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The Women of the WNBA Just Scored a Historic Victory In the Fight for Equal Pay


This summer was huge for the fight for equal pay—thanks largely to the very high-profile crusade of the US Women’s Soccer Team leading up to and following their World Cup victory. But the battle for equal pay and playing conditions isn’t just happening in soccer. It’s sweeping the world of sports—and the women of the WNBA just won big.

For over a year, the players have been fighting for fair pay and play—bigger paychecks and better benefits—and today, thanks to a new eight-year collective bargaining agreement, they’re about to see it starting with the 2020 season. “The 2020 CBA features significant investments by the league and its teams aimed directly at increasing player salary and compensation, improvements to the overall player experience, resources specifically designed with the professional female athlete in mind, as well as a commitment to implement an integrated marketing plan league-wide,” the league said in a press release.

First, there’s the straight-up salary situation. There will be 53% increase in total cash compensation, which is made up of base salary, performance bonuses, prize pools for new in-season competitions, and league and team marketing deals. Under the new agreements, the top players will be able to earn over $500,000, which is triple the number of the previous deal. Other players will have the chance to earn between $200,000 and $300,000.

This is historic. As the release notes, the women of the WNBA will average a six-figure salary for the first time in league history.

But this isn’t just about the money, though that is obviously important. The CBA also guarantees a better player experience when it comes to travel, guaranteeing an individual hotel room for each player and an upgraded class of plane travel. It’s an issue that’s plagued women across sports as male athletes get the first class treatment and female athletes are on the ultra-budget plan. (Can you imagine asking Steph Curry or LeBron James to bunk up with someone on the road or cram into a coach seat on the way to a game? No, you cannot and these elite athletes should not be forced to do so either.)

The WNBA will also institute new maternity and child care policies. For example, players will receive their full salaries while on maternity leave, a new annual childcare stipend of $5,000, safe and private spaces for nursing mothers, and an up to $60,000 reimbursement for veteran players to offset the costs of adoption, surrogacy, egg freezing or fertility/infertility treatment. Players will also have access to enhanced mental health benefits, education and counseling related to domestic/intimate partner violence, and career development support that could include off-season job opportunities with league partners.

These changes still don’t amount to equality, but they’re a huge an important step—one that could be a model for female athletes across sports. In negotiations between the players and the WNBA, “we found common ground in areas that confirmed the league’s and the players’ intentions to not only make meaningful improvements in working conditions and overall professional experience, but also to improve the business with strategic planning and intentional marketing that will keep the WNBA front and center year-round,” said Nneka Ogwumike, president of the WNBA Players’ Association.

Let this be a sign for more progress for all women in the workplace in 2020.



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Chandra Wilson on Directing a Historic ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Episode


On Thursday, February 28, Grey’s Anatomy will air its 332nd episode, officially making it the longest-running medical drama in TV history. It’s hard to imagine a world without this show, especially now that it’s in its fifteenth season. After all, four of its current characters—Meredith Grey, Miranda Bailey, Richard Weber, and Alex Karev—have been with us since the very beginning. You’ve probably know them longer than some of your friends.

It’s truly fitting, then, that one of those four—Chandra Wilson (Dr. Miranda Bailey)—is directing this historic episode. She describes the process of preparing for this week’s show as “exciting and scary,” given its significance. “It’s the silly pressure you put on yourself,” she tells Glamour. “But this was my twentieth episode of Grey’s that I’ve directed, so I must be doing OK.”

So what can viewers expect? “I had all of my ideas about things that I thought [were] important and that the audience might want to see and what would be a treat. But then my writers and my producers had another idea for what they thought it was about,” she says. “And we came up with something that I think, for the audience, is gonna say, ‘Guess what guys? We continue. There’s more to come. Nothing is over. Nothing is ended.'”

Wilson says longtime fans of the show should keep their eyes peeled for special details that may or may not call back to Grey’s history. “I know it was important to me to plant some [Easter eggs] because I think those things are so much fun for fans,” she says. I personally have my fingers crossed for a classic Bailey monologue, though my ultimate dream would be a Cristina Yang appearance, which probably won’t happen. Maybe Bailey will just say her name—that should tide us over until Killing Eve season two premieres in April.

