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Description
A Century of Women Who Rode Anyway — The Feminist History of Bicycling
Women on Wheels opens with a question April Streeter couldn't shake: why had cycling in her bike-friendly city of Portland become so joyless and competitive, so dominated by a particular kind of aggressive masculinity? The answer sent her back through more than a century of bicycle history — to burlesque-style race exhibitions and velodrome spectacles of the 19th century, to women who rode to war in disguise, to professionals who were celebrated and then systematically excluded, to riders whose names disappeared from the record simply because no one bothered to keep them. This book puts them back.
Streeter draws on primary sources to bring her subjects to life with specific, vivid detail — the fashion, the gambling, the hustle, the sheer physical audacity of women who competed in front of crowds or pedaled into territories no one expected them to enter. Profiles of figures like Annie Londonderry (who circumnavigated the globe by bicycle), Kittie Knox (who challenged racial barriers in American cycling), Dorothy Lawrence (who disguised herself as a soldier), Louise Armaindo (one of the great endurance racers of her era), and Katharine Hepburn sit alongside the broader arc of cycling's evolution as sport and transportation. The history is maddening and inspiring in roughly equal measure — and pointedly relevant to every woman who's ever felt unwelcome on a group ride.
The Riders History Forgot — Until Now
- Spans more than a century of women's cycling history, from 19th-century velodrome spectacles to the modern era, drawn from primary sources.
- Profiles include Annie Londonderry (first woman to circumnavigate the globe by bicycle), Kittie Knox (who fought racial exclusion in American cycling clubs), Dorothy Lawrence (who disguised herself as a male soldier), Louise Armaindo (endurance racing star), and Katharine Hepburn, among others.
- Covers the almost theatrical race exhibitions and creative performances of early professional women's cycling — a part of the sport's history that's been largely erased.
- Traces how women went from being stars of the velodrome to being systematically excluded as cycling became institutionalized — and how they kept riding anyway.
- Written by April Streeter with an exuberant, character-driven voice that prioritizes story and personality over dry chronology.
- Connects historical exclusion directly to the dynamics many women cyclists still encounter today — the book earns its relevance rather than asserting it.
- Praised by Elly Blue, David V. Herlihy (author of Bicycle: The History), and multiple cycling and feminist authors.
Details
UPC / Part Numbers
| Option | SKU | UPC |
|---|---|---|
| Default Title | 9781621062073 | — |
