While not a community bike program, when I worked at REI in Virginia I taught many intro and advanced bike classes which seemed to be male dominated or male only. The classes were open to everyone, but I believe women were not comfortable in that community coming to these classes based upon past experiences, possibly in mixed gender mechanical settings - many of my female customers would reinforce the gender discrimination I experienced in the race scene and shops at which I've worked in the past. I wrote and taught a women's only bike mechanics workshop that received very strong responses. Women were more comfortable asking questions (and arguing points) when men weren't around. When I moved to Boston to run a shop up here, I found that the classes were more gender balanced. I offered the idea of a women's only class series to customers and class attendees, few of whom expressed interest. One of them told me "we don't have any problems with men being there."

Sure, political climate of the areas may factor in. More importantly the bicycle culture in Northern Virginia is way behind the strength and saturation of the culture in the Boston area. That being said, while working at a bike shop in Boston as a green mechanic, the owner had one of the more experienced female mechanics re-stock socks and sweep the floors while he asked me to do repairs. I explained I was not comfortable doing the task at hand, and he told me to try. The other male mechanics would frequently ostracize the female staff trying to do repair work (some of whom handled it better than others). The owner explained to me that when high powered businessmen come in with their expensive bikes, after spending the day surrounded by male clients and colleagues they expect a guy to fix their bike, and it reflects poorly to have a woman in the shop.

I don't work at that shop anymore (didn't for much longer after that went down) but there is certainly that programming in cycling culture to work against. That poor attitude has also cost that shop many customers. Many shops in Boston are better than that, but it takes community programs (and their gender sensitivity) to remind cycling culture that communities exist of more than old boy's clubs.

Scott

On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 7:46 PM, Bike Church <thebikechurch@gmail.com> wrote:

At the Bike Church (Santa Cruz), we actively encourage females already in the space to start volunteering - fully intending on later recruiting them to become mechanics/core members of the collective.
Personally, when I speak to females while trying to recruit them, I'm very upfront about our desire to have more women in the shop. I try to allude to my personal feelings that without some sort of gender balance we, as a community space, are incomplete. I hope that it translates and makes them feel valued.

A fellow mechanic walked through the office as I was typing this, and he said that BICAS, who has employees rather than volunteers, has a policy of having at least one woman per shift. He also mentioned that, within our society, women are some what demotivated to learn mechanical skills because of the lack of potential long term compensation. When a male is learning mechanical skills in a community bike shop, he is learning a skill set that he can use as a machinist, carpenter, or bike tech in another shop. A woman is less likely to be offered or take those positions, so there is less motivation for them to learn skills that may not have further applications beyond the community shop or their own personal bicycle.

I really encourage shops to have internal conversations about the topic. It may not get far, but it's important to begin the process. AND, it's important for male mechanics to really listen to what female mechanics have to say. A strong sense of empathy only goes so far guys. At some point, you have to stop, listen, and defer to what they're feeling.
-Adam

On Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 2:49 PM, Bike City <bikecityrecyclery@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello everybody,

I've been mulling over a lot of ideas lately about overthrowing the male
domination of bicycle co-ops, collectives, recycleries, mechanics, and
the industry in general.

Are there any non-males out there who would be interested in discussing
strategies to whoop the shit out of male privilege? I'd like to set an
email list up for this purpose, but in the meantime, please email me:
the.attica@gmail.com

Thanks,
andrea

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