One of the greatest things about a show’s staying on the air as long as Grey’s in the era of streaming is it has created a whole new generation of fans. “I had a young girl [around 20 years old] tell me, ‘My roommates and I watch [together].’ And that’s what happened at the beginning of our show: People would talk to us about getting together with their roommates or getting together with their family,” Wilson says. “And it’s a show that people don’t watch by themselves. They usually pull somebody else in with them. And I think that’s definitely what gives us our longevity.”

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She continues, “We’re like a group effort. We’re an ensemble show, and people watch it as an ensemble and they are so invested in what happens to these characters. So whether it’s the OGs or whether it’s our new characters that come in, even if they don’t want to like somebody, they still stick around and say, ‘OK, but you know? Let me see. Let me see.'”

So does an OG like Wilson have a favorite Grey’s Anatomy moment? She loves the episodes in season six when a shooter is roaming the hospital and Dr. Bailey is trapped in a room with a patient (played by Mandy Moore). Her number-one favorite, though, is the pilot. “That’s the one that really established what this show was going to be, who these characters were,” she says. “And if I ever get confused about how I think Bailey should respond to something, I always think about that pilot and who she thought she was in the pilot—because that’s who she still thinks she is.”

Tune into Wilson’s episode of Grey’s tonight at 8:00 P.M. ET on ABC.



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Serena Williams Calls Roger Federer the 'Greatest of All Time' After Historic Tennis Match


Tennis champions Serena Williams and Roger Federer faced off for the first time during a historic doubles match at the Hopman Cup in Australia on Tuesday. Even though Federer emerged the victor from the New Year’s Day match, Williams’ graceful reaction proved exactly why she’s still the GOAT.

The 23-time Grand Slam title holder was all smiles after she and her partner Francis Tiafoe played Federer and his teammate Belinda Bencic. In moments after the match and in a subsequent interview with the two players, it’s clear the tennis greats are friendly: Williams praised Federer and shared how excited she was to get the chance to compete against him.

PHOTO: GREG WOOD/AFP/Getty Images

“It was a great experience. I’m kind of sad it’s over—you know, I was just warming up,” she joked. “We grew up together, really, and having an opportunity, after all these years, we’ve actually never done this, and so this was super cool that we got to do this at such a pinnacle point in both our careers. For me, it was super cool. I literally wanted to take pictures and bring my baby out. I was way too excited.”

2019 Hopman Cup - Day 4

PHOTO: Will Russell/Getty Image

“The guy is great, he’s the greatest of all time to be honest. Both on the court and off the court. He has such charisma and is a wonderful player,” she continued.

Federer had a lot to say about Williams as well: “I was nervous returning because you just don’t know. People talk about her serve so much, and I see why it’s such a wonderful serve because you just can’t read it,” he said before Williams’ cut in with, “I can’t read yours either!”

“We have the same qualities,” Federer offered with a laugh.

2019 Hopman Cup - Day 4

PHOTO: Paul Kane/Getty Images

Williams spent a lot of her 2018 making huge strides for women athletes by speaking about sexism, sharing candid stories about motherhood, and even—successfully—challenging the rules of fashion in tennis. It’s great to see she’s starting her 2019 in true sportsmanlike style.

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Midterms 2018: Here Are the Historic Firsts for Women From Election Night


The 2018 midterm elections are finally coming to a close after months of heated political debate and highly contested races. Women, who broke records with their primary wins over the summer, were front and center Tuesday night as Democrats captured control of the House in a dramatic midterm election cycle that gave America its say, not only about the candidates on the ballot, but President Donald Trump as well.

Here’s a snapshot: Not only do we now have the youngest person elected to Congress in Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (a first-time candidate who knocked out a 10-term congressman in a June), we are also seeing the first Native American and Muslim women take seats in Congress. And in Massachusetts, Ayanna Pressley became the state’s first black congresswoman.

The good news? The list goes on. Take a look at all the big moments for women below.



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A Tale of Two Cities: A Snapshot of Washington D.C. On the Historic Kavanaugh-Ford Hearing Day


One city, two worlds. Or maybe even three.

In the nation’s rain-slicked capital, fans and foes of Brett Kavanaugh spent much of Thursday fixated on the Senate confirmation hearings that could help tip his chances of becoming the next Supreme Court justice.

Women in parts of D.C. proudly wore red, white, and blue “Confirm Kavanaugh” pins with the judge’s smiling face at the center.

