The Nike Controversy: Company’s past shows unequal policies towards women athletes

“If we show emotion, we’re called dramatic… If we dream of equal opportunity, we’re delusional.” In 2019, tennis star Serena Williams narrated and led Nike’s “Dream Crazier” Campaign, a Nike sponsored movement to empower women in sports. However, while Nike conducts performative activism, they have failed to support female athletes who want to start a family.

While Nike promoted gender equality with their ad campaigns, they treated its male athletes differently than its female athletes. Numerous female track and field athletes have spoken out about their experiences with Nike before and after pregnancy. In track and field, men and women athletes can make up to hundreds of thousands of dollars from sponsorships. At Nike, men, such as Jon Slusher, decide the terms for most of its contracts for women. Although sponsors typically provide financial support to athletes during injuries, Nike’s contracts did not previously address pregnancy. In the United States, The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 states that a family is entitled to twelve weeks of unpaid leave per year under certain circumstances. At Nike, however, the company can void its sponsorship when athletes are not fit to perform. This provision hurts pregnant female athletes who can lose their contract and primary source of income.

“Getting pregnant is the kiss of death for a female athlete,” says Olympic runner and former Nike athlete Phoebe Wright. While a well-known athlete such as Serena Williams receives benefits from her contract while pregnant, an athlete such as Kara Goucher does not. Goucher, an Olympic long-distance runner, felt that she needed to train before and after pregnancy since Nike would not support her during maternity leave. She spent many hours training––instead of spending time with her newborn––fearing that she would be unable to provide for her new family. While pregnant, Goucher represented Nike in numerous events, but the company did not pay her the entire time.

Goucher was not the only athlete to fear losing her sponsorship. After having a baby in November 2018, track and field athlete Allyson Felix—a nine-time Olympic medalist—began competing again in July 2019. Nike did not guarantee a salary to Felix before, during, or after her pregnancy. Therefore, Felix left Nike for Athleta, which financially protects women during pregnancy.

In the 2014 U.S. championships, five-time national champion Alyssa Montaño became the “pregnant runner” when she ran the 800m while eight months pregnant. Although the public praised her for the display of strength, in private, Montaño struggled. After her pregnancy, Montaño took extreme measures to balance her life as an athlete and new mother. For instance, she often taped her abs together while competing, as her stomach had not fully healed from her pregnancy. During competitions in China, she sent breast-fed milk to her baby daughter in the U.S over five thousand miles away.

“The sports industry allows for men to have a full career. And when a woman decides to have a baby, it pushes women out at their prime,” Montaño said in a New York Times video from 2019. While Nike publicly promoted equality in its ad campaigns, hypocritically, it did not treat female athletes fairly when they wanted to form a family.

On August 12, 2019, Nike created a new maternity policy, giving athletes pay and an 18-month bonus while pregnant. In response to numerous female athletes publicly criticizing the company, Nike changed its contract guidelines. When strong women came together, people heard their voices. Women such as Goucher, Felix, and Montaño, created change in their athletic careers and for female athletes in the future.