Women represents more than half of human population, still their percentage in total bikers is less than half. Why is that?
It is clear that lack of bike infrastructures, mainly bike lines and their width, affects this behavior. Additional improvement on streets are also needed such as better lighting or perhaps excessive speed of actors which share common space. But, among all what makes it difficult for women is society. Yes, society because they suffer machismo, verbal aggression and even sexual harassment. If I ride my bicycle, nobody says me “You go on sidewalk!”, and I feel strong enough to recriminate a male car driver if he makes a dangerous maneuver which endangers my life. Moreover, lack of opportunities to learn how to ride a bike in the past influences it today. Besides, sadly who dedicates more time in tasks such as taking care of people, buying in the supermarket and housework are women which let them less free time for themselves in comparison with men.
As it comes to human behavior, what I see would increase the percentage of women on bikes is women empowering. So women, please, please, please do not mind to idiots, defend your space, ride your bikes in the middle of a car line because bicycles are traffic.
Secure cities and egalitarian societies will boom bike women.