What is stopping women from cycling? | Hacker News Reader

What is stopping women from cycling?

bbc.co.uk

3 pointsedward10 comments

Pardon me if I sound vulgar, but could it also be perspiration?

Going to work in an office not completely fresh smelling often attracts more opprobrium with women than with men.

While that wasn't mentioned directly, one of the quotes was:

> I would also have to overcome the fear of the work shower room (singular). And figure out how to dry my hair and do my make-up to make myself presentable for work - all in the confines of one slightly grotty space.

This points out that "fresh smelling" isn't the only factor. In general, women are held to higher standards regarding hair and makeup than men are.

Women typically have much longer hair than men. This is much more of a burden in terms of trying to appear publicly presentable than most people seem to realize.

I know this from firsthand experience. I have kept my hair short like a man for about a decade. It makes a really huge difference in terms of what is needed for me to look presentable. I can just shower and wash my hair and not even dry it and my hair looks fine. With even a few inches of hair, you simply can't do that. It looks terrible and also drips all over your clothes.

Coincidentally, I am a man who for about a decade had long hair, down to the middle of my back, and I now have short hair.

I still think I was held to lower standards. Though now that I think about it, it's not like my jobs had high standards, either formal or informal.

When I say "lower standards", that includes my own low standards. That is, I remember going out with still-wet hair, including one time when I felt like I had a stick caught in my hair, only to realized that no, it had simply frozen.

Additionally, as that quote points out, we tend to have higher sanitary standards for spaces where we clean ourselves.

Anecdatum: lack of protected bike lanes. My commute is a perfect distance for cycling, but the idea of sharing the road with drivers terrifies me.

The text "Another primary concern for many female cyclists is safety, according to a report on cycling by Sustrans in 2013." links to https://www.sustrans.org.uk/blog/why-dont-more-women-cycle which provides the data point "67% of women said cycle lanes separated from traffic was the number one thing that will get more women cycling".

Lack of safety.

Yes. The third paragraph is:

"Commonly cited reasons for shunning the benefits of getting into the saddle include sexual harassment, fears about appearance and concerns about safety. So what can be done to get more women on their bikes and out on the road?"

Dedicated and physically separated bike lanes, I guess.

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