Sukeban were formed as a direct result of male gangs' refusal to accept female members, consequently the term has come to refer to the massive movement that brought feminism to public attention at a time when men of the yakuza were thriving.
Gangs were initially small groups of girls sneaking cigarettes in school bathrooms, but eventually grew in numbers, as did their level of criminality.
[citation needed] Criminal activities and violence of the girl gangs in Japan reached such a high that sketches used to identify them in Japanese police pamphlets in the 1980s described aspects of their fashion as "omens of downfall".
[7] Members of sukeban also modified their school uniform by wearing coloured socks, rolling up their sleeves and lengthening their skirt, which were sometimes decorated with gang-affiliated symbols, kanji and/or slogans.
[8][9] The style of the sukeban have been interpreted as a rebellion against traditional gender norms, sexism, and the objectification of women, while, more specifically, the length of their skirts has been read as a reaction to the sexual revolution.
That the female gangs even existed is an oddity in Japan's generally sexist male-dominated deviant culture... the world was about feminism and liberation, and perhaps they felt like women have the right to be just as stupid, promiscuous, risk-seeking, adrenaline junkies and violent as their male counterparts.