For the next month I’m diving into a topic that we, as women, need to be active leaders of in cycling: representation. While I do strongly agree that cycling media needs more diversity, I also believe that women need to be active participants in investing in it. For the entire month of February, I’m going to be giving you insights into how women can address representation through their influence and showcase women-led brands who have braved creating companies and organizations to address women’s needs in a male dominated industry. I’m calling this month Women Lead, in hopes that you are inspired by these insights and stories to think how you can reshape representation this in industry, in your community, and more.
Cycling is more than a hobby for me, its a lifestyle. Inspired by feelings of independence, lowering my carbon footprint, and empowerment to be liberated from dependence on public transit and a car was all the motivation I needed to adopt this life. While cycling had its drawbacks such as increasing my vulnerability to harassment and motorized traffic, the trade -off mostly had its benefits in better health, more energy, more money and fun.
At the time when I adopted a cycling lifestyle, I was a student studying sustainable urban development. My education to address rapid urbanization, climate change, and economic equity also had me learning more about the urban environment that left me with a lot of questions like… why aren’t there more women cycling? As I overcame my road fears, frustrations of what seemed an exclusive bike culture, and figured out things on my own, I was then asked questions by other women how I cycle safely, stay fresh, and carry all my things on my bike. That’s when I realized these questions where really why I don’t see women like me on the road and why I started this blog.
According to Fast Company, “Women today make up fewer than 25% of the trips taken by bicycle in the United States.” The conversation of the gender gap in cycling has been a conversation of old and yet cities still struggle to get more women on bikes because “building it” is the cheapest solution to get more people cycling. While we all know that the solution starts with more and better bike lanes– we also know it’s just as much about social attitudes. Not only societies attitudes but our own of what it means to represent ourselves in cycling. Let me explain.
Safety
There are real reasons why women are reluctant to cycle, and the main one is the built environment of cities. In the majority of U.S cities, street design prioritizes cars over cyclists and pedestrians. Studies have shown that women tend to be more risk-averse and have different standards for safety on the road than men. Distracted drivers, honking, street lighting, and harassment are part of our perception of road safety and a true concern for our personal safety. It’s no wonder that women cyclists would prefer routes that are separated from traffic.
Economics
Women have other barriers to cycling such as income inequality and time poverty. Women mostly have the sole responsibility of domestic household work and caregiving so are generally taking more trips to manage family and home which limits their accessibility to bike commuting. Women’s unpaid labor and unequal pay inhibit them from accessing child care or various family care. Spending money and time on a bike needs to affordable too.
Social Attitudes
There is a hypermasculine association with cycling. Images of guys in spandex bravely going fast on roads are often depicted images of cycling. Vehicular cycling, of being unafraid to take up space, cutting people off, getting vocal and at times get angry, are all things women are taught not to do, and the consequences of deviating from these expectations ramify–as the backlash against women speaking out about harassment, for instance, reminds us–across a multitude of public and cultural spaces.
The aesthetics of cycling alone pose a formidable barrier to women’s participation. Women are expected to show up to their jobs looking presentable and hyegenic. Arriving sweaty to work with helmet hair can be a deal breaker for many women in any industry.
Attitudes of femininity also pose a barrier. Social conditioning of girls and women to be careful or scared of risks or challenges often set them back from participating. If “safety” means encouraging women to refuse an activity because it has been categorized as dangerous–then there needs to be a concerted reckoning with why we caution women cyclists and encourage men.
What Cities Are Doing
Cities and designers have been tackling infrastructure by building more bike lanes and advocates within the bike community are working to close the gender gap in urban cycling from the inside out with workshops, group rides, and open street days. Cities are reporting overall increases in bike trips but women’s participation remains stagnant, leaving the question… where are the women?
