022, women made about 82 cents for every dollar earned by men, up just 2 cents in 20 years.
This imbalance threatens financial security later in life: In the U.S., women have roughly 70% of the retirement income men do, and about 50% of women ages 55 to 66 have no retirement savings at all. The problem is only amplified by the fact that women outlive men and may be supporting themselves and caring for others as they age.
It’s why King points to ParityFlex™ by Gainbridge®—a new multi-year guaranteed annuity created by and for women that builds savings and delivers a regular income stream for life. Buyers pay an upfront premium to guarantee an interest rate that’s immune to market downturns, making it a low-risk investment with predictable returns.
“When we survey women, they have a lot of anxiety around retirement, finances and outliving their male partners,” says Minji Ro, chief strategy officer at Group 1001, Gainbridge’s parent company. “ParityFlex provides security and peace of mind with its guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit: You receive a fixed amount every year you’re alive, even if you live long enough to eat into everything you’ve invested.”
These lifetime payouts can help women “breathe a little better,” says King. “Women leaders in the industry helped craft this with a deep understanding of financial aspirations and challenges women face.”
Even at the peak of sports stardom, King grasped the reality of her own retirement and knew planning ahead was her ticket to possibility. “Start saving when you’re young,” she says. “If you’re older, start yesterday.”
She credits her father for encouraging her to dream big, but her mother instilled the financial savvy to pull it all off. “She was really good with money. My dad would give her the checks,” says King. “She showed me the budget when I was 10. That helped me understand everything costs money, whether a new tire for the car or, for me, tennis shoes.”
women made 82 cents for every dollar earned by men In 2022.
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82¢
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Taking care of your financial self means you’re taking care of your full self.”
Billie Jean King