What’s stopping women cycling?

[MontyVeda]

[QUOTE 5124762, member: 9609"]to be fair if it was a modern day production it would need to be politically correct.
However, the information that has been gleaned from cave paintings (and these are the only real records) don't show that[/QUOTE]
links please.

 

[mjr]

I probably see at least a dozen club ride if I go out on a Sunday. It's not uncommon to see all men in a group, but I don't think I've ever noticed an all female group.

You know your area better than me and that seems kind of sad.

Even if there was a hypothetical club that was mostly women, you still wouldn't find men getting online to see if other men would be there. Men who were uncomfortable being the only man, would just join the next club up the road, which is likely to be 80% male.

I don't think the second is true where I've ridden, partly because "the next club up the road" is often likely to be very different in some way. Especially freewheeling clubs aren't so common yet.

I sort of agree that you wouldn't find men getting online to see if other men would be there, but you would find men getting online to see who else would be there. Are women really looking primarily to see if other women would be there, rather than looking to see if anyone they know will be there, or if it's a group new to them, what sort of mix of riders are there and whether anyone is similar to their style?

 

[BSOh]

To be fair... this is what i was told at school and if i recall correctly, is how it was depicted in my Labybird early readers book of prehistoric life. I imagine many people still retain this 'vision' of prehistory since it was forged in their minds at a rather young age.
I'm lucky... i recently watched a documentary on prehistoric life which painted a picture in which younger adults (parents) did the hunting, gathering and foraging whilst older adults (grandparents) minded the children and probably kept an eye on the stew too.
I presume there's a lot of assumptions with regards to prehistoric life since we can't actually know who did what on a day-to-day basis... but the modern assumption makes more sense (to me anyway) than the old male-centric one depicted in my Ladybird book.

Yea. Archaeologically and anthropologically speaking, in terms of prehistoric dinner getting, the 1960's promoted the idea of man the hunter etc, and also the opposite utopian ideal of egalitarianism. There is very little evidence of any gendered activity at all. The idea that man was out hunting large game while women stayed at home looking after the kids is pure fantasy.

 

[Pale Rider]

[QUOTE 5124564, member: 10119"]And if we take the specific group that Pale Rider was discussing


So it happens sometimes that a woman on the ride is sometimes the only woman on the ride. It's described as a group ride, not going out for a ride with a mate, and the men (plural) just turn up without checking who else is going. It doesn't seem an unreasonable inference that there's always more than one man in attendance. @Pale Rider - would it be possible to clarify if, when the group goes out, you can take it as read there will be more than one man there?[/QUOTE]

Yes, the group leader misses only a couple of rides a year and he is a man, so realistically there will always be other men at the meeting point.

I think it's relevant to the discussion that some of our women members don't want to be the only woman riding, although we have had rides with only one woman in the group, and rides with none.

To be clear, the rides where I noticed the woman rider being gawped at were just me and her riding together, although gawping also happens when we are out as a mixed group.

 

[MontyVeda]

[QUOTE 5124781, member: 9609"]where were yours ? [/QUOTE]
one is the Labybird early readers book of prehistoric life which provided the male-centric version... can't recall the name of the documentary which offered a different scenario, i have hundreds but if i find it, I'll let you know.

[edit]... it could have been the more recent Seven Ages of Britain.

Now these cave paintings you mention which show wifey washing up whilst hubby goes hunting mammoth...

 

[Markymark]

Teamwork skills, ie collaboration and sharing information is more akin to foraging than hunting which is generally solitary.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

From what I've read about pre-Iron Age civilisations, hunting was a group activity where large numbers were needed to herd animals into areas where they could be killed with the limited weapons available. To that end it makes sense that anyone who could run would be co-opted into the hunt because it was a stamina event, not a strength one.

 

[derrick]

Reading this, i understand why there are less women on bikes,Even i would not want to ride with some of you lot.

 

[Profpointy]

Teamwork skills, ie collaboration and sharing information is more akin to foraging than hunting which is generally solitary.

Dunno about that. You'd need bigger balls than me (metaphorically, given the thread) to hunt down a woolly mammoth on your own. Quite apart from dragging it home on your own in the unlikely event that you actually kill it rather than the other way round.
Have you seen those Massai lads nicking a kill off a pride of lions - they don't try that alone either

Maybe ot now, though a grain of a point remains

 

[Markymark]

Dunno about that. You'd need bigger balls than me (metaphorically, given the thread) to hunt down a woolly mammoth on your own. Quite apart from dragging it home on your own in the unlikely event that you actually kill it rather than the other way round.
Have you seen those Massai lads nicking a kill off a pride of lions - they don't try that alone either

Maybe ot now, though a grain of a point remains

Humans didn’t hunt mammoths. They would eat found dead ones.

 

[Profpointy]

Humans didn’t hunt mammoths. They would eat found dead ones.

Do you know that for a fact ? And anyway they hunted some pretty big ans fearsome beasts all the same. I'd not want to try and kill a cow on my own with a single spear, nor carry it home on my own.

 

[Markymark]

Do you know that for a fact ? And anyway they hunted some pretty big ans fearsome beasts all the same. I'd not want to try and kill a cow on my own with a single spear, nor carry it home on my own.

The closest they got to animals that size was to scare them over a cliff etc.

Hunting was more likely to small easier to catch animals, fishing etc and usually solitary. However, as stated above, hunting was a very small part of the diet. It was mainly ceremonial, relatively rare. The vast majority of food was foraged.

 

[BoldonLad]

The closest they got to animals that size was to scare them over a cliff etc.

Hunting was more likely to small easier to catch animals, fishing etc and usually solitary. However, as stated above, hunting was a very small part of the diet. It was mainly ceremonial, relatively rare. The vast majority of food was foraged.

I think you are probably right @Markymark . Judging by the size of the pieces of animal skin, used to make Rachel Welch's bikini, in 2 million years BC, they were small animals.

 

[Cuchilo]

When they where drunk they used to pack hunt the donnakebabasorus .

 

[FishFright]

Men stuff , grrrr so macho ! It sure beats trying to sort out gender equality eh guys?