Originally Posted by
trunolimit
That brings up a good point. Why did cycling become a male dominated thing? I think it's because society puts a lot of pressure on women to be perfect and as we all know cycling leaves you sweaty and dirty.
I didn't miss the support it is just I feel sad that there is cause for celebrating something that should just be. I don't know if that makes sense. I'm sorry for raining on the parade.
May have been all that emphasis on vehicular cycling. It is ever so not appealing for many woman. Nothing to do with looking perfect, LOL!
And yes, it is sad!
Originally Posted by
mcours2006
I think men are fascinated with things that a lot of gear (no pun intended) and lends itself to a lot of tinkering around with said gear. It's part of our cavemen past when we would tinker with a piece of wood and stone to fashion some kind of tool. We are gearheads. Embrace it.
Women aren't into that. Never have been.
Speak for yourself.
I enjoy 'tinkering' far more than most men I know. Computers, electronics, bikes, OSs..
Interestingly enough there is a group of chimps using tools to hunt. It's a fairly new thing so they are watching it closely...and it's mostly the females using the tools.
Originally Posted by
yankeefan
Centuries of evolutionary biology and social conditioning has led men and women to have very different preferences when it comes to risk bearing and physical activity. Its not surprising that cycling is disproportionately male since it is both perceived as risky (for good reasons) and physically exertive. I understand that this is a cycling forum but if you take a step back and examine all the risky physical activities that we encounter in our daily lives (e.g. fixing a leaking roof) its not surprising that men are often called upon to fix the situation because we are conditioned (both evolutionary and socially) to be less risk averse than women. It all begins when our 4 year old son falls off his bike and we tell him to stop crying and get back on, but when our four year old daughter falls off we rush to cuddle her and tell her she doesn't have to try again until she's ready.
This isn't an endorsement of heteronormativity or gender roles but a simple explanation of why bike commuters tend to be predominately male. You'll also see this trend in any profession that includes physical activity and a large degree of personal risk taking (e.g. police, fire marshals, construction site workers, etc).
That is cultural not biological. We have to tell that boy to 'man up' while at the same time teaching his sister to fear pain and risk. Poor guy learns to hide his emotions and the poor girl learns weakness. Shame, what we do to both girls and boys.
We also steer girls away from that kind of work. In HS I wanted to design cars. I was talked out of it. My grandmother was told woman 'couldn't' do electrical and other tech work. The lady rewired her home up to code at 65.