Thought
For those of you who do not know: I am a student and teacher first, a blogger second. Perhaps I should say I am a daughter, friend, and granddaughter first, but for the purposes of this blog entry, I’m simply a student. Today, I type a warm welcome to my professor, who is reading this. I got approval several weeks ago to use my midterm as a blog entry, which I am incredibly grateful for. I have always wanted to post my papers, but I would have to rewrite several of my academic papers before posting them. Apparently academic vernacular is not usually welcomed on personal blogs. For my midterm, I have decided to research the connection between the bicycle and fight for women’s rights in Victorian Britain. There is no direct connection between the creation of the bicycle and the establishment of women’s rights, liberation, and votes. However, the fear and politics surrounding women riding bicycles after their commercialization provides historians a window into the culture and treatment of women during this time period. Victorian Britain is a period of time in the mid to late 1800s in Great Britain: England, Wales, and Scotland. Please enjoy (maybe) my most proud blog post to date:
Women of Victorian Britain & Bicycles
Throughout the nineteenth century, the West saw the mobilization and establishment of several social movements for rights, representation, votes, but ultimately, better treatment and visibility of marginalized communities. In Great Britain, people unionized for better working conditions and pay, the more humane treatment of incarcerated persons, and votes for women, to name a few. As (predominately white) women collaborated behind closed doors, grievances about negative treatment and lack of opportunity were aired. For the majority of modern history in the United States and Great Britain, women were expected to operate in the private sphere: taking care of the home, children, and waiting dutifully and submissively on their male relatives (husbands, fathers, brothers, etc.). Men, comparatively, engaged in the public sphere: working, politics, and establishing non-familial relationships. There was a certain fear of women entering the public sphere, which influenced the decision to not allow women to ride bicycles. To justify this decision, doctors claimed bike riding was poor for women’s health. Advertising bicycles to women threatened how British society saw womanhood, and, as a result, bicycles became a footnote in the British Women’s Suffrage movement.
A negative response to the Women’s Suffrage movement was the insult “new woman”. The new woman was someone who was not content with the expectations of a traditional woman. Someone self-identifying as “Old Fashioned” wrote to The Daily Telegraph (London Newspaper) in 1894 whining: “Your new woman, it appears, requires everything new. Ordinary dress[es] no longer [suit] her; she must be breeched and booted, ride astride like men, box and fence, and still she is not satisfied”1. Old Fashioned suggests new women purchase different dresses to accommodate riding horses straddling the saddle, rather than side saddle and participate in martial arts. Yet with all of these changes, Old Fashioned argues, new women still are not satisfied. This was a common characterization of new women. Old Fashioned, and other critics of the new woman, framed the request for basic equality as needy and unappeasable. Instead of simply advocating for rights, new women or other suffragettes had to first fight bias and misinformation. This outcry continued through women’s decision to own and ride bicycles.
Unlike Old Fashioned, educated men with medical backgrounds also spoke out against women’s cycling too. The detail of education often justified any stance in an argument. In 1897, Arthur Shadwell, a self-identifying “medical man”, wrote a ten-page opinion essay about the ails of bike-riding, especially for women. Aside from his general observation that “bicycling is attended with serious evils which do not appear on the surface”2, Shadwell specifically warns readers about women cycling. He argues there is a “definite anatomical explanation [which explains] that internal inflammation is not only a conceivable, but a likely consequence of the motions involved [during cycling]”3. Shadwell’s argument provides historians with a lens into the lengths critics would go to shut down women riding bicycles.
In addition to the medical arguments, critics heavily relied on their personal moral dilemmas. Generally, the new woman was feared because of her ignorance to the predetermined spheres: men’s public and women’s private. If women had reliable methods of transportation (bicycles, cars, etc.), what would keep them from leaving the home (private sphere)? This was an underlying question and fear traditional Brits had. One woman who self-identified as “Mother of Three” wrote to The Daily Telegraph (London Newspaper) in 1899 acknowledged: “‘A New Woman’ suggests a bicycle and profession are better than motherhood”4. Notably, however, she qualifies her statement by saying “I know many ladies who have professions, and ride a bicycle, and are fond and devoted mothers”5. Her initial statement, which effectively distanced herself from new women, shows the public’s fear in the possibility of women sacrificing children for bicycles. However, “Mother of Three” ultimately advocates for a compromise: having bicycles made with baby carriers. This compromise argues the only way women can leave the private sphere is if they take a reminder of the home with them: her child.
Providing women with a mode of transportation proved to be one of Great Britain’s traditional elites greatest fears. The possibility of women leaving the private sphere, effectively accepting a life of a motherless and employed bachelorette (something this author strives to be), was a threat to the expectations and morality of British life. When women did not submit to the gendered expectations predominantly wealthy, white British families anticipated and modeled, the ruling class became fearful of any alternative they were not in control of. Insults and skewed medical opinions were British elites’ attempt at quieting the requests and lifestyles of new women. Slowly, working class people subscribed to the pro-tradition movement (created to silence women’s rights campaigns). Bicycles were a tool the ruling class used to maintain their personal expectations and beliefs, because the less opportunities women had to experience something different, the less they would question.
References:
- Old-Fashioned. “Sir—Your New Woman, it appears, requires every-thing ….” Daily Telegraph, October 2, 1894, 3. The Telegraph Historical Archive. ↩︎
- Shadwell, A. “THE HIDDEN DANGERS OF CYCLING.” The National Review 28, no. 168 (02, 1897): 796. ProQuest. ↩︎
- Shadwell, A. “THE HIDDEN DANGERS OF CYCLING.” The National Review 28, no. 168 (02, 1897): 791. ProQuest. ↩︎
- Mother of Three. “The Baby in the Train.” Daily Telegraph, September 4, 1899, 5. The Telegraph Historical Archive. ↩︎
- Mother of Three. “The Baby in the Train.” Daily Telegraph, September 4, 1899, 5. The Telegraph Historical Archive. ↩︎