IN CONVERSATION: BILLIE JEAN KING AND TORY BURCH

Tennis legend BILLIE JEAN KING and designer and philanthropist TORY BURCH on CHANGING THE GAME for WOMEN-in SPORTS, BUSINESS, and LIFE

- Ariana Marsh

Since their respective entrées into fashion and sports, designer Tory Burch and tennis star Billie Jean King have used their platforms and influence to fight for women's equality.

Burch, who serves as the executive chairman and chief creative officer of her eponymous brand, launched the Tory Burch Foundation in 2009. "I've focused on the concept of building a business where purpose is a given," she says. "That was unheard of 19 years ago, when I started my company; people did not believe in that." Along with supporting female entrepreneurs by providing access to capital, financial education, and digital resources, the foundation hosts an annual summit where leaders across a range of fields engage in a full day of conversations tackling the most pressing issues facing women. Last year, King joined Burch onstage for a discussion about her trailblazing tennis career and how she helped pave the way forward for the female athletes who followed.

It has been 50 years since King beat 55-year-old retired Wimbledon champion Bobby Riggs in what was promoted as the Battle of the Sexes. (Riggs challenged King, then 29, to the match to attempt to prove the inferiority of the female game.) But to remember her accomplishments within the context of a man's (failed) agenda diminishes the full scope of her achievements. In 1970, King, along with eight other female players, broke away from the United States Lawn Tennis Association (now the United States Tennis Association) to start their own women-only tour with prize money that would reward players more equitably. Launched as the Virginia Slims Circuit, it grew into the Women's Tennis Association in just three years. That same year, King also founded the Women's Sports Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing the lives of women and girls through sports, and she has since continued to tirelessly campaign for gender parity and LGBTQ+ rights.