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Sports and Gender Segregation

In 1911, a prominent magazine proclaimed that “the reputation of having been a valiant ‘cheer-leader’ is one of the most valuable things a boy can take away from college. As a title to promotion in professional or public life, it ranks hardly second to that of having been a quarter-back.”^[1] As the quotation implies, being a cheerleader in college set young men on the path to success once they graduated and moved on to the rest of their lives. Early cheerleaders were often also the captains of other sports teams, and were seen as heroic figures in the masculine world of sports and competition. Cheerleaders were hand-picked by committees of faculty, physical education departments, and student body groups. To be a cheerleader was to be a shining example of leadership and athleticism, an honor for college men. Cheerleaders were the ultimate model of masculinity—the kind of men all the other guys wanted to be.

Today 97 percent of all cheerleaders are women, and boys who cheer are hardly ever seen as manly.^[2] So what happened? Why did cheerleading experience a total gender reversal?