Bicycles for Women?

Have you ever been shopping for a new bike, as one does as one grows bigger and no longer fits on their child-size bike? Perhaps you noticed that they would say women's bikes and men's bikes and you thought there's a difference? Yes, in fact, there is. The difference is in the shape of the bike.

Women's Bike

Men's Bike

The women's bike has a dip in the middle that allowed women who rode with skirts to ride the bikes. Men's bikes did not have this place for skirts. Bloomers changed all that.

Bloomers were women's pants that were baggy so they could look like skirts but had a split in them to allow more movement. The invention of bicycles liberated women of the 1890s during the bicycle craze. They had more freedom than ever because they could travel where they wanted when they wanted. Susan B. Anthony, a leader of the suffragist movement said, "I think [bicycling] has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel...the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood" Many women were able to get more freedom from the use of a bicycle. 

It is interesting to think that everyday objects that we use can change freedoms and ways of life. What are some examples of other inventions that had an impact larger than you would think?