Getting more women into leadership positions in the bicycle industry has become a key target for the organisation Women in Cycling. At Eurobike, they brought together more than 200 female participants for its breakfast on the third day of the show.
The Women in Cycling event has become an established part of Eurobike’s program in the last few years, and it’s drawing a growing number of participants – but very few hands went up when the organizer asked who was part of a company’s leadership.
“When it comes to decision-making boards, I realized over the last two days that it’s still only a few who make it to the very top,” said Isabell Erbelein from Velokonzept, which helps organize the breakfast. “We have to make sure that it’s not only networking and empowerment. We still have a lot of hard work to do to make sure that we have diverse representation on decision-making boards – and that doesn’t include only women, diversity should be wider.”
Eberlein and other participants called for “fundamental and structural” change, which could be achieved in part through local groups. A Europe-wide organisation, Women in Cycling supports active communities that implement initiatives in their own country. “We very much learn from each other,” Eberlein said. “The U.K. did a study, which Germany will adapt. France did a manifesto, that Women in Cycling in Germany is building upon. Switzerland is following now, taking all of these into account.”
In between brief talks about female cycling and networking, participants at the breakfast were urged to connect by chatting around set topics with women they didn’t already know. Deborah Wu, managing director at KMC, particularly praised the Liv community for bringing together female cyclists. She advocated in favour of joint initiatives between Women in Cycling and the community created by Bonnie Tu from Giant.
Other participants highlighted the concrete impact of initiatives that encourage women to ride, often in a convivial atmosphere. Kerstin Kortekamp from Schicke Mütze, a bicycle shop and workshop in Düsseldorf, explained how she helps reinforce the community through the Good Time Tuesday women’s rides. She even managed to throw in a quote from a feminist punk band.
Other four-minute talks focused on gender-equal design and representation of women in cycling media. Pinar Pinzutti, a “cycling brainwasher” at Bikenomist in Milan, argued that more balanced media representation would help to provide a wider range of perspectives, and encourage more people to take up cycling.
Women in Cycling is an initiative from Cycling Industries Europe, the European Cycling Federation, Velokonzept, Mobycon and Conebi, aiming to help women to “get more visibility, impact and leading seats in the cycling industry and in the entire sector.”