The WTA announced sweeping new parental protections on Thursday, with over 300 players becoming eligible to receive paid parental leave for the first time in the pro tennis organization’s history.
Despite their year-round schedule, WTA players are technically independent contractors, a status that previously limited their access to benefits.
Players can now apply for up to 12 months of leave for carrying a child, while athletes who become parents through surrogacy, adoption, or partner pregnancy are eligible for a two-month leave.
The program also allots grants to support fertility treatments, including egg freezing and IVF.
All athletes who have competed in at least eight WTA tournaments, including four at a minimum 250 level, over the last 12 months are eligible to receive benefits. As an alternative, players contesting at least 24 WTA events over the last 36 months, including 12 at the 250 level, will also be eligible.
Under those requirements, the WTA calculates that 320 current athletes now qualify for paid parental leave.
Details surrounding the benefit amount were not disclosed. But the program will be retroactive to January 1st.
"We’ve seen players making decisions about maybe ending their careers a little sooner than they would have liked because they want to explore family life, or coming back onto the tour and competing maybe sooner than they’re ready," WTA CEO Portia Archer told reporters at the BNP Paribas Open on Monday. "And so we think that this will minimize some of that stress and make those kinds of decisions easier."
"That can be transformational for some players, particularly those earning less than the top players in the world, where these kinds of benefits and support may be more impactful. So we really do hope that it changes lives."
WTA parental leave program sponsored by Saudi Arabia
The new WTA program offering parental protections is being backed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of 2024 WTA Finals host Saudi Arabia. The WTA entered into a multi-year partnership with the kingdom last May.
While the country’s recent investments in women’s sports grab headlines, many identify the moves as "sportswashing," or using sports investments to draw public attention away from other unethical practices.
Numerous prominent athletes have criticized Saudi Arabia's human rights record, particularly when it comes to practices involving women as well as the LGBTQIA+ community.
Practices such as a law requiring women to have permission from a male relative in order to marry have the country ranked 126th out of 146 nations in the 2024 Global Gender Gap Report.
When pressed on the issue, Archer simply said, "Questions about Saudi society are really not questions for me or the WTA. They’re questions for the Saudis to answer."
More than 125 women's soccer pros signed an open letter to FIFA earlier this week urging the international governing body to end its recently announced four-year sponsorship deal with state-owned Saudi oil and gas company Aramco, calling it "a middle finger to women's football."
Prominent signees include Dutch striker Vivianne Miedema, Canada captain Jessie Fleming, and USWNT legend Becky Sauerbrunn. The players' letter cites Saudi Arabia's concerning human rights record, particularly when it comes to women and the LGBTQ+ community. It also called out the impact of oil and gas production on climate change as reasons to cut ties.
For her part, Sauerbrunn specifically named individuals imprisoned by the government.
"We’re standing alongside women like Manahel al-Otaibi and Salma al-Shehab who the Saudi regime has imprisoned simply for peaceful expression of equal rights," she stated.
"The safety of those women, the rights of women, LGBTQ+ rights, and the health of the planet need to take a much bigger priority over FIFA making more money," she continued.
FIFA's deepening Saudi ties concern women's soccer athletes
The partnership with Aramco is simply the latest in Saudi Arabia's investment into FIFA and the sports world in general. The kingdom, which has often been criticized for its widespread sportswashing practices, is imminently expected to be named the men's 2034 World Cup host.
FIFA responded to the players' letter on Monday, calling itself "an inclusive organization." The governing body leaned into the fact that the revenue from its partnerships are reinvested in growing women's soccer.
That reinvestment isn't enough to justify the ethical concerns, according to Miedema. "This is what we don’t want to stand for and accept within women’s football," the Manchester City star added.
"It’s simple: This sponsorship is contradicting FIFA’s own commitments to human rights and the planet."