. Second are women really so feeble in this century that they need to be cosseted and kept separate from all those big scary men ? Women fought for equality and rightly so - do they now not want it ?
Finally this is a bicycle maintenance class not a class for confirmed axe murderers and phsyco's - most of the men will be in exactly the same position as any intelligent woman [and if you want to ride and maintain your bike you must be intelligent] so again I ask what is the problem. Stop defending wet feeble girls who want everything handing to them and get out there and live in the world your mothers and grandmothers fought to create otherwise their struggle will have been in vain
I am a female, and although I would like to learn some basic bike maintenance, I will not be going to these women only classes because given a choice I would prefer a mixed class and I am *ahem* rather butch looking, so would not wish to cause any confusion/embarrassment to the other women.
However.
There are plenty of women who WOULD prefer a women-only workshop and who DO feel intimidated by men, especially in these sort of "macho" settings (btw
Evans also do womens bike maintenance classes for those who are interested). This does absolutely not make them weak, feeble or unintelligent, it's due to many things, not least the society that we all grew up in. Many, many women "play dumb" in the presence of men, often without realizing it.
For example, today I was studying and I overheard a young man explaining/teaching something to a young woman. They are in the same year of study, and both competent but not amazing. The guy was explaining things in a very patronizing way, as if to a child and the woman was "fake hesitating" before giving every answer, in a deliberately "unsure" tone, even though she knew them all. The worst thing was that neither or them realized what they were doing! Not 20 minutes later, the same thing occurred with a different group. These were postgraduate medical students. I can promise you, that if the same conversation were to occur in a group of all women, there would be less (still some, but less) dumbing themselves down.
Of course, in an ideal world I would love for all women to be assertive and confident in the presence of men (especially those who know no more than they do!), but we are not there yet. Until that happens, I will support all female groups (even though I would not take part) because I would much rather see an group of strong women than a mixed group where some women don't feel comfortable or able to assert themselves.
And for those women who have no problem with men being around but still want to go to the women's workshops, that's of course fine too! We don't need the guys anyway
its going to be epic!
