Venus Williams Serves Feminists, Believes Women Have Unprecedented ‘Power and Opportunities’

Venus Williams rejected the feminist label and maintained that women have more “power and opportunities” now than ever before, in a recent interview.

Speaking with Elle U.K., Williams made clear that it would be a mistake to put a label on her, particularly a feminist label.

“I don’t like labels,” she told the magazine. “Though I do think as women we have much more power and opportunities in our hands than ever before. We truly don’t know how powerful we are. There’s nothing like a powerful woman walking into a room; her presence is like nothing else.”

Williams sees the sports world in particular, as a place where things have only gotten better for gender equality.

Williams says the conversation about equality was nonexistent when she first started her career: “The conversation [around equality] was never there.”

Now, she sees a landscape that has changed entirely.

“There’s been so much growth for women in sports,” she says. “It’s very exciting. You have to be able to stand up for what you believe in and I think I’ve done a good job. I guess I don’t have too many regrets.”

While Williams acknowledges that true equality may still be down the road, she rejects the negativity of those who would try to advance the cause of equality through harsh, personal destruction.

“There are always challenges that you have to overcome on a daily basis,” Williams says. “Unfortunately, people have the tendency to want to dominate one another, but fortunately, there are people who want to build other women up. It’s up to those people who want to build to hopefully eliminate all that negativity.”

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