Dear John,

On Thursday, tennis star Naomi Osaka lit the cauldron at the Olympics Opening Ceremony, kickstarting a centuries’ old tradition. While women were not included in the inaugural games in 1896, 22 female athletes competed in five sports—tennis, sailing, croquet, equestrianism, and golf—four years later. Back then, women made up just 2 percent of competitors. Today, 40 percent of all athletes are women, but shamefully, women earn less than their male counterparts—on and off the field—and are still fighting for equal pay.

In some countries, women must still fight for the ability to even participate in sports. Take our story about the status of women in sports in Iran, where discrimination against female athletes is longstanding. This past February, Samira Zargari, head coach of Iran’s women’s ski team, was barred from leaving the country to accompany her team to alpine ski championships in Italy. The reason? She did not have her husband’s permission to travel. Protesting the treatment of women athletes, Iran’s only female Olympic medalist defected last year and plans to compete in this year’s Olympics under a white flag.

In an effort to secure equal pay for women athletes on Team USA, just days before the start of the Tokyo Olympics, Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Shelly Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) reintroduced the Equal Pay for Team USA Act, which requires equal pay for all athletes representing the U.S. in international sporting competitions, as well as the same benefits, travel budgets and medical care. 

“This is an issue we can address together—not as Democrats and Republicans, but as Americans,” Capito said. We’ll see. This effort will be just one of the aspects of sports Ms. will be keeping an eye on, as we all tune in to watch our favorite Olympic sport or athlete.

We’re also keeping a close eye on the upcoming Supreme Court docket. Sometime in the new term that starts this October, the Court will hear a challenge to the Mississippi law banning almost all abortions after 15 weeks. The state of Mississippi has asked the Court to rule on “whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional.” Translation: “Mississippi is asking the court to overturn Roe v. Wade.”

In their new book, leading legal authorities on reproductive rights Kathryn Kolbert and Julie Kay offer ideas for legal and policy initiatives to fight back in a world without Roe—ranging from “a constitutional gender equity amendment” to “strategies for persuading hesitant state legislators to vote against anti-abortion bills.” You can read more in our review of "Controlling Women: What We Must do Now to Save Reproductive Freedom." Ms. will keep bringing you the expert perspectives on this critical case and ideas for what can be done to fight back. 

And finally, we report that late this week, new information has surfaced about the FBI’s investigation into the sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh, who now sits as a justice on the Supreme Court. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, (D. RI) has called the investigation a “sham” and not “conducted in good faith.”

Women’s rights groups, led by the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) are calling for an independent investigation by a special counsel into the sexual assault allegations by and the veracity of Justice Kavanaugh’s responses. “We must remember that there is no deadline on justice,” said NWLC's Fatima Gross Graves

Never a dull moment! Go Team USA!

For equality,

Kathy Spillar
Executive Editor