Serena calls attention to financial abuse

Data doesn't lie, and sometimes it's sobering. As Serena Williams shared recently, one in four women will suffer domestic abuse, and 99 percent of that involves a kind of financial abuse.

She was surprised by that statistic, she said recently, and wondered at what millions of others might not know about the topic.

"I feel like I was given so much," she said, "and if you take away tennis — I was given two parents, I was given an amazing family, and not everyone gets that."

Williams made these statements as a spokesperson for the Allstate Foundation's Purple Purse initiative, a position that actress Kerry Washington held last year. As reported in Allstate's survey, respondents likened situations of domestic and financial abuse to issues such as terrorism, alcohol and drug use and poverty. It's a stark, even grave subject to tackle – and not everyone is inclined to do so, with research also showing that far too many (as in more than 0 percent) are disinclined to speak openly about these forms of abuse.

The Allstate Foundation seeks to help those affected by financial and/or domestic abuse by providing job training and more resources to come out from under such situations.

"One of the biggest ways is through education," Williams told Refinery29. "Yeah, it's uncomfortable, but so are so many things that we just deal with in life, and we get through it. It starts young: You tell young men how to treat women — and [the same thing] in same-sex marriages. It's really important to make people aware of how to treat people in general."

The doubles partnership between the Purple Purse project and Williams can only emerge victorious.

Follow Jon on Twitter @jonscott9.