This is the ForbesWomen newsletter, which every Thursday brings news about the world’s top female entrepreneurs, leaders and investors straight to your inbox. Click here to get on the newsletter list!We begin this week* with baseball. On Saturday, August 1, something happened in Illinois that has not happened in more than 70 years: Women took to the baseball diamond in a professional capacity, kicking off the official opening of the Women’s Professional Baseball League.As Forbes SportsMoney contributor Dan Freedman reports here, Maybelle Blair, one of the oldest living players from the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (from A League of Their Own fame), and an honorary chair of the WPBL, threw out the first pitch. On the field, the Los Angeles Queens battled back from an early 7-2 deficit to outlast the New York Heights 10-8. Maggie Foxx picked up the league’s first hit on a two-run single for Los Angeles in the first inning, and Denae Benites recorded the WPBL’s first home run, a line shot over Mo’ne Davis’ head in centerfield in the fourth inning. (Yes, that Mo’ne Davis!)“We’re fighting this myth that baseball is for men and softball is for women,” WBPL cofounder and commissioner Justine Siegal said during a recent media day. “It is a great time to ride the wave of women’s pro sports like soccer and ice hockey and basketball with the WNBA, and start what we deserve."Cheers to that!Maggie McGrathP.S.: *I’ll be honest, the actual story of the week feels like it was and remains Ariana Grande. I debated writing about her, the commentary around her body, and the capitalistic machine that Grande both operates in and contributes to. But I’m finding the subject emotionally difficult, and Monica Hesse at the Washington Post articulated the intricacies and sensitivities of this story much better than I ever could. Read that link if you’re in search of a fair and thoughtful analysis about it all. Exclusive Forbes List: Meet America’s Best Employers For Women 2026Navy Federal Credit UnionThe ninth-annual Forbes ranking of America’s Best Employers For Women is out now. Created in partnership with market research firm Statista, this list is based primarily on survey responses from more than 146,000 women working for companies that employ at least 1,000 people in the United States. Survey respondents were asked how likely they were to recommend their current—and previous—employers, and if they’d recommend any employers they knew through their industry or through family and friends who work there. Leading the list this year was Pacific Gas and Electric, followed by Johnson & Johnson in the No. 2 spot for the second straight year, Google at No. 3, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota at No. 4, and Navy Federal Credit Union rounding out the top five.ICYMI: Stories From The WeekSpeaking of women in sports, we know from recent Netflix earnings that the streamer secured rights to the 2027 and 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Now, new reporting indicates that the price tag for those 2027 rights alone was a cool $200 million.Danielle and Leah Cohen-Shohet, co-founders and twin sisters behind Genius AI, have just raised $44 million in Series D funding, boosting them to unicorn status. The pair recently spoke to Forbes contributor Alyssa Jaffer about how they grew GlossGenius, a salon booking and payments platform, into Genius AI, a company now valued at $1.15 billion.It’s one thing to use AI in a job search; it’s another to have an AI agent listen in real time to a job interview and suggest answers for you. And according to new data from LeanIn.org, men are twice as likely as women to use AI in this (arguably rule-breaking) way. And if it’s not against the rules, argues Lean In founder Sheryl Sandberg, “women should be using every tool men use.” The future of work conversation keeps asking which jobs technology will eliminate—and IEEE’s July 2026 “Technology Megatrends 2030” report predicts that human-AI interaction will reach broad commercial adoption faster than any of the other 30 technologies it examined. But a separate report from Moms First, developed with analytical support from McKinsey & Company, emphasizes that for millions of mothers doing essential work, the more existentially profound question is whether the absence of child care will eliminate their ability to keep working. Acting attorney general Todd Blanche has committed to stopping the shipment of abortion medication mifepristone through the mail. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) sent Blanche a letter in July referring the nonprofit Plan C and manufacturer Danco Laboratories for criminal investigation. Yet last week, a federal judge in Virginia upheld the safety of the abortion medication mifepristone and ordered the Trump administration to reconsider restrictions on the drug.The Checklist1. Figure out what business you’re REALLY in. Too many companies define themselves by the products they sell. When they do, growth becomes an endless search for the next feature, the next acquisition, or the next market. Products evolve, but the business you’re really in should not, says ForbesWomen contributor Shelley Zalis.2. Understand the grief that comes with losing a job identity. Research has connected job loss with anxiety, depression, lower life satisfaction, and the loss of social structure. Money is part of the fear, but it rarely explains the whole reaction. Work also tells you where to be, who expects something from you, and how you know whether you had a productive day. 3. Learn the signs of a career slump. Nearly one in four mid-career professionals experiences a career stall, according to research from NYU. A mid-career stall can take two forms: limited chances for promotion or work that no longer offers enough variety or career development. It can be hard to identify when a temporary slowdown has turned into a longer-term career problem, but these are the questions to ask yourself to find the answer.Liked what you read? Click here to get on the newsletter list!