And men are now even being invited to participate in some shows.

Gold Coast Show chief executive Lavinia Rampino said the Gold Coast would no longer be participating in Miss Showgirl, an annual award.

The Queensland Country Life Miss Showgirl Awards runs across the state, but some shows, such as the Gold Coast, run unrelated individual competitions.

“Being on the Gold Coast, the public held a lot of negative connotations with the word ‘showgirl’,” Ms Rampino said.

“We have changed the title to ‘show ambassador’, which is essentially the same thing but opens up the competition to all genders and takes away the showgirl rules of having to be a young, single female.

“We want representatives that can go to professional breakfasts with business people and talk to students at schools.

“We’re representing our community and a community event so we need to listen to what the community wants.”

Ms Rampino said the calibre of entrants were not lacking in the past, but the changes were due to how the public viewed the competition.

“The title ‘show ambassador’ immediately changed the whole look,” she said.

“We’re hoping to entice some males this year – anyone who is passionate about the show is who we want.”

With other Queensland towns, such as Toowoomba and Atherton, deciding not to host a showgirl competition in recent years, it seems the competition may be on its way out.

Atherton Show event co-ordinator Cathy Darcey said the decision to phase out their showgirl competition was a result of a scarcity of volunteers to promote, organise and run the event.

She said far north Queensland relied on contestants from the nearby towns Cairns and Innisfail.

Cairns Show spokeswoman Victoria Crosby said their event had up to five contestants each year.

“It’s a great experience for young women in their local community,” she said.

“This is all about the agricultural show movement ... anything to do with rural shows around Australia is to promote what we do and keep the movement going.”

However, despite rumours of the death of the showgirl, Queensland Country Life Miss Showgirl co-ordinator Lorraine Crothers said the showgirls competition was stronger than ever.

“The competition is still very relevant for the development of young women today,” she said.

“It’s all about giving young women the opportunity to excel in leadership skills, public speaking, and networking – it’s not a beauty pageant."

Ms Crothers said organisers strived to get youth into the show movement but if enough societies requested to change the statewide gender and age rules, they would consider it.

“We as the state showgirl committee ask for feedback so we can build on something that is successful and keep it relevant,” she said.

“But rather than focussing on the title, we want to focus on what it can bring young Queensland women... we need to stand up for young women.”

Ms Crothers said Queensland Country Life Showgirl has loyal sponsors and a $50,000 national prize.

“We wouldn’t get keen sponsors if the competition was on a decline,” she said.

The Queensland Country Life Miss Showgirl national finals will be held at the Brisbane Ekka in August.

Queensland Country Life is published by Fairfax Media, the owner of the Brisbane Times.