by Maria David » Tue Dec 11, 2007 11:30 pm
I think it’s fair enough to say that not all women want to race. I don’t imagine that it’s the case. However, as Sid says women want to keep fit – and that sort of thing is generally goal oriented.
Let’s face it cycling, like football, rugby, cricket or motor-racing are very male dominated. (How many of the posts on this very subject are actually from women compared to the number from men??) Just like a woman who joins a football club is not doing it just to pootle around doing a bit of keep-it-uppy, any woman who goes to the trouble of looking for a cycling club to join is not going to be uniquely interested in leisure cycling.
In fact, in the time I was at ACC I can think of very few women who didn’t do any competitive cycling event at all.
Women have done time trials, triathlons, cyclo-sportives, cyclo-cross, mountain bike events, road racing – all sorts of things.
We got women doing the Jack’n’Jill time trial, we had nearly all the ACC women out to do a 2-part cycling event a couple of years ago at Ellens Green - some time trialling in the morning, and others road racing in the afternoon. It was a good day out.
Human nature is such that you will get involved in something regularly if you feel you can be involved in it and it feels like you make a difference. If you want greater involvement from women cyclists there has to be a framework in place whereby they can feel involved and feel they can achieve something. The club needs to be seen to offer something for all abilities of rider – beginners and racers alike.
Getting a load of women to ride together every month or whatever, is all well and good but that model can’t work ad infinitum. Something needs to be done to retain the women that join. Leaving it to one person to move things to the next stage is not enough. If things don’t evolve then the riders just leave – as we have seen a number of times.
It may be worth looking into how other clubs have managed it – Agisko Viner, Twickenham CC, London Dynamo, Kingston Phoenix, London Phoenix have a significant number of women. Although there are clear differences in how competitive the women across these clubs are, it is fair to say that all of them have managed to get women involved in cycle sport in one shape or form, doing different types of events.
Hope that clarifies things.