What’s stopping women cycling?

[User10119]

Haven't ploughed through 29 pages. Is the answer chauvinistic males?

There are, as you can see above, those who believe that there are those who would like to reduce the answer to that - although I don't think there's many who have actually argued that point.

Other suggestions include men's evolutionary need to hunt, women having on average less disposable income/available leisure, testosterone, dangly bits, women being psychologically less brave, men having typically typically fewer caring responsibilities, women not liking unfeminine activities or getting sweaty, roads being unsafe, women not knowing how to mend punctures, women just not fancying it because women are different, the risk of verbal/physical sexual/sexualised harrassment and abuse, Nature, Nurture, and probably a few others. There's some interesting stuff in there, and some utter tosh.

 

[iandg]

[QUOTE 5130275, member: 10119"]There are, as you can see above, those who believe that there are those who would like to reduce the answer to that - although I don't think there's many who have actually argued that point.

Other suggestions include men's evolutionary need to hunt, women having on average less disposable income/available leisure, testosterone, dangly bits, women being psychologically less brave, men having typically typically fewer caring responsibilities, women not liking unfeminine activities or getting sweaty, roads being unsafe, women not knowing how to mend punctures, women just not fancying it because women are different, the risk of verbal/physical sexual/sexualised harrassment and abuse, Nature, Nurture, and probably a few others. There's some interesting stuff in there, and some utter tosh.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for the summary

 

[derrick]

It sounds like it was answered to your satisfaction so everyone should accept your verdict. Other people may think differently.

Please enlighten me as to what you think the problem is. And could you be honest.

 

[User10119]

Thanks for the summary

TBH I think that if the subject - the fact that relatively few women ride bikes - is one that interests you it's a thread that is worth the read. OK, I do have a tendency to read really bloody quickly so don't find it a massive time commitment to plough through 20 odd (some of them very odd) pages....

 

[User10119]

Please enlighten me as to what you think the problem is. And could you be honest.

Has anyone been dishonest?
I can't speak for @Inertia but I don't claim to know The Answer. I have given a number of factors that I think may contribute (financial, time, responsibilities, cultural norms embedded from when we are very young) and tried to provide some sources to substantiate why I think those factors may be significant. I've also found it interesting to read some other perspectives that I hadn't thought of or previously considered. For example - myself, I haven't particularly found that I particularly experience more sexualised abuse/harassment when cycling then I do in other situations - but I have no reason to doubt that others have a different, personal, experience in this.

 

[User10119]

[QUOTE 5130282, member: 9609"]can we now have a thread that explores why very few men ride horses[/QUOTE]

If you think it is an interesting topic and would like to discuss it, choose the appropriate board and start that thread! I'm pretty sure this option is available to all.

 

[Inertia]

Please enlighten me as to what you think the problem is. And could you be honest.

I am always honest but I don't pretend to know what the problem is or that there is one problem.

Just because I don't know what the problem is I don't assume there isn't one.

 

[derrick]

[QUOTE 5130284, member: 10119"]Has anyone been dishonest?
I can't speak for @Inertia but I don't claim to know The Answer. I have given a number of factors that I think may contribute (financial, time, responsibilities, cultural norms embedded from when we are very young) and tried to provide some sources to substantiate why I think those factors may be significant. I've also found it interesting to read some other perspectives that I hadn't thought of or previously considered. For example - myself, I haven't particularly found that I particularly experience more sexualised abuse/harassment when cycling then I do in other situations - but I have no reason to doubt that others have a different, personal, experience in this.[/QUOTE]

I was hoping Inertia would answer.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

[QUOTE 5130282, member: 9609"]I think I have finally worked it all out - Women are too busy riding horses, I see more women riding horses than I see men riding bikes. This week out of 78 mile i have seen 3 women on horses and 0 cyclist. I will nearly always see more people on horses that I will on bikes and at least 99 out of 100 on a horse will be a women. Which sort of knocks my feeling unsafe theory on the head (being on a horse is not for the faint hearted) In fact it probably knocks all the theories in this thread on the head, aprt from punctures ?

can we now have a thread that explores why very few men ride horses[/QUOTE]
I like hosses, to speak to. Riding hosses is not for me.

