The women in the league were selected for their skill, but also for their wholesomeness and idealized femininity. It is to be noted that, as in the Major Leagues, the AAGPBL was informally segregated.

As the players looked like girls but played like men, the league quickly gained public support and became a symbol of patriotism during wartime.

Kimberly Young, “’Take Me Out to the Bellegame’: How the AAGPBL Gained and Maintained its Highly Respected Reputation” in David C. Ogden and Joel Nathan Rosen, A Locker Room of Her Own: Celebrity, Sexuality, and Female Athletes (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2013), 24.