The history of women’s tennis from Trailblazers to Throwbacks

Solveig Straume
Molde University College, Norway

Kristi Tredway’s book Social Activism in Women’s Tennis explores how women tennis players have shaped—and been shaped by—broader social justice movements from 1968 to the present. Drawing on extensive qualitative research, including interviews with former players, Tredway offers a layered narrative that situates tennis within debates on the intersectionality of gender, sexuality, race, and economic equality, by demonstrating how social categories intersect in shaping athletes’ experiences and opportunities for advocacy.

In the Prologue of the book, Treadway self-reflexively shows the reader that the book and its topic is highly personal and political:

I believe that every researcher has an agenda, whether it is under the guise of a politicized framework like feminism, or of refraining from so-called politics while keeping one’s own identity markers invisible, thus feeding into the strength of the status quo. Both are political projects. Indeed, I am frank in stating that I have an agenda. I want to uncover and understand inequality so that I can work more productively to eradicate it. Feminism permeates everything that I write, think, and do. Intersectionality is positioned in mwy mind the same way. As a political activist, I have not only theorized about feminism and intersectionality, I have lived it and expressed it in publicly political ways. In many ways, this will not be explicitly stated in my writing, nor can people know through my writing what I do through my everyday actions. Yet, as part of my personal politics, feminism spans these dimensions of myself. My scholarship is always both personal and political (p. xiii).

After a theoretical and methodological introduction, Tredway organizes the book into five thematic chapters that trace different cohorts or activist “generations” of players, the Trailblazers; the Founders; the Joiners; the Sustainers; and the Throwbacks.

The Joiners carried on the social activism work for economic justice through equal prize money that the Founders had begun, but they also fronted various types of identity politics in the intersection between nationality, sex, sexuality and gender.

The Trailblazers were the female tennis players who paved the way for the social activism that took place in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Tredway presents three stories; Suzanne Lenglen (1899-1938), the first female tennis celebrity, who won six Wimbledon titles, two French Championship and an Olympic gold medal in Antwerp in 1920, but also questioned unequal pay and unpractical tennis attire. Althea Gibson (1927-2003), who won five Grand Slam titles and was the first Black athlete to cross the color line of international tennis. And Ann Haydon Jones (1938-) who protested unequal prize money distribution between male and female tennis players in the 1960s. As Treadway contends: “Because the actions of these players were not joined by a collective, sustained effort and these women remained solo actors, their efforts were easily dismissed by the establishment. However, they nonetheless paved the way for the collective social activism that would take place, beginning in 1970” (p. 33)

The Founders are characterised by the feminist movement, that launched women’s professional tennis in the early 1970s. The so-called Original 9 (consisting of Billie Jean King, Rosie Casals, Julie Heldman, Kristy Pigeon, Judy Tegart, Kerry Melville, Jane Bartkowicz, Valerie Zeigenfuss, and Nancy Richey) made a joint stand against inequitable prize money for men and women, and the movement snowballed into 64 professional female players who stood together in the formation of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) in 1973. Obviously, the well-known Battle of the Sexes (1973) between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs is also described in the chapter, as a turning point not just with regards to women’s equality, but also as a demonstration of the entertainment value of women’s tennis.

The Joiners explores the era of Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. The Joiners carried on the social activism work for economic justice through equal prize money that the Founders had begun, but they also fronted various types of identity politics in the intersection between nationality, sex, sexuality and gender. In this section, I think that Treadway’s aforementioned political agenda plays out, and she becomes personal in her narrations. (This observation is supported in a footnote in her next chapter The Sustainers “This is the cohort where I likely should have belonged; however, having Rosie Casals from the Founders cohort as my coach seemed to have pulled me to join the Joiners cohort, which I identify with” (p. 120).

The Sustainers cohort commencing in the late 1980’s to this day is marked by “heightened individualism and a disavowal of the history and struggles in women’s tennis” (p. 93). In line with neoliberalism of the time, this cohort was marked by corporatization and celebrity individualization. We understand that this cohort is taking a step away from activism, through the corporatization of WTA and its expansion to global markets.

The last cohort that is presented by Treadway are the Throwbacks. This cohort focuses on individual tennis players who thrive within the Sustainers cohort but are inspired by the Founders and Joiners and rise to challenge broader injustices. In this cohort intersectionality is clearly played out as activists such as Serena Williams is pushing against and navigating the different domains of power. Treadway becomes very theoretical in this chapter, (which partly is an excerpt from a formerly published article).

I feel that I learned a lot by reading this book, but it did take me some time to get through it.

First of all, I found the book interesting in the sense that it demonstrates that sport and women’s tennis has long been and still is more than ‘just a game’. It has been a stage for activism and advocating equal rights, and also a stage of exploiting market forces. Treadway’s historical mapping of activist cohorts or “generations” helps readers understand how today’s athletes inherit and reinterpret the work of those before them.

I like the way the book is chronologically built up, and how it presents a story that makes sense also to those of us who have limited prior knowledge of tennis history in general and women’s tennis history in particular. Personally, I was most intrigued and inspired by the first few chapters (Trailblazers, Founders and Joiners).

I think that the interdisciplinary perspective is interesting, as the book draws on cultural theory, organizational studies, and historical methods. The player-centered stories/case studies provide a narrative drive and gives richness to the text.

My main criticism of the book would be the writing style and that I’m still not sure, after having read the book thoroughly, who is the intended audience. (it says in the very beginning that it is important reading for researchers, students (…) as well as anybody with an interest in social activism and social movements (…) [and] for the general fan” (p.i). In terms of writing, the book’s academic writing style with a lot of quotations, footnotes and theoretical language may at times feel dense and a bit unavailable for casual readers. It relies heavily on sociological frameworks, which adds depth but occasionally slows the narrative flow.

From a Nordic perspective and for the reader of idrottsforum.org, the book is written from an Americanized perspective, and it therefore might feel slightly alien to our contexts. However, there is still valuable knowledge and inspiration to be derived from the book, and although the case of tennis might have its peculiarities, I think there are many similarities to Nordic (women’s) sport history and struggle for equality in any and all sports.

For people that are interested in sport and society, feminist theories and history, or how athletes use their platforms to reshape cultural discourse, I recommend this book.

Copyright © Solveig Straume 2026