The truly ground-breaking change in women’s athletics arrived in the form of the bicycle. Articles abounded on the unladylikeness of this contraption, and warned women of serious health consequences to its use. However, such warnings were blithely ignored and by the mid 1890’s, cycling became a true “craze” amongst Victorian women. But cycling didn’t just represent a woman’s ability to participate in something sporting or athletic. It provided a new range of inexpensive transportation: one no longer had to maintain a horse (and a groom) simply to travel distances that were too far to walk. Women’s fashions also needed to adapt to the use of the cycle. This simple device that we take for granted today was, in fact, a vehicle of emancipation for the Victorian woman!
