FEATURE
‘I KNOW THAT WOMEN GETTING INTO BICYCLE MECHANICS IS NOT JUST A LOCAL ISSUE, IT’S NOT JUST A NATIONAL ISSUE – IT IS AN INTERNATIONAL ISSUE’
demographic.When you start looking into it and talking to other women, it’s the same all over the country. “As an industry, we’re trying to encourage more women to
get onto bikes. But one of the biggest hurdles for women to continue riding is they don’t know how to fix it. So the two go hand in hand for me. “Do we want the industry to be a closed shop? The world is shifting and the UK is changing. The bike industry could do more to create opportunities and training for women, and to support the very few organisations who are creating a more diverse cycling community.”
Lived experiences Discrimination remains a significant problem and it comes in many different forms. Systemic racism and sexism, unconscious bias and indirect are a few examples. Sometimes, it’s completely blatant, as Everett explains. “One of my stories is when a man came into a store where I was working, he looked directly at me and said, ‘wow, I’ve never seen a female bike mechanic before’. I joked, ‘yes, let’s mark this time and date’’ “I thought he was going to stop there but he carried on and said, ‘because you’re a female mechanic, do I get my repair for half price or even completely free?’ “He did it completely straight faced.” Once the customer left, Everett turned to her male colleagues who acknowledged it was wrong but decided against stepping in. “It was interesting to understand the way that they see discrimination,” she said.
“If he had changed the word ‘female’ to ‘black’ the guys acknowledged how bad that would have been. If it was a race thing, straightaway they said they would have stepped in and commented. “All types of discrimination are just as bad. Switching out one word for another, shouldn’t mean it has less weight to it. That is kind of an education in itself.”
Positive support As vital as it is to highlight the lived experiences of people who have faced discrimination, it’s also important to praise those offering support.
“There is a lot of positivity and there’s a lot of people who
want to shift and change,” said Everett. “That’s a lot from men as well, who have been incredibly supportive.
“I think if it wasn’t for my latter experience with some of the men that I’ve worked with, I probably would have dropped out of the industry from the very beginning because it wasn’t a
22 | April 2024
pleasant experience. So that’s what’s made me stay.” For Everett, it’s also about the people she sees on a daily basis being influenced by Bee Pedal Ready. “I think being around women on bikes can be a little bit more complex. There’s a lot more emotion. There’s a lot more boundaries. Women feel a lot more vulnerable. “And when they do end up fixing bikes, their stories are just mind blowing; there’s a huge impact. “They’re the things that make you want to continue and they’re obviously reciprocating and continuing to come to the workshops.”
What next for Bee Pedal Ready? Since founding Bee Pedal Ready less than two years ago, both Everett and the community interest charity have received a wealth of praise. Everett was recognised as one of Cycling UK’s Top 100
Women in Cycling in 2022, named Greater Manchester’s Bicycle Mayor in June 2023, and Bee Pedal Ready was awarded Diversity Champion at November’s BikeBiz Awards. But this is just the beginning with Everett looking to continue developing a space where women come together as a collective and fix bikes. Away from the workshop, Bee Pedal Ready organised a bike ride for International Women’s Day that went “phenomenally well” called #RidesforWomen. “We incorporated a Spanner Station and it was really great
to see women fixing bikes,” added Everett. “We have another mass bike ride at the end of the year – Lights Up – and we definitely want to incorporate this again.” Everett is also keen to explore how Bee Pedal Ready could benefit those beyond Manchester. “I know that women getting into bicycle mechanics is not just a local issue, it’s not just a national issue – it is an international issue,” she said. “I’m interested do more research into that and understand that the barriers and hurdles that we have in Manchester are the same elsewhere “I was talking to a woman quite recently in Mumbai who owns her own bike shop, even though she’s thousands of miles away, we are coming up against the same thing.” The heart of Bee Pedal Ready remains the ambition to get more women into cycling and fixing their own bikes. Part of this is working with girls from a younger age. “The youngest girl we worked with was five/six years of age and she was just on it. She was fixing bikes with her father and loved it,” said Everett. “Having more family-focused events and getting girls fixing bikes from a younger age group is key to seeing change.”
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