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Nov 2012
10:09am, 27 Nov 2012
48,097 posts
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Puddington
It's the time for me. I'm confident enough now, I think. But the time I have for exercise is used up with running. Which I enjoy more.
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Nov 2012
10:19am, 27 Nov 2012
780 posts
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MudMeanderer
V'Rap - I don't think you should underestimate the draw of expensive toys in drawing a lot of males to cycling. I could be wrong, but get the impression a smaller proportion of the female populous find an appeal in such mechanical contraptions.
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Nov 2012
10:21am, 27 Nov 2012
23,251 posts
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Nellers
It's mechanical stuff, V'Rap. Women can't work spanners.;-)
No. being serious it's got to be a cultural thing. From the outside (and I've never been a member of either a local running or cycling club) running clubs have a mix of gender, age and ability whereas the cycling groups I see are exclusively male and mainly in the 40-60 age range. If I were female I think I'd find going along for the first time to such a group much more intimidating than going to Benfleet or Pitsea running clubs.
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Nov 2012
10:22am, 27 Nov 2012
22,455 posts
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Velociraptor
Time, yes, I absolutely agree, you CAN train a lot more on a bike, but you also NEED to train more on a bike to get the same benefit as you do from running ... but the blokes, even the ones who aren't very good at it, seem to manage to carve out time for training, and you don't much about groups of female hobby-cyclists buggering off to Majorca for month-long "training camps" in February.
 Marketing opportunity 
Which, in itself, probably indicates that women ON AVERAGE (not all, obviously) have different attitudes and may lack the confidence and ruthlessness to say, "YOU mind the kids, I'M going out on my bike/going for a long day on the crags with my mates/taking the boat to France"
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Nov 2012
10:39am, 27 Nov 2012
22,457 posts
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Velociraptor
I agree about the cycling clubs, Nellers. The lads at eL Bee!'s club are generally very nice and charming with me, but they aren't interested in actively supporting me as an improving cyclist, whereas they're ever so supportive of blokes who go along to club rides and struggle to keep up/last the course at first. The only woman who rides with them regularly used to ride for her country.
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Nov 2012
10:40am, 27 Nov 2012
2,657 posts
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Mountain Cat
"...may lack the confidence and ruthlessness to say, "YOU mind the kids, I'M going out on my bike/going for a long day on the crags with my mates/taking the boat to France""
Nail. Head.
I think this is one of the reasons behind the low number of women with kids who are active mountaineers. There are lots of dads in my club, but not a single mum.
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Nov 2012
11:46am, 27 Nov 2012
9,878 posts
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Mikuro
I would love to say to a partner you mind the kids, I would love to be an active mountaineer, but alas being a single parent means severe lack of adequate childcare and to be honest it would feel a bit selfish even if I did. When he's old enough however he will get dragged with me up mountains.
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Nov 2012
12:15pm, 27 Nov 2012
10,694 posts
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Yorkshire Pie
There are definitely cultural factors at play.
Here, as V'rap says female particulation in cycling events is much lower than in running events. I've certainly been put off cycling things by the lack of women (not so much sportives, but some of the more racey stuff really doesn't appeal at least in part because I know I won't be able to keep up with the men, but there aren't enough women for a separate womens event - the local grass track league for one).
But in other countries even running has low female participation. Take Spain. I've done a few races over in the Canaries and other than the races that are targetted more at the international crowd (marathons and the like) it's rare to have more than 10% women. The 10k we did earlier this month had over 300 finishers (three hundred and twenty something, I think), and 29 of them were women. The impression I've got from Spanish running magazines is that the position is little better on the mainland although women's running is a growth area (from a very low starting point) so it may be improving.
Clearly Spanish women aren't physically less suited to running than English ones, so there must be cultural factors at play stopping them getting out there and doing it.
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Nov 2012
1:14pm, 27 Nov 2012
4,920 posts
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fleecy
That's a really interesting point, YP. I do think that running even in the UK does seem in general to under-represent minorities actually. You rarely see Asians running round here (with quite a lot of Asians in this area), I'm not sure I've seen many black people running, I see the odd Nepalese man running round here (huge Gurkha population here) and that's about it. I wonder how much of this is cultural?
I think it's pretty cool that so many women run when you consider that till relatively recently it was hugely frowned upon. It was apparently quite common for people to think that women's wombs would fall out if they ran Personally I'd prefer to run a mixed event rather than a women only one, but I do get that some women have massive confidence issues so whatever gets them out there is fine by me.
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Nov 2012
1:18pm, 27 Nov 2012
1,932 posts
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Northern Exile
Not just cultural I would say - there's huge social barriers here too. It saddens me greatly, but I know there is a good amount of the female population out there who would love to partake actively in sporting events (or even just go the gym on a regular basis) but won't because of a fear of being judged on their appearance. Surely that's society's fault?
I have a workmate who is always telling me about his wife wanting to go the gym, take up jogging, but is terrified of going outside the house in sports kit and without full make-up. It maddens me, but I understand that this is the way things are.
I don't like the idea of female-only events, because the rose-tinted glasses I peer through have us all living in a land of total equality, I have lots of female friends and don't feel in slightest bit intimidated by some of the incredibly tough women I have met as a result of my running - just respect and admiration, the same as I would for a comparable bloke. So, maybe the female-only race is an inevitable consequence of social pressure and the chavvish culture that has evolved over the past 20 years or so - the one that thinks it's OK to harass a lone female out running or hurl abuse from a car. If it helps to get people out of the door and out from behind that mask, who are we (i.e. the male contingent) to object?
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