Today marks the kickoff of the National Women’s Bicycling Summit in Long Beach. Hooked up to the end of the Pro Bike/Pro Walk Conference, the scheduling is designed to try to capture some of the same audience and get them talking about women’s cycling issues in more depth than the agenda of a wider conference allows.
And that’s great.
Some of the topics being addressed at the conference include the marketing of cycling, the underrepresentation of women in advisory committees and policy, and car-free living. But as ever, there’s also a cycling fashion show.
I have not yet determined if the preponderance of cycling fashion shows at these events is to appease sponsors, is because attendees want them, or if they’re really just an undermining of the overall discussion throughout the day. At the Women’s Cycling Forum in March, some of the speakers definitely crossed into the realm of undermining. TLC Minnesota live-tweeted one session, in which the following was declared by a speaker (not by TLC Minnesota):
A lot of women I know comment on bike shop sexism. I’ve certainly encountered it myself, and have selected shops for my own purchases based on places either with some women on staff who help temper the effect of the testosterone, or where I was confident I’d be respected. Novice women bikers, though, often do go into shops concerned with cuteness of the bike, and don’t always get sufficient help with key indicators like fit and comfort. So, sure, the woman is on a bike. Will she stay on a bike? Not if the bike is heavy and not correct for her needs.
Style does matter. It matters to men, as well. But the emphasis on fashion seems to be overdone. I’ve also seen a bit too much emphasis on biking with infants versus promoting cycling more to women with slightly older children who are less expensive to transport via bicycle, and less fragile.
The opening keynote starts at 4:30 CDT. I plan to watch Twitter for some live tweets from the conference. I genuinely hope that more focus is on utility and social engineering, and not on pinkifying cycling to be more “attractive.” I’d like to think of my fellow female humans that they’re not that shallow. I’d like to think of smart conference speakers and conference goers, they think more of the unconverted audiences as well.
We’ll see.