Special Report: A light history lesson about Women and Bicycles

“Let me tell you what I think of bicycling…I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world”
-Susan B Anthony 1896

Chicks on bikes has always been a controversial issue. When bicycles were first introduced women were seen as frail, weak things with no tolerance for strenuous physical activity.

This was due in part (big part) to the corset. Ever heard the term “loose woman” or straight-laced”? These were directly related to the corset. A loose woman was one who wore her corset well, loosely, and therefore was less proper and even obscene. Someone straight laced was so proper and ladylike that her corset laces ran a straight line up her back. Corsets inhibited both movement and breathing, rendering women weak and unable to do much besides sit uncomfortably and generally just look pretty. Not exactly the best clothing for riding a bicycle.

Another dress issue were the long skirts that women wore, with no exception. These were dangerous for riding, so women started wearing what was known as ‘rational dress’, which turned into a movement against any clothing that "deforms the figure, impedes the movement of the body, or in any way tends to injure the health. It protests against the wearing of tightly fitted corsets, of high-heeled or narrow toed boots and shoes; of heavily weighted skirts, as rendering healthy exercise almost impossible.... "
This did not go over well.

Bicycles also gave women mobility and independence (gasp!). No longer were they at the mercy of horse drawn carriages (which many women had trouble driving because of the restrictive corsets). Women could go places when they wanted to, and were not forced to stay close to home. This clearly meant that they were going to go to bars and start stripping, right? That was the consensus. That women would get into physical and moral danger once they could go off on their own, innocent little things now at the mercy of the big, bad world.

As noted by Clare S. Simpson noted, "The independent mobility of cyclists raised genuine alarm for their physical, if not moral, safety; simply put, the bicycle could easily take women to unsavoury places where they might be endangered physically ... or morally. Drawing on previous knowledge of the kinds of women who deliberately made themselves conspicuous in public, that is, prostitutes, there would be a strong tendency to conclude that cycling women were far from respectable: not exactly prostitutes, perhaps, but possibly women of loose morals or with an undeveloped sense of propriety."

Women pedaled on. They were scorned as ‘harlots’ for the sexually provocative straddling of the seat and warned against the hidden dangers of the nervous troubles that concentrating on the road would bring to them. Their religious beliefs were questioned, as often they chose to take a ride on Sundays, seen as a direct assault on the Sabbath.

Women on bicycles have never completely shaken the stigma. Women who ride today are seen as tough, tomboyish types. Bikes ‘made for women’ are often just shortened versions of men’s bikes with larger seats (!).

However, things are changing. There is a fascination recently with fashionable women on bikes. Skirts and heels, although rare in the USA, are becoming more accepted on the saddles. And women on bicycles are starting to finally be seen as…women.

A welcome change indeed.