I would love to share this perspective with you, but since I'm female, it's a luxury I can't afford. We do not yet live in a gender-neutral society, and the much of the brunt of that impact falls upon women (and/or especially on anyone not gender-normative, though men suffer from gender expectations too). As I go about my daily life, I am constantly reminded that the bulk of society considers my gender to be very meaningful indeed. I hope that eventually your attitude becomes a wider reality, but please consider that until then, you are able to hold that opinion by virtue of your gender privilege. Similarly, I often hear white people say things like "I think race is meaningless" but most anyone who belongs to a racial minority will tell you that their race has definitely been a part of how they experience society and are treated.

But here's to more people getting attitudes like yours!

Exactly.

Pots and kettles and the like.

We are already equipped for a one-gender society, it's just a matter of getting public opinion to allow such a policy. By then, however, we'll probably be capable of a non-gender society, which is likely for the best.

M.

Turning this thread into a discussion on gender neutrality will get it moved to the Politics & Religion forum. Please keep the discussion related to bike commuting.

CbadRider
Forum Admin

Female bike commuter here!

More female members do need to contribute to the forums in my view. Their lack of presence may be due to hesitancy about engaging in conversations that appear technical. Hopefully this is not the case.

+1 ! here I am from Italy!female. 39 y.o. A bit discontinuous in commuting but I follow all your threads and discussions with real interest and curiosity. I learnt tons of tricks from you . Thank you to all the forum members ;-)

Ok, I'm jealous. Tuscany seems like it would be fantastic cycling country.

M.

On my commute from Brooklyn there are usually a fair number of women, I'd say around 30-40%, but only in the nice weather. The last few times I rode in it was all guys.

Citibike riders seem to be an even mix too.

Before the separate Women's forum was established, there were more women on the Commuters forum. Its a shame that many of them no longer post here.

I did a bike count on the Southwest Corridor Park in Boston late last month after a warm weekend - 26% of the cyclists I saw appeared* to be women.

*It was a breezy chilly day and some people were covered up very well - helmets, hats, scarves, face masks, ski goggles, heavy coats.

It's funny I've noticed the exact same thing but my numbers are probably 25-30% female cyclists. I'd be curious to know what neighborhood you're in. My neighborhood is still undergoing gentrification and only has a couple bike lanes in my neighborhood with none of them being protected. On Manhattan I've noticed a pretty even 50/50 split among male female cyclists.But your right weather seems to play a huge part in how many come out.

It seems a huge shame that so many female cyclists view but don't take part in conversations in the co-ed section of the forums. This makes me wonder if establish a separate and restricted forum was a mistake.

i can think of two other possibilities: (1) There are more women here than you realize. Usernames aren't always gender specific. (2) There's something about the culture of the public forums that isn't welcoming for many women.

is there a separate women's forum? ? Really???
could you tell me more details please? I can't find it. .

This.

My estimates of joggers and cyclists are a general observation made over the seasons, though I do “guesstimate” the gender during the cold weather.

Also at ~ 6-7 AM this is a different group of cyclists, usually “hardcore” (commuters); no Hubway bikes at that time of the morning (Boston version of Citibikes).

Interesting discussion. I'm going to stand on a street corner and tally the men and women riders. It may not be 50% women, but I think it's a good fraction.

I'm also interested in looking at age profiles. Yesterday, I noticed a good number of people who seem to be in their 60's. It's heartening. My wife is in her 60's, and she does some trips by bike, as time permits. (I'm in my 50's.)

30 mi RT commute in full MAWIL get-up (I am doing my darn best to put span in spandex).

Both commuting while female and posting on forums while female require slightly thicker skin and willful and open disregard for the proverbial double standard.

Around 60% male, 40% female among Portland bike commuters.

I have a little trick - when confronted with I-am-king-because-I can-write-my-name-in-the-snow attitudes I mentally hum Annie, Get Your Gun: "anything you can do I can do better"...and communicate and interact from this place of strength. You'd be surprised how many Neanderthals back off right there, insecure bullies they are.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... ... I don't know.... I'm not saying us mouth-breather traditional guy types are angels, but... I've never actually seen any misogynist type posts in any BF post. Its more like women and issues of women and biking are simply ignored by male posters. Moreover recently a number of self-identified women have started posting regularly and I haven't seen them treated disrespectfully. So... ... IMO there is no real need for women to be afraid to post here. Do automotive forums discourage women posters? When I left NYC the overwhelming majority of cyclists on the streets were male. I was dropped on when I saw Portland's cycling scene where every other cyclist is female. An earlier poster puts it at 60/40 but I wonder if it isn't closer to 50/50. Maybe even 60/40 with women being predominant! Women are less likely than men to let ego goad them into commuting by car after the Recession has said, "maybe its time you made a change". I can believe that the commuting dynamic has changed in NYC to reflect this. But getting on the bike and commuting is different from wanting to get on BF and post about it. I mean... what is there to say? That drivers will maul you if you don't have $1000 worth of video recording equipment on your rig? That's a guy thing. So the women are over in the secret forum doing inscrutable things which makes a kind of sense. But... I'm still curious... how does one present one's bonafides for access to the inner sanctum as it were. Is that secret too? I haven't been this intrigued since Jimmy Hoffa went missing...

H

I think most posters here are really decent people. You do get the occasional post about drooling over the young woman who passed you on the bike trail. That does more than make the poster sound creepy and desperate (though it does that too), it also communicates a sense that in the culture of this place it's okay to objectify women's bodies. It would help if more male posters would call each other out on that kind of nonsense.

On the whole, I don't think women are afraid to post here. My guess is that internet forums simply have less appeal as a form of socializing and information gathering for women than they do for me. We're socialized to different communicative preferences.

Curiosity. It's a funny thing. I would bet that your imagination is much, much more interesting than reality. Maybe you are happier not knowing

Apparently us Bostonian commuters like to count. I often do when not riding and instead waiting for buses -- I consistently see about 3:1 men to women (I.e. 25% women, 75% men).

(I'm a woman.)

Yo!

In my town at least, it seemed like I saw more women than men commuting by bicycle during the winter.

[QUOTE=Giant Doofus;16558272](You might be surprised how contentious questions about hydration percentages can be on the bread forum.)

My other main hangout is a knitting site. You should see the dust ups that happen between people when the subject of sythetic vs natural fibers comes up. Or heck, even the correct way to construct a Gansey.

I think a lot of time people assume that someone is male if they can't positively identify the gender of the person, and this also skews the perception towards more male riders. In winter I'm often mistaken for male until I speak, and I was riding with a male friend last month, and he thought we hadn't passed ANY female riders. I assured him that we had, but with the cues he was used to using to identify them (long hair, bustline, face, etc) covered up under goggles, balaclavas, and parkas, he was completely oblivious.

[QUOTE=kookaburra1701;16584638]What is the purpose of a false seam?