FEATURE
“I have been welcomed into the cycling community with love and sincerity, by a force of strong women. I have been supported and encouraged to move forward in all aspects of cycling, from becoming a ride leader, completing a city and guilds bike mechanic course to applying for funding to run my own cycling sessions, sharing my experiences and my journey at events, and supporting the community to get into cycling. The narrative that the cycling industry is still dominated by older, white males has not been apparent to me. (Even as a British Pakistani woman in her 40s). I have had the opportunity to support women from marginalised communities to learn to ride, build confidence and self-esteem and become part of their own cycling community. I have brought women together from diverse backgrounds to access cycle training at the Velodrome and have organised and hosted an event for the SEND community. All have been well received and very successful.“ - Cycling instructor, 1-3 years in industry
“Being a female working in the bike industry, I have found this to be challenging at times as there are still people out there who would prefer to speak with a male because they believe that a female is incapable of knowing technical things regarding bikes or knows what parts of a bike are. However, it can also sometimes be rewarding to be able to assist someone and they are thankful at the end.
It can be frustrating when someone is mansplaining something to you when you understand what it is completely and probably more than them. As an example, I actually had a customer call and say their mech hanger was broken and then said “You do know what that is don’t you,” and that made me feel quite insulted.” - Senior Account Manager within Customer Service, 4+ years in industry
“On a press trip of 28 journalists, I was the only female. For the most part, I was treated as an equal, but I was subjected to many comments such as ‘pretty girls shouldn’t have to load their own bikes onto the uplift’” - Web editor & journalist, 5+ years in industry
“As a recruiter, I have contact with 90% (at least) male candidates. Clients/companies look for more diversity but have industry limitations because of expected previous industry experience. On a more personal level, I experienced some ‘mansplaining’ when I was new to the industry as I had missing knowledge of bikes, but once you are ‘part of it’ you are taken more seriously.” - HR, 3 years in industry
www.bikebiz.com
April 2025 | 51
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