WNBA Playoffs Begin, Gender-Neutral Clothing Debate, Princess Mako…

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Valentina (@valzarya) here. Venus Williams heads to the U.S. Open quarterfinals, astronaut Peggy Whitson is back on earth, and HR managers have clashing perceptions of corporate culture—mostly informed by their own genders. Enjoy your Tuesday.

EVERYONE'S TALKING

• Women who ball. With the season of beach days and white pants at an end, it's time to look ahead to fall. And for many in the U.S. That means sweater weather, back-to-school, and...sports. So little wonder that we're awash in sports news this morning, including a wealth of stories about female athletes and teams. Here are the highlights:

Tennis

The big news from the U.S. Open is that Maria Sharapova—who made a triumphant comeback after a nine-month hiatus from playing—was eliminated from the tournament Saturday. With Serena Williams taking a break to be with her newborn daughter, her sister Venus is the only past U.S. Open champion in the women's field. She plays in the quarterfinals tonight. CBS

Basketball

WNBA playoffs start tomorrow, with the Minnesota Lynx and the Los Angeles Sparks being the two top-seeded teams. They played each other in the finals last season. (The Sparks ultimately took home the championship.) Here's how to watch: SB Nation

Softball

The New York Times has a quirky story on the Peaches, a reincarnation of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League of the 1940s and ’50s. (You might recognize the name from the 1992 film A League of Their Own.) The Peaches were reborn about seven years ago as part of the WWII Girls Baseball Living History League. New York Times

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

• Clothes for kids. John Lewis has removed labels reading “boys” or “girls” on clothing from its in-house brand, replacing them with tags that read “boys and girls” or “girls and boys.” Like Target, the British retailer will no longer have separate gendered sections in the store for children. Coins2Day

• Women supporting women. A new study finds that women tend to view Republican female lawmakers as being more competent, having more integrity, and representing them better than male Republicans. Interestingly, the researchers also discovered that Democratic women don't get the same boost from their gender that the Republicans do. (Men don't view women or men of either party very differently.) NPR

• The royal treatment. In a new interview with Vanity Fair, actress Meghan Markle talks about her relationship with Britain's Prince Harry and the abuse she's endured from the tabloid press, particularly about her race and upbringing. "The people who are close to me anchor me in knowing who I am," she says. "The rest is noise." Vanity Fair

• A palpable perception gap. Male and female HR directors see the workplace very differently: While almost half of women who work in human resources think their workplaces are sexist, only a quarter of men in the same positions feel likewise. Guardian

• Where Mellody puts her money. Mellody Hobson, president of Chicago-based investment firm Ariel, talks to Bloomberg about her investment strategy. Hobson is on the board of directors at Estee Lauder and Starbucks, and has been credited with inspiring Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg to write Lean In. Bloomberg

• Sexism on wheels. Women cyclists are boycotting Britain's Cycling Weekly after the magazine's latest edition dismissed a female cyclist as a “token attractive woman” in a caption. In an apology, the magazine's editor blamed a lower-level employee for the “idiotic” caption. The Guardian

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

• Emailgate goes on. A federal judge ruled last week that the FBI must make public all documents related to the investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while in office. Meanwhile, former FBI director James Comey is being accused of planning to exonerate Clinton before the agency had completed its investigation. Coins2Day

• Earth to Peggy. On Saturday, astronaut Peggy Whitson wrapped up a record-breaking space mission where she spent more than nine months aboard the International Space Station. Over the course of her career, she has been away from earth longer than any American and any woman worldwide. NPR

• Founder alma maters. Which school produces the most female founders? The answer remains unchanged from last year: Stanford. Rounding out the top five undergraduate programs—ranked by number of women entrepreneurs with VC-funded companies—are Harvard, Berkeley, UPenn, and Cornell. Coins2Day

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