Why We Need To Close The Gap
Cities are being faced with issues of growing traffic congestion and systemic public transit failures, and advocates and environmentalists are pointing to the bicycle as a valid form of sustainable transit. As cities across the world are searching for ways to limit their carbon footprint in the face of rampant climate change, interventions like the shift to bike share programs and electric vehicles and improvements to public-transit infrastructure are becoming more crucial. But with another 2.5 billion people predicted to move into urban environments by 2050, we can’t overlook the issue of street congestion–and the fact that approximately six bikes can fit into the space taken up by a single car.
In order for cycling to become a truly competitive mode of urban transit, we need to address the issue of gender equity in all its facets.
Data Driven Solutions
I’m a big advocate in utilizing data to drive solutions, it is my job after all! Collecting and analyzing gender, ethnic, race, traffic flow, and age data about everyday transit use as well as cycling accidents and fatalities would better inform decision-making on what areas to allocate funding for improving lighting, transit, and bike infrastructure. Understanding how gender impacts transportation can accelerate progress toward gender equality as we design our cities to better meet the needs of all residents.
Remove Barriers To Cycling
Gendered barriers include the disproportionate family responsibilities carried by many women. Whether women have the time and flexibility in their schedules, as well as what additional people and cargo they are transporting, can influence their ability to cycle. Demanding equal pay and funding for childcare is a policy that we need to urge our states to support. Delegating housework responsibility is complex depending on the family dynamic but is a start. In addition, cities can incentivize businesses to promote cycling to work by offering locker rooms/showers, bike insurance/assistance, and lower health care costs.
Make Cycling Convenient And Inexpensive
Bikes, accessories, kit, and gear costs can also be a barrier to women having access to cycling. While bike share programs are addressing the need for convenience, maintenance, and drop off/pick up bike hubs, the industry as a whole can support access to cycling by offering more affordable products/ subscriptions or they can set up programs for donating bikes to local communities/families in need. In addition, placing bike share hubs in low income neighborhoods can also help address lack of access to transit.
Women’s Leadership And Representation In Transportation And Industry
According to Gender Science, Technology, Environment, an organization funded by European Cooperation in Science and Technology, women are underrepresented in the leadership of transportation agencies and boards. Similarly, it is women that are most affected by extreme climate events related to climate change. A measurable goal would be agency leadership that more accurately reflects the communities it serves. This is where we desperately need to represent ourselves and communities best.
Cycling Programs For Women
Whether through marketing agencies, bike shops, campaigns, or organizations, supporting equal participation in cycling requires money allocated toward programs that meet the needs of women. For example, British Cycling’s #OneInAMillion campaign aims to boosts women’s participation in cycling to one million by 2020 by offering the Breeze program to help women build skills, find group rides, and link ambassadors to help women develop confidence and build community via social media.
Engage The Cycling Industry
Bike shops have an opportunity to support women and family-friendly cycling, due to the role of women in providing most of the transportation for other household members. The League of American Bicyclists’ report “Bike Shops for Everyone: Strategies for Making Bike Retail More Welcoming to Women” focuses on the potential for inclusive community building and customer engagement as the key to growing the cycling industry.
In addition the cycling media can also offer alternative views of cycling rather than the aggressive, go fast or go home, velominati rules type of message it often portrays with a skinny white guy on a bike. It could also display women doing badass things, community building, and sharing stories. All this I talk about here.
Overall, the thing that makes biking better for women is more women biking. There is safety and strength in numbers. The cycling world, like the rest of the world is very male-dominated, and there’s a part of it that’s dismissive toward people–especially new cyclists–who may be nervous about riding in traffic, or on unprotected bike lanes. Even with all these barriers, we have to show up as we are and represent ourselves as participants in cycling, in community organizing, in campaigns or programs, our jobs, and especially in climate action. There are millions of other women out there looking to see themselves out there the way I did. But we also have to overcome our own attitudes of what it means to be a cyclists. Attitudes about our abilities–layered on top of incomplete infrastructural systems–sets the barrier for entry into the cycling world way too high and sets back our ability to move our cities into a more green equitable environment for us all.
Image: Jon Purcell/robertharding