"In the UK, the image
associated with cycling
is male, often in Lycra,
quite likely to be moving
at speed and often not a
very friendly person –
possibly aggressive."
-- Henrietta Sherwin,
Centre for Transport
& Society
BikeRadar (2009), "the world's most comprehensive cycling website", reports on why women in the UK seem to be less likely than their male counterparts to go it on two wheels. Cycling England (2008), for example, suggests that men are three times more likely to ride than women. associated with cycling
is male, often in Lycra,
quite likely to be moving
at speed and often not a
very friendly person –
possibly aggressive."
-- Henrietta Sherwin,
Centre for Transport
& Society
The reasons for the disparity may differ between cultures. The surveys suggest that women often cite sweatiness and helmet hair as potential reasons that they do not cycle. In Australia, Garrard et al (2008) found women were more likely to cycle when separated bike paths were available. In Portland, Oregon, Dill and Voros (2007) found that more women than men cited traffic as a barrier to bicycling. These concerns suggest that a gender difference in risk tolerance may contribute to the gap in cycling rates.
I hate the fact that this is true about me, but this may have motivated me to get back on the bicycle this spring. I've gotten private feedback from DB readers that they find themselves trying to fight the gender-stereotyped behaviors I post about. I do it, too. I really believe in cycling as a sustainable mode of transportation, but I have a lot of fear about riding. I'm not good at it. Even on separated bike paths, I feel like I'm in the way of more serious riders. I'm slow and wobbly. I recognize that more practice would probably build confidence and skill, but during my last attempt (a couple of years ago), I got more nervous after a few rides, and stopped. I didn't keep it up long enough to get past the hump.
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9 comments:
As something that I spend all day every day thinking about...I have many opinions about cycling. I'm not even sure where to begin.
I believe I've offered before, but if there's anything I can do or say to help you feel more comfortable on your bike, let me know. That includes putting you in touch with transportation cycling instructors in the Boston area.
Also...it would be interesting to see what the gender differences are in riding between industrialized and third world countries
one point made in the BikeRadar article was that gender gaps are much narrower in countries where lots of people ride: like the Netherlands, etc. The gender gap seems to grow when bicycling is less mainstream.
Another source I skimmed past pointed out that in many more conservative countries, acceptable dress for women doesn't really allow bicycling: think a sari or a burqa.
(re: women's clothing restricting riding -- I saw it halfway through writing the post, but couldn't find it again to link to it, or it would have been in the main body of the post.
But now I've found it: on page x (preface) to Technology and Women's Voices (book: 1988): "In the US, women's interest in bicycle riding was early linked to arguments for 'rational dress', that is, women's clothing styles which did not require yards and yards of skirt material."
[info]pants_of_doom
2009-03-13 04:46 pm UTC
Cycling England (2008), for example, suggests that men are three times more likely to ride than men.
what?
[info]differenceblog.com
2009-03-13 05:09 pm UTC
Bugger. Thanks.
"men are three times more likely to ride than WOmen."
I swear, getting my gender markers wrong is the most frequent typo in DB. I wonder if it's Freudian.
ukelele
2009-03-13 05:24 pm UTC
As a longtime bike commuter, I'd be happy to go out for a ride with you sometime and try to share what I know. (I am pretty slow myself, and didn't learn to ride until after college. But I have also worked up to the point where, e.g., Harvard Square is just not a problem, so I believe just about everyone can become a competent rider.)
Serious cycling is pretty male-dominated in the US too, although I hear from bike shop people that that's changing. One of the things I have enjoyed about biking is the fact that I am confronting stereotypes by doing it.
differenceblog.com
2009-03-13 05:29 pm UTC
@ukelele
Actually, the reason I picked out the "big" quote above is because it reminded me of something you'd said about serious riders and lycra. And of course now I can't find it. Grr.
Interestingly, I haven't thought much about how I'm confronting stereotypes by biking. That makes me happy, I guess. My first impulse when I hear a gender stereotype is a contrarian one to just do the opposite, whatever it is. My larger desire, however, is to figure out what I actually want to do, and do that no matter how it relates to stereotypes. So, I guess it's nice that I feel like biking is something that I'm doing because I actually want to do it -- not just to be contrary and mess with people's expectations (not that I think that's necessarily *bad*; it's just not as good a motivation).
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