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The Long and Triumphant History of Women in Cycling

by Angie Schmitt on January 27, 2011, StreetsBlog

As women latched on to cycling, they began to demand other freedoms as well. Image: Cycle and Style


The scene was America in the midst of a cycling craze. Cycling conventions were affecting the way people dressed and spoke. Enthusiasts were banding together to lobby for better road conditions.

Sound familiar? It was against this background in late 1800s and the early 1900s that the Women’s Suffrage Movement took hold.

The two phenomena were not entirely distinct. Women were enthusiastic participants in the cycling boom, trading petticoats for riding costumes and racing competitively. It was part of the impetus that led them to demand other types of independence, according to the book “Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom,” by Sue Macy.

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