It’s an uphill climb…..
Keep pedalling!!
I have been a bike widow for quite a long time now. My husband loves to ride bikes, and buy bikes, and buy bike clothing and do bike races and go on biking holidays and watch bike racing. There are many late nights in front of the tv experiencing the latter. Him not me, though sometimes I get corralled in to watch too.
So what the hell does this have to do with diversity, equality and inclusion?
Well.
It has made me keenly aware of the disparity between men’s and women’s sport. And this weekend this disparity was brought home again as my husband watched both the women’s (on Saturday) and the men’s (on Sunday) Paris-Roubaix bicycle road race.
Paris–Roubaix is a one-day professional bicycle road race in northern France, starting north of Paris and finishing in Roubaix, hence the name. It is distinguished by being one of cycling's oldest races and is famous for rough terrain and cobblestones. It’s known as one of the most physically demanding races on the calendar and one for the ‘hard men’?!.
So what happened over the weekend to ruffle my feathers and build on my rant from last week?
This year’s women’s race was the first time that women have been allowed to have their own version of the race. Apparently, women can’t ride bikes. Or maybe they are not deemed to be strong enough to ride the rough terrain? Or maybe the 21st century caught up with the organisers? Hard to know.
There was massive inequality in the prize money. I guess women should be used to this and just be grateful they got to compete. I mean this is not a new development in sport or in organisations. So what was the difference? The men’s winner received EUR 30,000 and the women’s winner? A mere EUR 1535. That’s a 20th of what the men receive.
The women’s race was shorter than the men’s. The men’s race was 258km and the women’s 115km. The men’s race was won in just over 6 hours. The women’s in less than 3. Does this account for the ridiculous gap in prize money? Well no. The women’s length was 45% of the men. Not a 20th.
Women are capable of riding longer with 150km+ stages being part of multi-day races (compared to the weekend’s 115km) and Lael Wilcox regularly winning the overall title (yes against the ‘hard men’ as well) for some of the longest (try more than 7000km!) cycling races in the world.
The women’s television race coverage only started at around the last 55km of the race. So the historical inaugural race wasn’t even recorded in history for spectators like my husband to watch, and women weren’t given the respect they deserved. The men’s race was televised from the very start. All 258km. WTF?
Maybe women working in organisations should just be grateful. We have been allowed in the workplace for a little while. And our gender pay gap is better than a 20th. Sigh.
Breaking barriers
Lael Wilcox is an ultra-endurance bicycle racer who won the Trans Am Bike Race in 2016. She was the first American to win the Trans Am and she also set the overall course record with her time on the Baja Divide route. Check out what Lael is up to at the moment.
Saving the Cat….
What does a screenwriting rule have to do with systemic barriers to equality? I love how this great article explains the challenges.