What’s stopping women cycling?
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mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
This is not true in my experience and perpetuating the myth doesn't help.
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How many club runs and social rides, other than those specifically aimed at women such as the Breeze rides and assuming that a few people actually turn up, don't have at least a couple of men attending? How frequently does Pale Rider's Sunday group not include at least a couple of men? This isn't saying there will be only men, or that the men will be in any way unwelcoming towards women who join the ride - but I imagine that on the majority of organised rides it would be a reasonable bet that there'd be another bloke there.
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
Is there some recent research you'd like to link? The article in the OP links mostly old data from Sustrans and Brutish Cycling.
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
[QUOTE 5124545, member: 10119"]How many club runs and social rides, other than those specifically aimed at women such as the Breeze rides and assuming that a few people actually turn up, don't have at least a couple of men attending? How frequently does Pale Rider's Sunday group not include at least a couple of men? This isn't saying there will be only men, or that the men will be in any way unwelcoming towards women who join the ride - but I imagine that on the majority of organised rides it would be a reasonable bet that there'd be another bloke there.[/QUOTE]
Some (and some Breeze rides have had so-called "honorary women"), and no idea but I doubt the claimant has either. I agree about the majority but that's a much smaller proportion than always.
Some (and some Breeze rides have had so-called "honorary women"), and no idea but I doubt the claimant has either. I agree about the majority but that's a much smaller proportion than always.
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
And the missing verb is?
EDIT, as the previous post was edited: It's not that I don't like the research - I can't dislike the research, because I'm not sure what farking research you're waving your hands at, hence the question!
I know various bits of research but it's variously old (like the Sustrans 2013 one linked in the OP article) or untrustworthy (such as linked to BC's attempt to justify its spending on Breeze instead of fixing/reforming their existing local groups), so basically I was asking if you've got anything recent... or shall we just keep on using the pre-Breeze research and assume that Breeze has had no effect for good or ill?
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[QUOTE 5124525, member: 9609"]of course we can and I hope we do, did I not suggest this in my second sentence?
What sport comes from gathering though ? sport seems to mostly come from the hunting / warring part of our culture, traits very much associated with males.
Getting back to the OP, I still think the reason we see less women cycling is that sport / exercise does not appeal to them in the same way as it does to men. I'm sure there is a big Nature/Nurture balance to this, and hopefully as society develops and we have more gender neutral upbringings then we will see more women cycling, but I doubt it.
On a wider thought, the days of muscle and strength are over as it can all be now done by machine, the future is in creativity, and in this field men could well be on the back foot. I think we need gender neutral upbringings to reinvent men not women.[/QUOTE]
Actually most sports are based on 3D spacial awareness, not necessarily hunting.
What sport comes from gathering though ? sport seems to mostly come from the hunting / warring part of our culture, traits very much associated with males.
Getting back to the OP, I still think the reason we see less women cycling is that sport / exercise does not appeal to them in the same way as it does to men. I'm sure there is a big Nature/Nurture balance to this, and hopefully as society develops and we have more gender neutral upbringings then we will see more women cycling, but I doubt it.
On a wider thought, the days of muscle and strength are over as it can all be now done by machine, the future is in creativity, and in this field men could well be on the back foot. I think we need gender neutral upbringings to reinvent men not women.[/QUOTE]
Actually most sports are based on 3D spacial awareness, not necessarily hunting.
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?
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And I really recommend that video that I linked to upthread for some insight into the way that the perceived gender of a child affects the toys we offer that child and the way that affects their long term brain development, specifically in the area of spacial awareness. One of the things I found very interesting in the 'no more girls and boys' documentary about aiming for a gender-neutral classroom was that the girls at the age of around 7 or 8 already performed significantly less well in activities that required spatial awareness. The theory expounded was that girls are not typically given the same access to or encouragement to use the kind of construction, engineering and mathematical toys as boys - from being babies. The class was then given tangram puzzles, which develop spatial awareness, to do on a regular basis and the girls' performance massively improved in those spatial awareness activities. There were of course different but parallel gains made by the boys who were encouraged into role play, caring, imaginative and crafting activities that they had previously not accessed because they were 'for girls'. The conclusion they seemed to reach was that spatial awareness is not an innate part of being male - just as emotional intelligence is not an innate part of being female - but these traits and skills are learned and developed and the way we raise our children tends to encourage different traits in boys and girls.
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*snorts, deeply unattractively, with laughter*
Naturally. It's so very important to be decorous, wouldn't you say?
Similarly,
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
[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]
So is your position that the reply I quoted was adding nothing?
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]
So is your position that the reply I quoted was adding nothing?
