The history behind Sadie Hawkins is that back in the 1930s, a father was worried that his daughter, Sadie Hawkins, wouldn’t find a suitable husband so he organized a Sadie Hawkins day so she could find one. The women in town would literally chase after the bachelors and whoever they caught was required to marry them. Women in town continued to do this year after year. Back in the day, Sadie Hawkins was supposed to be seen as a day for women to feel empowered and take initiative.
Obviously, times have changed and life isn’t like that anymore. Girls don’t need permission to ask guys to dances anymore. However, many schools still uphold that tradition and have at least one “Sadie Hawkins” type of dance. This means that the girls have to ask the guys to the dance rather than vice versa. A lot of high schools are known to make their “Winter Formal” dance similar to this. I know for my school, our Winter Formal dance was called Turnabout. It was the same idea as Sadie Hawkins just a different name. I do think it’s a fun idea to switch the roles around and to let the girls do the asking for the Winter dance. It’s fun to change things up every once in a while. Plus, it’s fun to come up with a creative dance proposal.
If your school is interested in having a Sadie Hawkins dance but doesn’t know where to begin, reach out to us at My School Dance. If your school already has a similar Winter Formal Dance, My School Dance can help plan and manage that too! We’re here to help make the process easier so your school can host more dances and events for the students.
Don’t let the tradition die. Start planning your school’s Sadie Hawkins dance now with My School Dance!
