Tennis's Battle of the Sexes.

The mantra of the 1970’s in the United States was “equality for women.” As the movement for women’s rights experienced a resurgence, the U.S. Congress passed Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, requiring that schools provide girls and women with athletic opportunities equal to those provided to boys and men. The Equal Rights Amendment awaited ratification by the states, and the U.S. Supreme Court established a woman’s right to abortion in the case of Roe v. Wade (1973). Along with these developments, on September 20, 1973, in a nationally televised event dubbed the “Battle of the Sexes,” one of the world’s top-ranked female tennis players, Billie Jean King, defeated Bobby Riggs, a fifty-five-year-old male tennis hustler, in an unforgettable tennis match. This event rocked the tennis world and contributed to the movement toward equality between women and men in all aspects of American society.