Women who Bike--Meet Carolyn Szczepanski of League of American Bicyclists

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Comment by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on October 29, 2012 at 5:24pm

Ladies - we are in the restaurant section beyond the bar section.

Comment by Lisa Curcio on October 29, 2012 at 11:16am

I am not an organizer, but if someone came up with a plan I can work on it!  Maybe League of American Bicyclists has some ideas :-)

Yes, the grassroots effort has been effective.  I am riding because of one of my female colleagues who rode her bike to work.  The funny thing was that I talked to her about how she did it not because I was afraid of riding but because I could not figure out how I was going to handle dressing for work.  Turned out that was the easy part!

Comment by Gin on October 29, 2012 at 9:02am

I hear ya Lisa. I am 40, and had the fortune to grow up in the wake of my elders' efforts. I never felt particularly "gendered." It not only seems that little progress has been made in areas, in many ways I see regression.

I will be there with bells on.  I have seen many exciting changes in Chicago. So many more women biking than when I got involved 15 years ago. And there are more women involved in bike advocacy.  The one on one informal mentoring, and grassroots based information and inspiration sharing has been very effective at changing the lives of individuals, but how do you take that to scale? 

Comment by Lisa Curcio on October 27, 2012 at 7:41pm

Perhaps one of the things we can talk about is a program to mentor women by women.  This is useful in the boating arena in which women are similarly afraid.  Neither cycling nor boating skills require a great deal of strength.  In fact, mental acuity is far more important in both areas, and the women who are afraid of handling a boat or afraid of cycling in the streets would certainly not admit they are not as smart as the guys who do it all of the time.  Somehow we just need to convey this.

Comment by Anne Alt on October 27, 2012 at 7:35pm

Lisa - I share your disappointment in making so little progress over the last 30 years.  We absolutely need advocacy.  

In the last week, I've had conversations with 2 women in different settings about riding on the streets.  Both expressed fear and asked "how do you do it?"  I have way too many of these conversations, mostly with women.

Bike handling skills and defensive riding are important to help women overcome that fear and be able to ride safely and confidently for transportation.  Having female instructors to teach those skills may make the goal of transportation riding a little less formidable.

Comment by Lisa Curcio on October 26, 2012 at 8:03pm

Ladies,

I am older than many of you--from the era of "women's lib".  At times I despair that thirty years later we have made so little progress.  

You might think that we do not need advocacy---you are wrong.

Today, there was an article in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin about the low numbers of female equity partners in large law firms.  This is important as a symptom of the lack of change in the world at large. More than 50% of law students have been women for a long time, but the culture in the practice has change little.

I am a member of the legal community.  The men I encounter in my community who see me commuting by bike never say "I am scared to ride on the streets". Most (not all) of the women say "How do you ride on the streets?  It scares me."

Please, ladies, let's do what we can to advance the cause!