What’s stopping women cycling?

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swansonj

Guru
I think there are two things going on with cycle shops that combine.

One is about cycling as a macho, competitive, racing-derived sports activity versus cycling as a leisure activity. Your average cycling shop is staffed by wannabe racers who think that's what all cyclists ought to aspire to. Hence the propensity of cycling shops to sell bikes with higher gears, narrower tyres, and more bent over riding positions than would undoubtedly make cycling more pleasurable for many people. The other is the sexism.

I'd suggest the two correlate (not completely but to a significant degree) to the double disadvantage of women.
 

Joey Shabadoo

My pronouns are "He", "Him" and "buggerlugs"
Two reasons I think there are less women cycling are:

1) Men have more leisure time than women who are more likely to have multiple jobs and tend to take on the majority of parenting and housekeeping chores.
2) Perhaps just a personal experience but when I was at school, the "cool" boys did sport but the "cool" girls avoided sport.
 

Jimidh

Veteran
Location
Midlothian
Whilst I think most of the answers above are mostly correct ( it’s more complicated than one single factor) i’ve been encouraged to see many more women out cycling in the last few years.

Whilst I see more on the road I see significantly more at mountain bike centres and I think this is partly through this being a more family orrientated pastime where the whole family can enjoy together.

My own wife is fitness mad and is an instructor including spin but says she would like to ride more but doesn’t feel safe on the roads for what it’s worth.
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
The Audax club I belong to has about a 20% female membership. That’s pretty good in my eyes. In general I find people who like this sport (Audax) very tolerant, open, life experienced and intelligent.

None of this testosterone rich, chest puffing, men-squawking stuff goes on. That kind of behaviour just honks the klaxons with the message, ‘I’M INSECURE WITH MY OWN MASCULINITY!’
The freewheeling day-trip group I ride with is 50-50 (exactly on the outbound yesterday, but two men lived near the destination so didn't ride the return). Why is 20-80 good for an audax club, rather than a long way shy of where it should be?
 
I think you missed his point.
Tbf I don’t usually have a point and when I do, it’s tired and predictable.
 

Jimidh

Veteran
Location
Midlothian
The freewheeling day-trip group I ride with is 50-50 (exactly on the outbound yesterday, but two men lived near the destination so didn't ride the return). Why is 20-80 good for an audax club, rather than a long way shy of where it should be?
Because women have more sense to hang round with a bunch of beardy boring blokes nattering about bottom brackets and favourite brevet cards.
 

Fab Foodie

hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
Location
Kirton, Devon.
My observations are that the percentage of women cycling is rapidly increasing.

As a sweeping generalisation I think take-up is particularly high in mountain biking, maybe this is to do with the off-road bit?

My experience with Abingdon Freewheeling was of growth in all ‘cycling’ from the mellow through to the fast group. Didcot Phoenix has a very strong women’s sporting group, many of whom regularly TT. Brompton groups, The Fridays, local CTC all seem to have a notable and growing number of female participants.
Tri clubs have also appear to have an increasingly large female proportion.
Numbers of women only cycling clubs are growing too.

Look at Charity rides etc. Having done the L2B regularly since the early 1980s I can tell you the demographic has shifted hugely towards women young and old alike.

From my experience, womens cycling is growing like topsy, that’s not to say that more couldn’t be done to encourage women to ride.
 
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Fab Foodie

hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
Location
Kirton, Devon.
I think there are two things going on with cycle shops that combine.

One is about cycling as a macho, competitive, racing-derived sports activity versus cycling as a leisure activity. Your average cycling shop is staffed by wannabe racers who think that's what all cyclists ought to aspire to. Hence the propensity of cycling shops to sell bikes with higher gears, narrower tyres, and more bent over riding positions than would undoubtedly make cycling more pleasurable for many people. The other is the sexism.

I'd suggest the two correlate (not completely but to a significant degree) to the double disadvantage of women.
I agree to a certain extent, however regarding shops, we are still fortunate that in many areas there are still good smaller shops that specialise in more mundane/utility/leisure/non sport cycling and seem to be thriving as a result. These are to be cherished.
Furthermore there are a lot more knowledgeable women working in bike shops and servicing which can only be a good thing.
 
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