But blocks away, women in black—and sometimes in tears—empathized and identified with Christine Blasey Ford, the college professor who came to Washington to testify that a blind-drunk Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a high-school party in the 80’s.

And elsewhere, America’s center of power kept doing business, perhaps too busy, uninterested, or preoccupied to drop everything and glue themselves to the television screens beaming out a stunning moment in U.S. history. It’s a divide, not necessarily caused by apathy, but in many cases because the financial pressures and time demands on working people are too urgent.

Glamour traveled to Washington to get a panoramic view of those parallel worlds and match them up with the clock—which is rushing toward a decision on Kavanaugh’s fate:

8:54 A.M. – Washington artist Susan Prolman stands outside Union Station with a poster she designed that depicts a statue of Lady Justice holding her sword and scales, framed by the words, “Grab Her By the Pussy.” Prolman says she made the sign because she is “opposed to Donald Trump, our sexual ‘predator-in-chief’s’ nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.”

9:11 A.M. – A pro-Kavanaugh rally organized by groups including Independent Women’s Forum and Concerned Women for America is well underway at a grassy park near the Russell Senate Office Building.

A mixed-gender crowd listens to speakers, gathering in support of the judge while sporting “I Stand With Brett” t-shirts and waving printed “Confirm Kavanaugh” signs. One bright yellow handmade placard demands: “Stop the Con Game.”

Patrice Onwuka, 36, a senior policy analyst for IWF, tells Glamour her group takes “allegations of sexual assault very seriously. No woman should be raped or molested or touched against her will. She should be able to get justice. She should be able to get closure. She should even be able to get heard.” However, Onwuka continues, “we also take seriously the idea of due process, and the bedrock principle in our criminal justice system of the presumption of innocence.”

10:05 A.M. – C-SPAN begins broadcasting from the Senate Judiciary Committee proceedings.

10:32 A.M. – Ford is prepared to begin her testimony.

“I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me while Brett Kavanaugh and I were in high school” – Dr. Ford

10:41 A.M. – Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) visits Ford supporters—many publicly identifying themselves as sexual assault survivors—who are gathered in the atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building. She pauses to tell Glamour that she considers the Republican rushing of the confirmation process to be disrespectful to assault survivors.

11:15 A.M. – Joy Gerhard, 34, is comforted by women around her as she weeps while Ford’s testimony continues. Inked on her left arm is a series of dates: Those numbers, she says, represent each time she was subjected to sexual violence, starting in childhood. Gerhard tells Glamour she felt compelled to come to D.C. from her home in Seattle, as painful as the hearings are for her.

“Ever since Anita Hill testified, we know what it looks like when a woman goes in front of this committee,” Gerhard says, brushing away tears. “The fact that Dr. Ford knew what she was getting herself into, and chose to do it anyway, I… She must have a spine of steel or something, but it didn’t seem right for her to do this by herself.”

11:20 A.M. – Ford testifies during questioning that the most vivid memory she has of her alleged assault is the laughter from Brett Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge.

“What is the strongest memory you have, the strongest memory of the incident…something you cannot forget?” asked Senator Patrick Leahy (D–Vt.). “Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter, the uproarious laughter between the two. And their having fun at my expense,” she replied.

12:43 P.M. – The city’s Metrobus system notifies commuters that “Due to downed wires at River Rd & Burdette Rd, buses may experience delays in both directions.”

2:00 P.M. – A major conference at American University features a workshop that encourages attendees to “share experiences from leading civil society organizations using different procedures to challenge unmerited patents and/or applications as a key strategy for improving access to affordable medicines.”

2:15 P.M. – Before her testimony ends, Ford says that if she knew when Mark Judge worked at a Potomac, Md. Safeway grocery store, she could pin down the date of her alleged assault. (Ford says she ran into Judge some weeks after that 1982 assault).

“It would be helpful … to figure out when he worked there, if people are wanting more details from me about when the attack occurred. If we could find out when he worked there, then I could provide a more detailed timeline as to when the attack occurred.”

2:28 P.M. – At Cafe Bliss on 2nd Street NE, business is quiet. The orderboard announces the day’s special as a bagel, croissant, or multigrain bread with a choice of toppings for $3.99. There’s no television on; a small speaker is booming Franz Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata, D. 821.

3:18 P.M. – Kavanaugh’s testimony has begun; he maintains his denial of the sexual assault allegations lodged against him.

