History
The women's race was started in 1987 after several years of efforts by women who believed the men's race was not a viable option. The women's fraternity Kappa Alpha Theta made an attempt to qualify for the men's race in 1986. They qualified 34th. The team missed qualifying by one spot. After this, there was much debate over whether girls should be allowed to race in the men's race. Many feared for the women's safety. In order to avoid complications, the Indiana University Student Foundation along with the Indiana University Office of Women's affairs worked to create women's race the following year. Since then, the popularity of the women's race has been growing and on April 21, 2006, the women's race had its first ever full field of 33 teams.
Read more about this topic: Women's Little 500
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