9 Significant Photos in the History of Women’s Cycling

Photo moments that show how the bicycle paved the way for women's emancipation and how it went on to shape women's cycling.

Female cyclist in rational dress from 1889. Source: http://1890swriters.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/1890s-womens-fashion.html
The Safety Cycle: Photograph: London Stereoscopic Company Getty Images
Cambridge students hang an effigy of a woman riding a bike in protest against university admission. Photograph: Hulton Archive/ Getty Images
Source: http://www.brainpickings.org/2012/01/03/donts-for-women-on-bicycles-1895/
Two suffragettes on bicycles in 1914. Photograph: Corbis
Beryl Burton
Connie Carpenter-Phinney wins the LA Olympics Road Race in 1984. Photo sourced from http://pages.rapha.cc/
Helen Wyman wins the 2013 Koppenbergcross. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images Afp/AFP/Getty Images
Photo: http://www.womenstour.co.uk/

The bicycle was also a symbol of the Suffrage movement – the campaign for a vote for women.

Over 100 hundred years ago, Alice Hawkins, a suffragette, cycled around Leicester promoting the women’s rights movement. She upset the city greatly, largely due to her clothing choices in wearing pantaloons!