“This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election,” he said. “Fear that has been unfairly stoked about my judicial record, revenge on behalf of the Clintons and millions of dollars in money from outside left-wing opposition groups.”

“I’ve never sexually assaulted anyone. Not in high school, not in college, not ever. Sexual assault is horrific.”

4:00 P.M. – Not far from the Hart building, The Veterans of Foreign Wars holds a ceremony to receive one of the U.S. flags that draped the cases of the remains of American servicemembers repatriated from North Korea.

4:50 P.M. – Kavanaugh questioning continues. In a display of anger, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), accuses committee Dems of trying to “destroy this guy’s life.”

“What you want to do is destroy this guy’s life, hold this seat open and hope you win in 2020.”

“This is not a job interview. This is hell.” – Sen. Graham

He continued: “Boy, you all want power, God, I hope you never get it,” he said. “I hope the American people can see through this sham. That you knew about it and you held it.”

The White house rushes to defend Graham.

5:38 P.M. – Rush hour traffic builds up and the District is growing darker and rainier. At a pub not far from where Kavanaugh continues to face the senators, patrons’ attention is split between reading the subtitles on coverage of the hearings, checking out the latest on Tiger Woods on ESPN, a live sports radio broadcast at the back of the room, and happy-hour chatter.

6:23 P.M. – Rachel Kinsey, 36, took a break from the accounting firm she runs and came to Washington from Woodstock, Georgia to support Ford: “She was calm, cool, and collected [and] answered questions directly,” Kinsey says of Ford, while not giving Kavanaugh that positive a review.

6:48 P.M. – The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing adjourns. Their vote on recommending Kavanaugh to the full Senate for confirmation is scheduled for Friday.

Celeste Katz is senior politics reporter for Glamour. Send news tips, questions, and comments to celeste_katz@condenast.com.





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Tuesday's Primaries Lead to Historic Number of Women Nominees for Governor and Congress


Bust out those record books again: As of this week, more women have now won nominations for the House of Representatives than any other time in U.S. history. There’s also a new record for female governor nominees in a single year, and a progressive lawyer from Michigan could become the first Palestinian-American woman in Congress. (The previous record for women nominated for Congress was 167, according to the Center for American Women and Politics.)

Going into Tuesday’s flurry of midterm primaries, 162 women had already been nominated this election year. By the time the polls closed in Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Washington, and Ohio, the new record had jumped to 183, according to CAWP data.

On top of that, Democratic primary voters in both Kansas and Michigan chose a woman to go up against male Republicans for November’s governor battle. That brought the national total for the year to 11, CAWP said—beating the previous record of 10 female nominees back in 1994.

And then there’s the story of Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American lawyer and former state legislator set to take a seat long occupied by Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, who was accused of sexual harassment by a former staffer last November.

Glamour is keeping tabs on women’s progress throughout this wild midterm cycle. Here’s your rundown of Tuesday’s most exciting races:

MICHIGAN

In one of the biggest victories of the night, Tlaib fought her way through a crowded Democratic primary for the nomination to succeed former Rep. Conyers.

Tlaib, who calls herself a “mama working for justice, social worker at heart, Detroiter, Palestinian American, proud Muslima,” will run unopposed in November for the House seat Conyers first won in 1964.

After a career during which he helped impeach Nixon and employed Rosa Parks, the 89-year-old Conyers “stepped down in December citing health reasons,” the Associated Press noted, “though several former female staffers had accused him of sexual harassment.”

It’s then maybe a bit karmic that he’ll likely be succeeded by someone who once got arrested at a 2016 event in Detroit which she’s said featured women bombarding then-candidate for President Donald Trump with questions about harassment. While some criticized her arrest as “unbecoming” of an ex-lawmaker, Tlaib later said in a newspaper op-ed, “I believe it is unbecoming of any American to not stand up to Trump’s hate-filled rhetoric and tactics.”

Tlaib, the eldest of 14 kids, defeated five other candidates in the Detroit-area primary—including a great-nephew of Conyers.

Tuesday’s primary also proved Democrats in the Wolverine State also want their next governor to be a woman lawyer, former prosecutor Gretchen Whitmer.

To win the Democratic nomination and the chance to go up against Republican state Attorney General Bill Schuette, Whitmer had to defeat Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. A onetime head of the Detroit Health Department, El-Sayed campaigned with newly minted Democratic socialist superstar Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in his bid to become the nation’s first Muslim-American governor.

