A crop of small companies specialising in cycling gear for women is springing up in Britain and may play a vital role in encouraging more women onto bikes. Cycling brands like Ananichoola and Water off a duck’s back produce clothing and accessories designed by women, for women.
Why do fewer women cycle?
American suffragette Susan B Anthony in 1896 said: “I think cycling has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world.”
In nutshell, bicycles allowed an escape from house and husband, but the subject is explored in fascinating detail by Bella Bathurst in The Bicycle Book.
The question of why women cycle less than men in this country remains unanswered and whilst transport planners, cycling organisations and researchers have a number of theories the issue has worrying implications for the future of cycling in Britain; adults who have not cycled while young are less likely to encourage their own children to use a bike.
In Britain at present half as many women as men cycle and the number taking part in competitive cycling is also comparatively low; British Cycling reports that the level of female participation is 17 per cent lower than female participation in all sports.
As Bella Bathurst puts it so well, the bicycle has as much to offer today as it did in the nineteenth century: “A bicycle still offers freedom, but this time from cars and queues, from oil, from rising prices and a life inside. It gives us back the landscape and makes us part of nature again. It belongs to everyone – every age, every class, every race and religion. And, most importantly of all, it’s fun. A century on, and bicycles are still liberating us all.”
The Netherlands experience
In the Netherlands, more women than men cycle. There are likely to be many reasons why this is so, but there is significant investment in infrastructure, cycling is far less tribal and competitive than in Britain with far more emphasis on the activity as a practical way of getting about.
The Fietsersbond campaigns for better cycling conditions in the Netherlands and produced this graph to illustrate how cycling rates there vary according to gender and age.
Blogger David Hembrow debunks various myths surrounding cycling in the Netherlands and tackles the excuses made for why cycling levels in other countries are relatively low.
Popular excuses that David explores include: narrow streets; the cost of infrastructure; a spread-out population; hills; distances that are too great; the time it took to establish cycling in the Netherlands, the price of petrol and the weather.
Cycle insurance – how does yours compare?
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