"There was a time when the women's game was a lot more interesting than the guys', and we never asked for more," she continued. "I don't think Novak is seeing the big picture here. You need to send that signal to the world that women and men are equal and you have to back it up with the prize money. It's not about quantity, quality - it's about the drama and that we're all in this together, and the guys just need to get over it."

"I do realise there is a lot of mixed reactions as to why Nike decided to create such a product now,” Haddad wrote in a Facebook post about the launch of the product. "It is a recent phenomenon where more women have expressed a need for it and more professional athletes have fought for rights to compete with a headscarf, and have an equal playing field. We made it big in the news, we couldn't be ignored. I support Muslim women with or without hijab, and how they dress is their choice. And with the Nike sports Hijab, it surely will encourage a new generation of athletes to pursue sports professionally.”

From the historic Women’s March to feminism being celebrated as Merriam-Webster’s word of the year, women spoke out loudly in 2017. Athletes like the WNBA’s Breanna Stewart and two-time Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman bravely shared their #MeToo stories, and once again the sports world drew an even greater appreciation for powerful female athletes.

Saudi Arabia and Iran are on opposite sides in many ways — in their divergent branches of Islam, the wars in Syria and Yemen, Lebanese politics and relations with the United States, for example. They have clashed over oil production, religious pilgrimages and who is a terrorist. But both countries are responding to domestic and international pressure over women’s rights.

Becky Hammon was only the beginning. Over the past few years, women have slowly moved into positions of power within NBA front offices. There's still a ways to go, but for the female decision-makers already in place, the possibility that they could run a franchise themselves isn't just a theory anymore.

As part of this year's 100 Women Challenge, female athletes, campaigners and designers were tasked with coming up with finding ways to tackle sexism in sport. One of the things they found out is that girls and young women are more likely to be put off sport, compared to their male peers. For most of their adult lives, none of these older women took part in sport. But they've proved that it's never too late to get back on track.

"You could really tell that she played the game and is so curious about basketball," Nets forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson says. But there was more behind the respect she earned among Hollis-Jefferson and his teammates. "Something that always stood out with Sarah was just, kind of like, she has this natural energy," he adds. "She just cares about people—you can tell."

"In Morocco, 79 percent of boys in urban areas attend school compared to 26 percent of girls in rural areas. In some areas, up to 83 percent of women are married before the age of 18. "Girls weren't getting a chance at a future," she says. "Girls are extremely vulnerable to a cycle where they drop out of school, marry early, and become a young mother." In 2013, Montague and her husband, Chris Redecke, set up Project Soar with the hopes of breaking that cycle by keeping girls in school and providing them with options for their futures. Sports were a core component of the program. "My philosophy with my own two kids was that if they did sports they'd be fearless," says Montague."

“We work hard to maintain a respectful and inclusive culture at ESPN,” spokeswoman Katina Arnold said in a statement. “It is always a work in progress, but we’re proud of the significant progress we’ve made in developing and placing women in key roles at the company in the boardroom, in leadership positions throughout ESPN and on air.”

The responsibility she feels as a highly visible woman in the sport is partially why Shofner took a lead in organizing the boycott of participating in or watching AUDL games, which became public this week. The boycott has already prompted the AUDL to outline what it calls a "gender equity plan," which would promote a handful of separate women's games over the year. But Shofner, Chastain and the others don't want separate games -- they want equal promotion of women's sports. That's why they pushed USA Ultimate to change its deal with ESPN so that both women's and men's games during the national championships are televised and the prime-time spots get rotated. And it's why Shofner doesn't plan on being quiet any time soon, even if it makes things tough sometimes.