When the average American career woman decides to start her family, she expects her employer to have some type of policy in place for maternity leave. What is common is that she will get a few months off with her newborn, letting her body heal and forming that incredible bond that all mothers describe as second-to-none. What she may not take into consideration, though, is that not all employers are given that same opportunity as new mothers.

We’ve seen recently a huge revolution in how female athletes have started to rise up and demand fairer contract terms from their sponsors and employers when they are faced with that same situation. Pregnancy is often treated as an injury, one that violates these terms, thus putting them in jeopardy of losing benefits. Two track and field powerhouses, Alysia Montaño and Allyson Felix, have published pieces with the New York Times to document their stories. Alysia recounts graphic details of pushing her body to its limits to stay at the peak of her game in order to meet Nike and the US Olympic Team’s contracted requirements.

I, like many, felt a strong sense of outrage that we are creating this dangerous culture around maternity leave and basic female healthcare rights. These atrocious contractual terms force female athletes to take incredibly unhealthy measures in order to ensure that they still have their jobs. Ask any other 9-to-5 career woman if she has to do this and her answer is probably a confident “hell no”. Why should this be any different for our female athletes?

So today’s #WCW goes out to these change makers. The ones who are striving to better the landscape for the young girls that come after them. Where young girls are already up against unhealthy portrayals of themselves in the media, sports should not be encouraging this as well.

For more on these women and their journeys, check out their published pieces below:

Alysia Montaño: Nike Told Me to Dream Crazy, Until I Wanted a Baby

Allyson Felix: My Own Nike Pregnancy Story