OTOH you could argue that women were kept out of skateboarding because the entire thing moved below the glass floor (the opposite of the glass ceiling that keeps women out of dangerous jobs) as it became too low-class and dangerous for even poor women. In line with what mtbcoder noted, throughout the eighties and nineties being a skateboarder meant you were an outcast and a criminal. As a society we don't like attaching those terms to women. It was only after several years of the X-Games being on TV and new skateparks being built that the sport gained the sense of legitimacy it enjoys today.