Women’s Sports Foundation (WSF)

Activities

The Women’s Sports Foundation runs several funds, including the Tara VanDerveer Fund, which supports fellowships and mentorship for women pursuing college coaching careers; ⁵ the Scott Pioli and Family Fund, which supports women coaches and scouts in football; ⁶ and a Travel and Training Fund that helps cover costs for elite women athletes in track and field. ⁷

Transgender Issues

The Women’s Sports Foundation has supported what it calls a “pathway to inclusion” for transgender athletes. ⁸ In December 2020, WSF joined Athlete Ally, a nonprofit LGBT sports organization, and the WNBA players’ union in organizing an amicus brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit signed by WSF founder Billie Jean King, former U.S. women’s national soccer team player Megan Rapinoe, former WNBA player Candace Parker, and approximately 200 other athletes, supporting natal males who identify as transgender females seeking to participate in girls’ sports at the interscholastic level. ³

In 2022, WSF led a letter, co-signed by 25 organizations, opposing an NCAA policy that deferred sex-determination eligibility rules to individual sports’ governing bodies. WSF argued the change put transgender student-athletes’ participation at the mercy of policies outside the NCAA’s control. ⁴ The following year, WSF submitted formal comments on a Biden administration U.S. Department of Education proposed rule on Title IX and athletics. WSF argued that any eligibility restrictions “should be contingent on the level of competition and play” rather than applied the same way to everyone regardless of the situation and supported the idea that assignment should be based on the person’s gender identity, not natal sex. ⁸

In 2022, WSF and the Williams Institute, a think tank at UCLA Law that conducts research on sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy, launched a series of grants to encourage new research focused on transgender students’ participation and inclusion in sports and related topics. ⁹

People

Billie Jean King

Women’s Sports Foundation founder Billie Jean King was an American women’s tennis player active from 1968 through 1990. She is considered one of the greatest women’s tennis players in history, winning 39 Grand Slam titles across singles, doubles, and mixed doubles, including a record 20 Wimbledon championships.  ¹⁰

King used her fame as a player to campaign for gender parity in sports. She threatened a boycott of the 1973 U.S. Open over unequal prize money, helping make it the first major tournament to pay men and women equally. She testified before Congress in support of Title IX, the 1972 law banning sex discrimination in federally funded education and athletics.  ¹¹ In 1972 she played against Bobby Riggs in the nationally televised “Battle of the Sexes” exhibition match, which she won. She was previously married to television news host Larry King. ^{12  13}

Tuti Scott

Tuti Scott, founder of the consulting firm Changemaker Strategies, ¹⁴ spent 15 years on WSF’s senior leadership team, holding multiple roles as the organization grew from eight to 60 staff members. She worked for a year as interim co-CEO in 2007 and 2008. ^{15  16} She went on to found Changemaker Strategies, a consulting firm that has since advised organizations including Athlete Ally, Equal Rights Advocates, and the Jewish Women’s Funding Network on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); organization growth; leadership transitions; and fundraising strategy.  ^{17  18}