Talking about money once made Venus Williams squirm. Yes, That Venus Williams: Tennis legend with a net worth of nearly $100 million. She fought for equal prize money at Wimbledon and became the first woman to win the award in 2007. That Venus Williams also grew up in a family where talking about money was taboo. While her history-making 2007 Wimbledon victory was a masterclass in money transparency, she recalls that it was actually a different day in her 20s that taught her the value of personal financial advocacy.
“I was brought up in a traditional education, and people told me that I shouldn’t talk about money, that it’s rude,” she told PS in a recent phone call. But a shopping trip in Italy left her self-esteem bruised. The brigade made her reconsider. She was admiring some fabric, but not wanting to appear cheap by asking for a price, when an Italian-speaking friend overheard the store owner discussing a plan to blackmail Williams. From that point on, she knew she had no choice but to stick to her wallet.
“It was a wake-up call and I changed forever,” she said. “You don’t just ask about the price, you ask about the discount. This is my money and this is how I want to spend it. It doesn’t matter if I look like Ebenezer Scrooge. I have to talk about it. .
This month, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, Williams has partnered with SoFi on the Give Her Credit campaign, which aims to “level the financial playing field for women” (in 2023, they’ll still be women). Average 22% less than men), each can receive a cash prize of up to $10,000.
Looking back on the passage of ECOA, which for the first time gave women the right to apply for credit cards and loans in their own names without a male co-signer, Williams thought of her own mother. “Imagine, as a woman, she doesn’t have access to credit. These are rights my mom didn’t have growing up, and it’s crazy,” she said.
ECOA changed that, but the total salary gap remains and remains as relevant today as it did then. In 2009, two years after Williams successfully lobbied for equal bonuses at Wimbledon, the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (named after the activist who died last week) was passed. Even so, the pay gap persists. During this decade, more generations of athletes, such as soccer star Megan Rapinoe and another SoFi partner, the WNBA’s Cameron Brink, have embraced equity demands for treatment, but they are still being denied, even in an industry that invests more in women’s leagues and teams than at any time in history. According to SoFi’s latest research on women’s financial attitudes, only 54% of women feel “more capable of managing their finances than previous generations of women.”
Still, those in power are slowly recognizing “the power of investing in women,” Williams said. “It’s the right thing to do and it’s long overdue.” Today, pay equity and women’s financial independence are still “real topics,” which left Williams “shocked” by her interest in financial wellness— — especially for women, people of color, and other populations traditionally marginalized by financial institutions — has grown into a serious passion.
She carries a long list of practical, down-to-earth money lessons with her wherever she goes, including one she learned from her mother: Never live beyond your means. “It just creates stress and no one needs it,” she said.
But don’t let that fool you into thinking Williams isn’t as profligate as the rest of us. She loves jewelry and clothes (so much so that she imposed a temporary ban on herself from all non-essential purchases), and when it comes to her 17-year-old Havanese dog Harry, she’ll stop at nothing. “If he doesn’t look right, I take him to the doctor, which is a joke,” she said. “I’m such a crazy dog mom.”
Another lesson she learned is that not all debt is bad debt. At least that’s what Williams learned when she took a real estate class a few years ago, which disrupted her understanding of money management like coins in a piggy bank.
“In those real estate development classes, I started to realize that debt is a great thing”—as opposed to the typical debt narrative that brings shame and failure. People of color, in particular, are rarely taught how to use debt as a tool and are raised to believe the “right” way to spend money is to have as much of their own money as possible, she said. But she learned that, under the right circumstances, debt can create real opportunities to build wealth. “You can tap into debt or borrow against your account, but I wasn’t aware of those opportunities before this.”
She said too few women and people of color are told their money should work for them. She didn’t even know this until much later than she’d hoped. “We know you want to invest in the market, or we’re traditionally taught to have a savings or checking account with a little bit of interest, but we’re not taught about the greater opportunity to leverage into ownership or investments,” she said.
In talking to Williams about money, it became clear that money is really just a backdrop and what we’re really talking about is knowing your self-worth—even and especially when institutions don’t acknowledge it. Learning to advocate for your money is actually the same as asking for respect for yourself.
“If you don’t know your worth, pretend you do and you’ll be surprised how you feel,” she said with a laugh. Fortunately for Williams, though, her worth was never in question. “Maybe my parents didn’t teach me the power of debt, but they did teach me the power of self and that I should never settle for less,” she said. “I was always taught to know your worth.”
Emma Glassman-Hughes is deputy editor of PS Balance. Prior to joining PS, her freelance and staff reporting roles covered all areas of lifestyle; she covered arts and culture for The Boston Globe, sex and relationships for Cosmopolitan, and Here magazine travel, and covers food, climate and agriculture for Ambrook Research.
