Photo © Darren Dwayne Frazier | Dreamstime.com
Remember the days when women were the rodeo queens, watching from the sidelines as men roped calves and rode bulls and broncs? Well, those stereotypes are riding off into the sunset as the female power in rodeo increases.
The most recent evidence came about when mega-event owner PBR (Professional Bull Riders) announced PWR (Premier Women’s Rodeo), a new wholly owned brand for women’s rodeo athletes.
The brand is a rebirth of the Women’s Rodeo Championships (WRC) and the Women’s Rodeo World Championship (WRWC), the richest women-only rodeo event in the world. The organization’s marquee event, the 2026 PWR Championship, will take place May 12-15, 2026 at the historic Cowtown Coliseum in Fort Worth, Texas.
Founded in 2020, the WRWC crowned world champions in Team Roping, Breakaway Roping, Barrel Racing and Goat Tying. Since inception, PWR and its predecessor have awarded more than $4.5 million to women athletes. PWR expects those payouts to continue.
But women have not been waiting around for someone to create events for them. In fact, they have been bucking tradition by moving to the rough stock events in rodeo long dominated by men: Bull riding and bronc busting.
In 2023, for example, Oregon teenager Naijah Knight became the first woman to compete at the top level of the PBR Tour.
“Since I was a little kid, three years old, I would tell my dad that this is what I’m gonna do,” she said. “I’m going to be a bull rider. I’m going to make it. As I got older, it was ‘I’m going to be in the PBR, I’m going to be the first girl.’”
But PWR isn’t the only rodeo in town with women’s events. Some women have followed their trail with the Elite Lady Bull Riders, created to give girls a chance to ride bulls and grow the brand of women's bull riding.
The organization offers two divisions, Novice and Pro. The novice division gives girls the chance to learn and grow in the sport while offering a competitive edge. A full schedule of events was offered in 2025, starting in June, while in March 2026, the organization hosts the Elite Lady Bull Riders Invitational.
The phenomenon of women in rough stock disciplines of rodeo has drawn the attention of the media, with a documentary, “Not Her First Rodeo,” debuting in May of this year.
Sports Illustrated notes, “Women have fought tooth and nail in the western industry specifically at professional rodeos. It took a long time for barrel racers to receive the same amount of opportunities as the men, but they did it. Now the breakaway ropers are in the same fight.”
In the college rodeo sector, the prominence of women also continues to rise. SI also wrote, “Faith (Hoffman) Anders went from excelling in the arena in the Central Rocky Mountain Region to now leading a team of her own. Recently Casper College announced that they filled their vacant head coaching position. While most expected another man to step into the position, it is Anders who is up to the challenge. It isn't often that a predominantly male profession sees females ready to lead an entire program, but she isn't like most.”
Anders was not the only woman coaching college rodeo either; “Kaylee Gregg has sat at the top of the Frank Phillips College rodeo program in Borger, Texas for many years now. Cali Griffin is another who is well known throughout the Central Plains Region and she was named the head coach at Northwestern Oklahoma State University just last year after spending years at Fort Scott.”
All of which is to say that woman are not only being seen in rodeo; they are being heard (and listened to) as leaders.
The emergence of the female demographic isn’t confined to the young, however, say reporters at Associated Press. Pearl Kersey, who won the Canadian women’s ranch bronc title over the weekend in Ponoka, Alberta, is president of Women’s Ranch Bronc Canada and teaches it at clinics and remarked that she had seen women of (ahem) menopausal age coming out to learn the basic skills.
“I’ve got teenagers, 20-year-olds, 30-year-olds and this year a woman in her 50s. I was like, ‘You sure?’” Kersey said. “She doesn’t want to compete. She wants to try it before she gets too old. We have bucking machines. She doesn’t necessarily need to get on a horse. They can go through all the drills and the bucking machine, and if they’re comfortable enough, they can get on a horse.”
The Breakaway Roping Journal stated, “Everywhere you look in rodeo, cowgirls are being celebrated, cheered and followed.”
An article in the journal found that in 2024, the theme of Cheyenne Frontier Days 2024 was the Year of the Cowgirl, complete with the unveiling of a new bronze at Frontier Park, “How ‘Bout Them Cowgirls,” and a limited series podcast, Eras of Western Women.
Saddle up, cowgirls. The arena is yours.
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