The Small Things Make A Difference

From riding on a bicycle in a long skirt to driving in a Model T Ford wearing a shortened sleeveless dress, the early 20^th century was full of twists and turns for American women.[1] New opportunities arose for women’s involvement in societal affairs. Women could take part in reformist movements, display new fashions, buy new products, seek a better education, experience better entertainment, find new jobs and live more freely as a whole in society. With all these changes, it appeared that the bicycle was the most important change that emerged.

When looking at the early 20^th century there are more than a few great moments for women that could easily be labeled as the greatest change for women. The reformists Jane Addams was a great leader of change. Addams had the ability to mobilize the skills of “well-educated women” who in return helped hundreds of poor immigrants. Hull House was a great accomplishment for her time, which helped improve the lives of the destitute.[2] The Temperance Movement pulled large amounts of women together to end the destroying influences of alcohol. [3] Frances Willard created the largest women’s organization of the time, the WCTU, to promote moral codes of law.[4]Alice Paul helped lead the Suffragist Movement to its long awaited victory in 1920.[5] Eleanor Roosevelt was celebrated for her ability to be a mother, wife and help lead the country with her husband from the White House. She proved that women were indeed fit for politics and could be independent and married.[6] All of these historical events and experiences seem like the ideal candidates for the greatest change of the time for women—so why the bicycle?

Many of the historical movements or people mentioned above were limited in their ability to change the lot for women as a whole. The Temperance Movement, for example, was able to pull women together for a common cause, but its success was limited since the next generations of young women seized the “flapper decade” and openly welcomed all that the temperance women fought against.[7] Alice Paul and Frances Willard both found that their efforts were somewhat “unfortunate”  since their effects only went so far.[8]

The bicycle, though not as advanced as the Model T Ford or as inspiring as the bans of women who gathered together during the Temperance Movement, gave women a simple yet powerful vehicle for personal thrill and freedom that was new to the women of that era. Frances Willard said she had been converted to this new development and then encouraged her female followers to do the same. Women’s clothing was loosened and fashioned for this outdoor activity (which was unthinkable during the Victorian era). Women found a new sort of independence. Gail Collins describes its effect, “[W]omen who had spent their lives wrapped in corsets and weighed down by heavy skirts must have been thrilled to be able to go flying down the street on two wheels.” Just the fact that women could dress more freely, move more quickly and ride around more independently seemed to create a new mindset that change was in the air for women and if it wasn’t they could make the changes. Women had just been given the key to a new physical autonomy which supported and maybe even helped spawn the “New Woman” mentality they needed to grasp the opportunities on the horizon.[9]

Here is a quick clip of women at the end of the 19th century riding bicycles in their long dresses:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1iaF4Np2PU

1.       Gail Collins, America’s Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines, (Harper Perennial, New York, 2003), 328.

2.       Collins, 284-286.

3.       Collins, 317-318.

4.       Jean H. Baker, Sisters: The Lives of America’s Suffragists, (Hill and Wang, New York, 2005), 162.

5.       Baker, 224.

6.       Collins, 356-359.

7.       Collins, 327-330.

8.       Baker, 181 & 225.

9.       Collins, 279-281.