Serena Williams understands how important parental leave is. The 37-year-old superstar recently teamed up with the Allstate Foundation's Purple Purse program [1] and spoke about her time after giving birth to Olympia [2] and how it was critical to both her and her daughter's lives [3]. "It's so hard to be a mom," she told People. "I have my own job and I make my own schedule, but even then I still have commitments, and I can't imagine moms that get two weeks off and have to go back to work."
The comments came after her husband, Alexis Ohanian, opened up in a New York Times essay [4] about how valuable paternity leave was for him [5] following Olympia's birth. "It's impossible. I couldn't have done it. I literally couldn't have done it," she said about mothers who get such a short time off from work. "[Parental leave is] so important for both parents."
Since Serena and Alexis welcomed their first child together almost two years ago, the couple has been very open about parenting [6] and raising Olympia as a strong woman [7], which includes advocating for strong parental leave policies. After her complicated birth [8] with Olympia, Serena took 13 months off from tennis. She dropped from being ranked No. 1 in all of women's tennis to being ranked No. 451, but that didn't stop her from speaking up for herself and what she believes in [9]. "It's hard, you're in a marriage, you're in a relationship, you have a kid," Serena said. "It's not easy to just pick up and walk away. It's not, and I know that now, and I feel like [that's] even more reason that I can speak to it."
