Everyday sexism at the London Bike Show
I have to wonder, out loud, where all the women are
I’m wandering around the London Bike Show when I’m approached by a lady selling subscriptions to a well-known cycling magazine. As I flick through a copy, I tell her I probably won’t sign up because, well, there are no women in it. To which, she says, “Gosh, you’re right. I hadn’t even noticed. That’s really bad.” We change subject but a few moments later it’s still on her mind. “Do you know, I’m so used to it, I think I just don’t even see it anymore,” she says.
Maybe it’s because I’m relatively new to the cycling world, having only recently completed my first cycling tour, but I do see it. I see it everywhere I look, and especially at this cycling event billed as “a great day out for anyone looking to get more active on two wheels.” For me it’s not a great day out; it’s a shocking one. I feel unwelcome and invisible, feelings that I’m finding are all too common as I travel deeper into the cycling world.
There is the cycling insurance company with a magazine featuring professional cyclists and endurance athletes, including not one image of a woman, except for a babe on the back cover (blonde hair, long plait, muddy) to sell the actual insurance product. Even the cycling cartoons all over the company’s branding are male-only. The CEO tells me, with barely concealed self-congratulation, that he did notice this all by himself and pointed it out to his editor. I guess that must have been after he had signed off the draft version and it had gone to print.
There is the male visitor who, at the stand of an innovative bar tape company, tells me confidently that this new company will probably do quite well because “more girls are cycling now, aren’t they, and they like pretty stuff like that.”
There is the Head of Marketing of an online cycling retailer who is promoting Maap and Black Sheep Clothing, but who has never heard of pioneering female brands like Machines for Freedom. He tells me that his company struggles to recruit women and I privately wonder whether turning down the dial on all his #sufferfest alpha-male branding might just attract more of the female talent out there.
And of course, the majority of brand reps are male, and the bike and clothing ranges are male-focused too. The only exception I can find is Stomp the Pedal, a clothing start up with a great women’s wear range. Surprise surprise, their tiny stand is tucked away right at the back. But the reason I find it? Because it is crowded by women trying to get a look and talk to its founder about fit and sizing.
We know that the female market is there. So why, in 2018, are mainstream cycling brands and events like the London Bike Show still ignoring it? After a day talking to the men who run these organisations, I have a suspicion that it’s largely because the cycling world they know is about riding with the boys and they have no idea how to talk about, or more importantly to, women who cycle.
So, like the woman selling the cycling magazine, let’s open our eyes to it. Then let’s call it out. Let’s go to these events and confront the organisations perpetuating this laughable imbalance and make them think twice about their male-only teams and imagery. Let’s ask them what they think about Queen of the Mountain’s new range or equal prize money on the Tour Down Under or Sarah Hammond winning Race to the Rock two years running. Let’s smile when they’re not up to speed on what we’re talking about. And then let’s go and make the queue at stands like Stomp the Pedal a little bit longer.
