Formed as the Girls Rodeo Association (GRA) in 1948, several of the original members were female ranchers who had been forced to take over family operations as husbands, fathers, and brothers were called to service in World War II.

Though women had played an important role in rodeo's formative years in the mid-to-late nineteenth century, competing and winning against their male counterparts, by the time of the GRA's formation women's role in rodeo had been reduced to beauty pageants, with prizes (instead of prize money) such as cigarette cases.

These women were exceptionally competent riders and ropers, whose skills had been honed working the open ranges of the American west, and they found it demeaning to be pushed to the extreme edges of rodeo.

Then they went to work, persuading rodeo committees and producers to hold women's contests according to GRA rules.

They achieved their goals in 1985, becoming the first professional women's sports organizations to have fiscal equality with their male counterparts.

Contestants count points earned in competition to qualify for the WPRA World Finals formerly held each autumn at Cowtown Coliseum in Fort Worth, Texas.