As a former state Senate minority leader, Whitmer notes on her website, she publicly told fellow lawmakers of “surviving sexual assault to speak out for all the women they silenced by refusing to hold a single public hearing” — a level of candor widely seen among female contenders in the 2018 election cycle.

Schuette has the backing of Trump in an election that’s testing his campaign-season influence—and could cost his Republican Party control of Congress. So does John James, a businessman and Iraq War veteran who’s now the GOP nominee to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow, the only Michigan woman ever to hold the office.

KANSAS:

Laura Kelly, a longtime state Senator, ran away with the Democratic nomination for governor in a primary against four male candidates. She had the support of Kathleen Sebelius, the only living former female governor of the Sunflower State and the onetime head of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department.

Kansas is still trying to decide on Kelly’s Republican opponent for November.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Kelly’s Republican opponent would be current Gov. Jim Colyer or Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a Trump ally known as a hard-liner on immigration and voter fraud. The Colyer-Kobach primary remained too close to call Wednesday.

The morning after the vote, Sharice Davids, a lawyer and former MMA fighter, won in her bid for the Democratic nomination in House District 3, per a Wednesday AP race call. If she goes all the way, notes the Kansas City Star, she’d be “the first LGBT person to represent the state of Kansas” in Congress.

Davids tweeted that she looked forward to working with her fellow Democrats “to change the face” of Kansas politics.

MISSOURI:

Not every woman in potentially history-making contests got to throw a victory party.

Democrat Cori Bush fell Tuesday in her attempt to become the first woman of color to represent her state in Congress. Bush, a nurse and pastor, was another progressive who ran with the backing of Ocasio-Cortez. In the end, her liberal platform and track record, which included activism tied to police-related shootings in Ferguson, wasn’t enough to score a primary win over Democratic Rep. William Lacy Clay, whose family has controlled the Missouri District 1 seat since 1969.

Incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill cruised to a primary win, but she could face a tough November challenge from Republican Josh Hawley, the state attorney general—who once reportedly said sex trafficking had become a problem in the U.S. because the “sexual revolution has led to exploitation of women on a scale that we would never have imagined.” McCaskill’s last GOP challenger was then-Rep. Todd Akin, who notoriously blew up that 2012 campaign after claiming women’s bodies somehow prevent pregnancy in cases of “legitimate rape.”

This time, the Republicans may have more fodder to use against McCaskill, who earned herself the nickname “Air Claire” after she copped to using her private plane to fly around Missouri during what was supposed to be a down-home state tour by RV.

WASHINGTON:

According to the Gender Watch 2018 project, the Pacific Northwest brings America its twenty-third woman vs. woman contest for the House: Incumbent Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, head of the House Republican Conference, will go up against Democratic economist Lisa Brown, the former leader of the state Senate.

The state’s race for U.S. Senate will pit incumbent Democrat Maria Cantwell against Republican challenger Susan Hutchison, making it at least the third women-only showdown in the nation for the upper chamber.

Results were still coming in early Wednesday Eastern time, but from federal races on down, there was plenty of chatter about Washington being stirred by a blue wave.

OHIO:

In a historically critical state for presidential elections, the GOP’s Troy Balderson had a slight lead over Democrat Danny O’Connor as of early Wednesday.

Trump made a personal appearance for Balderson in what ended up a cliffhanger of a special election to replace retiring Republican Rep. Pat Tiberi. Plus, both parties dumped money into the race.

In a twist, Twitter dished out gallons of haterade to the Green Party after the vote, with Democrats questioning why liberal Greens couldn’t have joined them to stop Trump’s Ohio pick.

The takeaway: Tuesday’s votes mark a new series of milestones in an election year that’s seen Georgia’s first black woman nominee for governor; Tennessee’s first female nominee for U.S. Senate in 40 years; and New Mexico setting the stage to send a Native American woman to Congress for the first time, among other strides.

It’s not over until November, of course.

To actually become office-holding “firsts,” women candidates have to last. Many face tough races, and their numbers may be whittled down by both general-election losses to men and to other women.

The next big round of multi-state primaries is August 14, with voters hitting the polls in Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

Stay tuned!

Celeste Katz is Glamour’s senior politics reporter. Send news tips, questions, and comments to celeste_katz@condenast.com.

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