Its hard to belive that women and cycling was once a contentious issue!....There were issues of modest dress,the worry by the american writer James McGurn that the 'Unfettered liberty of bicycling would intoxicate women to immoral acts' and if women could even physically manage the exercise......None of this put off those who were determined to seize the freedom it gave and to try and expand horizons....one of these women was Frances E Willard who was an influental womens social reformer....she wrote the book 'how i learned to ride the bicycle'...hoping to encourage more women to cycle.... she started at the age of 53! Frances wrote alot in her book about the correct dress....encouraging the use of bloomers and the ditching of corsets! As Francis says'It will be a delight to girls to learn that the fact of their sex is,in itself,not a bar to riding a wheel.'
Posts