 

[Jimidh]

They make lovely lasagnes - buy them from Iceland regularly.

I like hosses, to speak to. Riding hosses is not for me.

 

[Jimidh]

I ride with a totally 100% male club, not through design, but through reputation we are know as fast and perhaps off putting but we really would love some women to join our group.

I know it happens but I find it hard to get into the mindset of cyclists abusing women out cycling. One of the positive aspects we have all commented on increased amount of female ( okay I went there) cyclists we see on rides.

 

[User10119]

I ride with a totally 100% male club, not through design, but through reputation we are know as fast and perhaps off putting but we really would love some women to join our group.

I know it happens but I find it hard to get into the mindset of cyclists abusing women out cycling. One of the positive aspects we have all commented on increased amount of female ( okay I went there) cyclists we see on rides.

(my bold)
Went where? If (as it sounds like to me although I may be misinterpreting, hence me asking the question) you mean the fact that you used the word 'female' can I say that there's nowt wrong with the word female used correctly, as you have done above.
e.g.
female cyclists
female friend
- all perfectly corrrectly using female as an adjective to describe the noun which follows.
women who ride bikes
woman I am friends with
- again, correct use of English where the noun is women or woman

I actually know a quite a lot of women who rides bikes - possibly because I live in fairly cycling-friendly pan-flat bit of the world and know a lot of green-leaning hippy-ish types. In the school bike sheds at the SmallestCub's school you'll regularly see two or three tandems, a couple of bakfiets-type affairs, a bunch of tagalongs/follow-mes/bike seats and a load of pretty decent bikes from balance bikes through the frog/isla types to some pretty nice adult bikes. In the school bike sheds, like in the playground, the male parents/carers are outnumbered by the female ones. But elsewhere, on the roads, I do still see a lot more men than women on bikes and whenever I encounter club-run type groups they seem to be, like yours, predominantly (and sometimes entirely) made up of men.

If you'd like to get some women to join your club run, what can you do to achieve that? I'm not a club cyclist and never will be - apart from anything else, my dyspraxic tendencies make riding in a tight bunch extraordinarily stressful so even when I rode a fair bit and was significantly faster than I am these days I was very cautious about what styles of groups I would ride out with - but there's plenty on here who are. Have any of them found strategies that help to make that particular kind of cycling more accessible to women?

 

[Ajay]

I'm just back from Park Run, proof that men and women of all ages and abilities can participate in equal numbers in a positive, supportive, egalitarian environment.
#thereishope

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

This popped up in my inbox a couple of days ago and it seemed relevant:
https://www.cyclinguk.org/newsletter/cycle-campaign-news-january-2018#Headlines

An excerpt:

• Only 2% of all trips were cycled in 2016, the same proportion as it’s been for years;
• However, the average person said they clocked up more cycle miles over the year, and rode further per trip compared to a decade ago (53 miles (+26%) / 3.5 miles (+50%) respectively);
• According to GB traffic counts, total miles cycled in GB has gone up by 23% since 2006 (although 2016’s 3.5 billion miles pales beside 1949’s 15 billion);
• Men cycle three times as many trips and four times further than women;
• White and Mixed adults cycle the most; Asian adults cycle the least;
• The most common purpose for cycling trips was commuting, followed by leisure cycling;
• 12% of adults cycled at least once a week, most likely those: with no disability; living in the least deprived quartile; and/or in the East of England;
• The prevalence of cycling at least once a week is: highest in Cambridge (57%), followed by Oxford (39%); over 20% in only 18 of the 350+ other authorities; and less than 6% in nine (Barnsley is lowest at 4%).

DfT report for walking and cycling in 2016.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

It's proverbial bus time in my inbox. Here's another one:
http://www.cyclist.co.uk/in-depth/4090/how-can-we-get-more-women-into-cycling