Show Notes:

Host Cynthia Bemis Abrams recounts the heyday of Second Wave Feminism, when Billie Jean King, at that time a strong player on the women’s tennis circuit, accepted the challenge to play former men’s tennis star Bobby Riggs, in a nationally televised match. Cynthia explains the backstory of King negotiating the offer and the risk King took in the name of the feminist. With national hype about the symbolism of the match’s outcome, progress of Title IX, women’s rights and the campaign to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment hung in the balance.

Television spectacle, televised women’s sports, televised women’s tennis, Battle of the Sexes, Bobby Riggs, Billie Jean King, gender competition, mental preparation in sports, mental preparation in competition, Second Wave Feminism, Title IX gender equity, Equal Rights Amendment, equity for women, representation in TV sports, Chris Evert, Howard Cosell