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Women on Wheels: How Women Found Freedom through Bicycling

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Is it surprising that in the 1 …

Is it surprising that in the 1890s conservatives panicked at visions of women riding alone, with other women, or with unsuitable men, and campaigned to stop them? Some claimed that women would damage themselves by acquiring a “bicycle face,” or would get sexual pleasure from bicycling — and thus ruin their reproductive capacities. When women and girls first rode bicycles in large numbers, they celebrated their new freedom to move around in the world. Susan B. Anthony thought bicycling had “done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world.” Other suffragists praised bicycling as a road to fuller citizenship for women: women would travel more widely on their own, and would learn a larger sense of responsibility to their fellow travelers. This PSP program will ask audiences to consider how bicycling and other means of mobility have affected history and our own levels of physical activity.

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  • About
    ▼
    • Our What, Why, and How
      ▼
      • About NJCH
      • Impact
    • Our People
      ▼
      • Staff & Interns
      • Board of Trustees
      • Grantees
      • Job Openings
    • Our Commitments
      ▼
      • Accessibility
      • Engagement
      • Representation
  • Grants & Sponsorships
    ▼
    • Grants
    • Sponsorships
    • Funded Projects
    • Information For Grantees
  • Programs & Initiatives
    ▼
    • For the General Public
      ▼
      • Clemente Course in the Humanities
      • Community Conversations
      • Democracy Conversation Project
      • Informed NJ
      • Museum on Main Street
    • For Organizations and Professionals
      ▼
      • Community History
      • Communities of Practice
      • Humanities Lab
      • In the Weeds
      • Katz Prize
      • Prime Time Reading
    • Thematic Areas
      ▼
      • Strengthening Democracy
      • Supporting Nonprofit Professionals
      • Supporting Community Colleges
    • Past Programs
  • News
  • Events
  • Donate
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