The History Of Women Cyclists An Uphill Climb To Equality

(MENAFN- The Conversation) Cycling, in its most familiar form, dates back to at least the 19th century. One example of an early bicycle was known as the “hobby horse” , and it later became the“Dandy horse” and then the“accelerator”. Early cycling was reserved for the upper-classes and was seen as highly fashionable and decorous – particularly for men.

Women's cycling, on the other hand, was viewed as trivial and unbecoming. When women were portrayed cycling, they were often eroticised and undressed.

The early development of women's bicycles and cycle-wear was impeded by debates on women's morality and sexual innocence. The bicycle was said to cause “bicycle face” (a face of muscular tension), harm reproductive organs and diminish what supposedly little energy women had.

Cycling women were viewed as sexually promiscuous both for the“unnatural” straddling of the bicycle and for the freedom cycling offered them. Where were they all cycling to, men wondered.

The development in 1885 of the Rover“safety bicycle” revolutionised women's cycling. It featured a lower mounting position and inspired somewhat of a cycling craze. By the 1890s, several million women around the world were cycling.

The influx of female cyclists on the streets created a moral panic for the Victorians. The image of the cycling woman came to represent a new type of woman with feminist ambition. This led to a discourse known simply as the“woman question”.

The fear caused by this cycling“new woman” is made clear in postcards from the time. The new woman in the example above is abandoning her husband and children for a day out and charging her husband with domestic tasks – a highly provocative notion to a Victorian audience. God forbid, perhaps she is also on her way to a suffragist rally. Cycling women were seen as radicals who threatened the“natural order of things”.

Such was the symbiotic relationship between feminism and women's cycling, that the bicycle became emblematic of the suffrage movement. This photograph, taken in 1897, was taken at the height of the“woman problem” debate.

An effigy of a cycling woman hangs above a crowd at Cambridge University, as they await the result of a vote on whether female students ought to receive a degree upon completion of study. The vote was defeated and the effigy triumphantly torn down. Women could not receive a degree from Cambridge University until 1948.

This photograph captures the cultural rejection of cycling, educated women.

The effigy, dressed in collegiate striped stockings, cap and rational dress is a stereotypical new woman. Akin to a Guy Fawkes dummy in November, during this time the cycling woman momentarily joined Britain's long history of reviled figures of rebellion.

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In her book Women and the Machine (2001), art historian Julie Wosk documents the history of a“cultural longing to represent women as safely stationary” in visual culture.

At the turn of the century, cycling women were often depicted as incompetant, either falling off their bicycle, cycling into something or being attacked while cycling.

The intention behind these images was to showcase women's supposed technical and physical inability. The Victorian equivalent of the sexist modern-day stereotype that“women can't drive”. At the base of such claims is a fear of mobile women. Images like these served as visual warnings for women who wished to exercise their physical freedom on two wheels.

After 1900, women's cycling went through another transition. While in its early years cycling was considered an upper-class pursuit, by the 20th century bicycles were becoming democratised as the motorcar became the in thing for the wealthy.

Bicycles became a form of functional transport for the working classes. The need for an expanded female workforce during the first world war had also helped to normalise women's cycling.

As shown in the above special munitions edition of Cycling magazine, the bicycle was seen as the ideal“energy saving” mode of transport for female workers. While the advertisement copy shows that the 19th-century concerns over women's“energies” endured during the war, the visual of a woman successfully cycling to her workplace confirms some progress.

By the 1930s, cycling manufacturers were offering women's ranges more in line with men's and leading brands offered speed and sports models to women. Marketing copy focused less on issues of morality and decorum and worries of“bicycle face” had long ceased to exist.

This was surely progress? Unfortunately, it isn't so straightforward. The discourse around women cycling was still concerned with health and beauty more than sporting achievement. But now instead of being thought to damage femininity, cycling now supposedly ensured it.

In 1938 Billie Dovey was named British bicycle manufacturer Rudge-Whitworth's“Keep Fit Girl” after she peddled almost 30,000 miles around Britain. But rather than focus on her remarkable achievement, the press described Dovey's“fine physique”,“healthy” skin and“tan”.

Images of the past can tell us a lot about the culture which produced it. These images show a cultural discomfort with physically mobile women. And it's a discomfort that hasn't entirely disappeared.

A gender gap in British cycling persists. Nine in ten British women are reportedly“scared of cycling in towns and cities”. The UK's poor cycling infrastructure matched with an increase in violence against women on the streets together make for an unappealing prospect for would-be female cyclists.

As well as safety fears, women have less leisure time – despite more flexible post-pandemic working structures – and societal pressures regarding their physical appearance when cycling still linger. That's all despite the number of female cyclists adding to medal tallies for British teams in recent years which made household names of some athletes.

Whatever the future for women's cycling, it is critical to understand and redress these long-held assumptions about women's“paltry” abilities regarding technology, sports and cycling. It is important to recognise the bicycle as an agent for progress whilst acknowledging the historic and contemporary challenges facing female cyclists.

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