The Team: 1970's
By the ’70s, women wanted to obtain their independence and gain opportunities for jobs and education. Women were expected to still stay at home, but they wanted to have an even playing field with regards to the work and education lifestyle that men had. Through this decade, Trinity University still mingled both genders together on the squad, and the uniforms are still long sleeves with a to-the-knee skirt for the ladies. The uniforms for men were a long sleeve shirt with a long pants combination. In a Trinitonian publication, the student council called to have three females and one male added to the cheerleading squad. The team also needed to attend an official cheerleading camp in the summer to gain new skills for the upcoming semester. Pictures gathered from The Mirage in 1979, shows diversity throughout the team. Compared to the beginning of the ‘70s when there was a man to every woman, women began to outrank men. The outranking could be due to the demand for equality by women in this era or simply that there was a need for more women on the team and men just did not want to be a part of a womanly sport.
Title IX went into effect in 1972, protecting people from discrimination based on sex in education and activities. Cheerleading became known as a girl’s sport as many parents became upset that girls had less of an opportunity of joining a sport. Young men had many sports to choose from while women only had volleyball and women’s basketball. Due to the increase in participation of women in cheerleading, it had only seemed right to make the switch. By this time 95% of cheerleaders were female. This wave could be due to women feeling the need to be equal and wanting to participate in sports they could physically endure.