Ladies wanted to chat about cycling

[Wheeledweenie]

A friend and I are doing some research into lady/women/non-men cycling and want as many women involved in giving us their views. We'll be coming online on Wednesday 12 August at 6ish to ask questions and get your views.

Anyone who wants to help is more than welcome to join in.

Thanks

 

[HelenD123]

How long will you be staying online for? That's a bit early for me.

 

[SavageHoutkop]

wasn't it today?
*nevermind* just read your other post...

 

[Wheeledweenie]

Sorry, we had to postpone til tomorrow! We'll be staying online for some time and, as it's cyclechat, I don't mind if it continues past then it's just that we'll need to ask questions etc.

 

[Chuffy]

Just out of (professional) interest, what exactly are you researching and how are you going about it?

It sounds like you're hoping to run a virtual focus group via a CC thread (correct, yes?) and I wonder how you will be managing that. It's going to be hard to deal with multiple issues that way and you know how threads can run away sometimes!

If it's academic research then I'll be interested to know how it fits in with your overall research plan as you won't have any personal data on the respondents (in fact, you've got no guarantee that any of them are even female).

 

[Wheeledweenie]

Just out of (professional) interest, what exactly are you researching and how are you going about it?

It sounds like you're hoping to run a virtual focus group via a CC thread (correct, yes?) and I wonder how you will be managing that. It's going to be hard to deal with multiple issues that way and you know how threads can run away sometimes!

Well it's not academic. A friend and I are thinking of setting up a website for lady cyclists and we're looking into what's out there for female cyclists and whether it's giving women what they need in terms of news, reviews etc. And what they want. We're going to run some face-to-face groups as well but we're based in London and when I asked for volunteers a few non-London-based ladies expressed interest so after asking permission from the CC admin we decided to run one on here.

As we're looking at stuff aimed at women and people's awareness of it we're not too bothered if men disguised as women go on there to look at it and comment.

Tomorrow night I'll be asking some questions for people to answer but just people's general chat on the subjects raised will be useful.

 

[Chuffy]

Hokay. That should get you what you want. Incidentally (pardon me if someone else has already mentioned this) there was a women's section on here back in the early days but it was removed because the ladies on here felt that their cycling issues were much the same as anyone elses and things like kit could be dealt with in specific threads. Plus I think there was a suggestion that we're all in this together and highlighting differences wasn't neccessarily helpful.* Having said that, a women-specific site could be successful, epecially if you can draw in loads of links to kit and perhaps encourage some social rides (seeing as novice ladies like safety in numbers and some encouragement).


* - that's how I remember it. I'm open to corrections!

 

[summerdays]

I don't remember one (that isn't to say there wasn't one) ... though I remember it coming up in discussion as to whether we wanted one at one stage.

 

[jay clock]

Most of the women I know would prefer to be called women rather than "ladies"....

 

[Wheeledweenie]

Most of the women I know would prefer to be called women rather than "ladies"....

See, even this is useful!

 

[Chuffy]

I don't remember one (that isn't to say there wasn't one) ... though I remember it coming up in discussion as to whether we wanted one at one stage.

I did say that I stood to be corrected! I think you're right Summerdays, but I also think I'm right about the outcome of that discussion.

 

[Chuffy]

Most of the women I know would prefer to be called women rather than "ladies"....

I think it's pretty much taken for granted that whatever you go for, someone will take exception...
I presume that 'birds' isn't an accepted catch-all?

 

[summerdays]

I presume that 'birds' isn't an accepted catch-all?

In my case you presume correctly but I don't mind women or ladies.

 

[Auntie Helen]

I prefer 'ladies' to 'women' but it does rather call to mind public conveniences.

 

[Chuffy]

In my case you presume correctly but I don't mind women or ladies.

Snap!
But it's a bit of a minefield. What's considered acceptable by ten women birds ladies females will be considered wrong by the eleventh. And you will be told...