Amazingly cycling races for women were established in Belgium and France as early as in the middle of the 19th century In 1868 the first known all female bicycle race took place in Bordeaux with four participants Offi cially though bicycle racing for wom en was established much later in the nineteen fifties Most races were ini tially limited to national levels 1958 was the first year in which women com peted in world championships for bicy cle road racing The Olympics began to admit pedaling females to road cycling events in 1984 followed by track cycling in 1988 and finally mountain bike and BMX racing in 2008 The history of women in bicycle racing This wood engraving shows that bicycle races with female participation existed in France as far back as in 1868 Improper indecent utterly vulgar in the 19th century bike riding women were facing icy cold headwinds If they were merely the targets of verbal abuse they were lucky Bus drivers were not above flicking at me with the whip and cab men thought it fun to converge upon me from be hind suffragist Helena Swanwick reported at the end of the 19th century as Hannah Ross wrote in her book Revolutions How Women Changed the World on Two Wheels published in 2021 see info box on page 35 Such adversity though did not deter Swanwick a London women s rights activ ist from cycling because her life had been great ly enlarged by the activity Many women back in those days felt exactly the same gain in quality of life The bicycle as an emancipation booster Ride a bike and gain time On bicycles women symbolically rode toward freedom enlarging their range of motion that pre viously had been restricted to their obligations at home Bicycles made it possible for women to save time that they were now able to use for at tending to personal needs such as education Not least though cycling was also a symbol of pro test against male guardianship because many men did not take kindly to women shedding their domestic shackles fearing that they would literal ly ride away from them Incredible but true The arguments to discourage women from cycling which the prevailing patriar chy was using at that time could not be topped in terms of absurdity The so called bicycle face was publicized as a serious threat to female health in the late 19th century Women spending too much time in a bicycle seat would have to expect an ir reversible disfigurement of their face Ross quotes a female doctor talking about a cycling patient The haze the elusiveness the subtle suggestion of the face are gone it is the landscape without atmosphere Dr Martin Mendelsohn a Berlin university profes sor didn t even shy away from touting sordid sex ual theories that are utterly ludicrous from today s perspective but were meant to be a serious argu ment around the turn of the century Other times other manners By Björn Carstens However the campaigners against female cy clists included some women as well In 1896 for instance Charlotte Smith of the Women s Rescue League petitioned the United States Congress to prohibit women from riding bicycles calling bikes the devil s advance agent morally and physical ly Even more bizarre was her claim that cycling turned respectable women into prostitutes However that and other forms of hostility achieved exactly the opposite of what was in tended The discourse that was taking place in the general public actually inspired many women to develop an identity as a self confident cyclist TIME TRAVEL 33

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