Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat takes on the job of president and CIO, Democratic lawmakers want to make U.S. legal code gender-neutral, and Fortune senior editor Claire Zillman shares a new interview with an investor bullish on women’s sports. Have a wonderful Wednesday!
– A good sport. It certainly seems like we’re living through a watershed moment for women’s sports. This year’s NCAA women’s basketball championship drew a record 9.9 million viewers, smashing the previous record of 5.7 million. The WNBA’s audience has grown nearly 70% from last year. And FIFA sold the broadcast rights to this year’s Women’s World Cup separately from the men’s for the first time.
Veteran investor Kara Nortman agrees. “We’ve been there for five-plus years, but now the data is showing up in more conventional ways on broadcast media and in stadiums and things of that nature,” Nortman told Fortune’s Leadership Next podcast. “So I do think the world is paying attention with each incremental data point that comes out, which is wonderful,” she says.
Nortman has witnessed much of the revolution firsthand. Her journey from tech investor—she’s the former managing partner at Upfront Ventures—to the world of women’s sports started at the Women’s World Cup Finals in 2015. “Sitting in those stands, I truly felt 12,” she said. Afterwards, she wanted more but was unable to find outlets for her fandom. “I couldn’t buy a jersey, watch content, meet up with these people again,” she said.
Monarch Collective co-founder, Kara Nortman.Courtesy of Monarch Collective Fast forward eight years and Nortman has helped establish spaces where fans of female sports can show their support. She cofounded Angel City FC, the Los Angeles-based women’s soccer team, and in March launched the Monarch Collective, a $100 million fund to invest in women’s sports, with Jasmine Robinson, a former partner at VC firm Causeway and ex-executive at the San Francisco 49ers.
Nortman says her business pitch for women’s sports focuses on a “virtuous cycle.” Once people are “showing up and caring about something,” she says, “they become these very active consumers of content, of merchandise.”
Plus, there’s the tremendous upside. “On the women’s side, we have less than a billion dollars in total global revenue, whereas on the men’s side, it’s half a trillion,” she says. “I actually think it is going to be the biggest value creation opportunity I see in my career and many see in their career.”
Another women’s sports milestone is currently underway: the USWNT is currently playing in their first Women’s World Cup since succeeding in their fight for equal pay. (The USWNT’s historic contract remains an outlier globally.) That victory has changed the tournament experience, Nortman says. “The last World Cup felt almost existential. It was the feeling of ‘Wow, we need to go all the way to really win this pay equity battle.’”
With the equal pay victory clinched, the U.S. soccer squad now can focus on what’s at stake this year: a potential three-peat, a feat no team—men’s or women’s—team has ever achieved.
You can listen to Nortman’s full interview on Apple and Spotify.
Claire Zillman
claire.zillman@fortune.com
@clairezillman
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- Thorny situation. Alison Rose has resigned as CEO of British bank NatWest amid a scandal over the bank's decision to close the account of Nigel Farage, the right-wing former leader of the U.K.'s Brexit party. Rose, a 30-year veteran of the bank, admitted to a "serious error of judgment" in talking to a BBC journalist about Farage's relationship with NatWest. Reuters
- Alphabet reshuffle. Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat will transition to the newly created role of "president and CIO of Alphabet and Google" in September, the company announced on Tuesday. Porat has been CFO of Alphabet since 2015; she will remain in the CFO role until the company names a successor. Fortune
- Neutral zone. Reps. Summer Lee (Pa.), Ayanna Presley (Mass.), and Robert Garcia (Calif.), all Democrats, are poised to introduce legislation that would strip the U.S. legal code of gendered words in favor of gender-neutral language. The representatives say that the proposed changes would make the legal code more inclusive and remind people of the influence gendered pronouns can have when it comes to laws and legislation. The 19th
- Golden girl. Katie Ledecky’s blowout victory Tuesday at the World Aquatic Championships earned the swimmer her 15th gold medal at the tournament, tying her with Michael Phelps for the most gold medals ever won at the event. Ledecky’s lead was so large Tuesday that by the time she finished she was the only swimmer on screen. Washington Post
MOVERS AND SHAKES: HR veteran Lisa Collins is Warner Bros. Discovery’s new vice president of diversity, equity, and inclusion in North America.
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- Alone at the top. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission and the most powerful woman in Europe, is facing internal exits as a potential reelection campaign looms. A number of high-ranking European Commission members have announced their intentions to leave the institution, with some suggesting her polarizing governing style is to blame. Politico
- Venice backtracks badly. Venice Film Festival’s new lineup features entries from some of the the entertainment industry’s biggest alleged abusers. Festival director Alberto Barbara was asked why he was platforming convicted sexual offender Roman Polanski and accused abusers Woody Allen and Luc Besson. His response: “I don’t understand why one cannot distinguish between the responsibilities of the man and those of the artist.” Hollywood Reporter
- Ready, set, race. Kelly Ayotte, former Republican senator of New Hampshire, is joining the race to be the state’s next governor following Gov. Chris Sununu's decision to not seek reelection. Ayotte was ousted from the Senate in 2016 after just one term and faces a tough road ahead if New Hampshire voters continue their years-long shift left. New York Times
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This female billionaire thinks the secret to women's wealth is poker Time
Women, Wall Street and unfinished business Bloomberg
The hunger fed by ‘Barbie’ and Taylor Swift New York Times
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"If you’re a woman at the forefront of something...people are going to downplay your success and say that you’re not doing it right...the best way to get that to stop is to keep being successful at what you’re doing"
—LSU gymnast and TikTok star Livvy Dunne on haters and success
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