Originally Posted by sunstorm

I asked the leader of the beginner group 'are there any women who would be able to lead this?' and he assured me there are a lot of really great female riders at this weekly ride, but none of them lead the ride groups. Huh? Now, this guy was really nice, reassuring, worked hard to make beginners feel comfortable, etc, but he is still a guy. If there are competent women, why aren't they leading? Is it lack of interest on the 'better' women's parts? was it that no one had suggested, asked, or offered them the oppurtunity to lead? (the leaders weren't employees of the shop, so that wasn't the limitation.)

Originally Posted by sunstorm

Penny4 - This all women's group has been meeting every week for 9 years. In 9 years, I'm pretty confident that some of these women have the experience to be leaders. Some of the women had been biking for over 2 decades, and one of the leaders was a man who had only started biking two years ago at the age of 70. I don't dislike the guys...don't get me wrong. It just seems really strange to me, as a woman, that in an all female ride, every leader was a guy, even when there are women there that the leaders say are better than they are. Part of the reason I was aware of it was that the guys were in the LBS's jerseys to lead the ride, they were obviously in charge and making all the decisions, and I showed up to an women's only ride expecting...well...all women. It just, to me, came across as very patriarchial. maybe I'm wrong. And I'm not blaming the guys, just think that perhaps it isn't just promoting biking among the rank and file of the female population...but about promoting leadership among competent female bikers at local, regional, national and international levels.