Sunday Oct. 30th, 10:30 AM
Seminar Room 123 (Ground Level in hallway behind bike valet)
Presented by Dawn Piech, Inspyrd Movement, Monica Garrison, Founder Black Girls Do Bike, Celeste Adams, Black Girls Do Bike SHERO: Chicago Chapter and Major Taylor Cycling Club Chicago.
Every March 8 is International Women’s Day. The first International Women’s Day was celebrated in 1911, eight years before the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote in the United States. It began to campaign for women’s rights around the world and has evolved into a day to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. It is a rally for worldwide gender equality. The theme this year was Break the Bias. Additionally, this year celebrated the 111th year of this impactful day that began in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland.
Francis E. Willard, a nineteenth century leader of the women’s reform movement describes how, at fifty-three, she learned to ride a bicycle in her book A Wheel Within a Wheel: How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle, With Some Reflections by the Way, the best-selling book that chronicled her experiences. She stated, “A reform often advances most rapidly by indirection.” She had a popular “Do Everything!” slogan, which was meant to encourage women to lobby, petition, preach, educate, or generally do whatever it takes to change the world. Suffragettes like her, Susan B. Anthony and Kitty Knox recognized that the bicycle could give a woman a taste of freedom. For the first time, she could get farther than walking distance without a man to drive her, to get a horse ready, or without a chaperone breathing down her neck. Francis stated in her book “I also wanted to help women to a wider world, for I hold that the more interests women and men can have in common, in thought, word and deed, the happier it will be for the home.” She realized it’s about cultivating a sense of independence and freedom. It’s a feeling of going places in life. It’s about getting up after you fall, doing things that scare you, and always finding a new ride to challenge you.
This ride is for everyone to participate in. We would like to share this event with the Philadelphia Bike Expo community and invite everyone to participate in the fourth year in March 2023.