"Women are put in these different boxes when we are ambitious or when we have goals or when we reach our goals, it's a negative connotation" - Serena Williams
In a conversation with Meghan Markle, Serena Williams shared her opinions on how society views men and women differently when it comes to ambitions.
In the first episode of Archetypes, the Duchess of Sussex's new podcast, Williams, one of her close friends, discussed the challenges that ambitious women face and went into detail about how it impacts the rest of their lives.
When asked if she views the word "ambition" in a positive or negative light, the 23-time Grand Slam champion said:
"I was talking to I don't know if it was my mom or my sister, but I said I have to check myself because I've been so blinded by society. You know, if a man is ambitious, am I saying? Am I bringing down society by saying a woman is something different than ambitious? Or what do I think of women that are ambitious? Often women are definitely put in these different boxes when we are ambitious or when we do have goals or when we reach our goals, it's a negative connotation on how we reach the goals."
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The 1st episode of #Archetypes is live!
“#MeghanMarkle talks to the one and only Serena Williams about the double standard women face when they are labeled "ambitious" and the ripple effects this has on other aspects of their lives.” open.spotify.com/episode/1hHiWV…
The American explained that young girls in classrooms are labeled as bossy when they are being ambitious, which gradually gets worse over time. She did, however, add that the new generation should strive to instill in their daughters a greater sense of courage and outspokenness.
"I was reading an article about how girls tend to raise their hand less and less as time goes on because their confidence starts to fade because of the things that they're called. Um…so it's quite interesting," Serena Williams said.
"By the time they're in high school and for sure in college, they're not raising their hands as much. So hopefully we can teach our girls to continue to raise their hand and to be fearless," she added.
"I was devastated, I felt so guilty" - Serena Williams recalls daughter Olympia's injury at 2018 French Open
In the same podcast, Serena Williams shared an incident from 2018 where her daughter broke her wrist after falling from a chair the day before the American had a match scheduled at the French Open.
"I had a match the next day and that night, she fell out of her high chair and broke her wrist. And she was on my watch and I was just basically devastated," Williams said.
"Like, I literally couldn't think. I felt so guilty. I just, anyway. So she fell. We went to the hospital and she had a small tear, a break in her wrist, so she had to get a cast and we didn't get back ‘til like four in the morning," she added.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion felt so awful about this one incident that she wouldn't let her daughter out of her sight for a while, even when it meant having just 30 minutes of sleep before an early-morning match.
"Meanwhile, of course, it is the one day I was playing early, I remember holding her the whole night and just like rocking her to sleep and I just didn't let her out of my sight at that point because I was already and I'm hard on myself, and I’m a little bit of a perfectionist. But I was so mad at myself for even allowing that to happen," she recalled.
"So I think I got like 30 minutes of sleep and then I had to go play this match. And I'm just thinking, how am I going to play?" she said.
Williams' next stop is the 2022 US Open, where she will make her final attempt to equal Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand Slam titles.