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In the United States, a Sadie Hawkins Dance is usually a less formal dance sponsored by a high school or middle school in which female students invite male students. This is contrary to the standard practice of male students asking female students to school dances such as Prom, in the spring, and Homecoming, in the fall.

The Sadie Hawkins dance derives its name after the Li'l Abner comic strip character Sadie Hawkins, created by cartoonist Al Capp. In the strip, Sadie Hawkins Day fell on a given day in November (Capp never specified an exact date). The unmarried women of Dogpatch got to chase the bachelors and "marry up" the ones they caught. The event was introduced in a daily strip which ran on November 15, 1937.

In the U.S. and Canada, this concept was popularized by establishing dance events to which the woman invited a man of her choosing, contrary to the practice of the man inviting the woman. The first known such event was held in 1937. Within two years hundreds of similar events followed suit.