October 25, 2010 • 25 mins
Today the number of female motorcyclists is increasing, but it's not the first time in history that women have driven motorcycles. In this episode, Molly and Cristen examine the fascinating history of women and motorcycles.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to stop? Mom? Never told you?
From housetop works dot Com. Hello and welcome to the podcast.
This is Molly and I'm Kristen. Kristin the chill Us
(00:20):
off and talk about taking a trip to see all
our our listeners across the country. If we want to
go across Canada, we all want to go to Scandinavia obviously, um,
because it's the most friendly place to women. If you'll
listen to that podcast. Um, you know, we just have
all these ideas about places to go and spots of
women's history to see, and you know, things like that.
(00:43):
I want to add another element to it. Go for it.
I think we should do the trip by motorcycle. But
I think that what I want is to get in
a motorcycle with the side car and I want to
ride the sidecar. Oh that means I get to drive
the motorcycle. Yeah, absolutely, let's do it. How do you
feel about that idea? I think it's great. I think
it would be great also because I think that we
(01:04):
would uh upend some traditional stereotypes about whether women can
ride motorcycles, and that is the topic of today's podcast,
Women and Motorcycles. Yes, although I wanted to talk just
exclusively about our cross country trip, we are going to
get to some facts about women and motorcycles. Let me
break it down by numbers to start out with Molly
motorcycles today, and then maybe we can put it in reverse.
(01:27):
Christ there's more where that came from. Here in the
driver's seat on this one, go for it right. So well,
this is from two thousand and six bits probably fairly accurate.
It's from Christian Science Monitor. This is women bikers by
the numbers. We have six thousand women owning motorcycles in
the US, which is about of all American motorcycle operators.
(01:52):
More than half these women are married, which is something
we'll get to a little while later. And of women
motor cyclists also have college degree or postgrad degrees. We
have some smart ladies on these hogs. And forty two
is the medium age of woomen motorcyclists. So it seems
like it's usually something that women adopt a little bit
later in life. And as we will also discuss in
(02:17):
more detail, women are really becoming Harley Davidson's most coveted
demographic America. Women are the fastest growing part of the
motorcycle business. You will find story after story, as we
did when we're researching this about the ways in which
Harley Davidson is trying to woo these female bikers. Yeah,
there was an article in Bloomberg not too long ago
(02:39):
that was talking about how Harley has really really tried
to market to women. And in July of this year,
it introduced a new bike called the super Low, which
was designed specifically to appeal to women in and first
time writers. And it has the lowest seat in Harley's
um of Harley's entire lineup, and it makes it a
(03:01):
lot easier to ride. And it's also hundred fifty pounds
lighter than the average bike. Very cool. And yeah, they
ad just handlebars and wood shields, so it's more more
comple just for smaller riders since a lot of women
are smaller than men. But it's not just redesigning bikes
or you know, putting a few rhyin stones on a
motorcycle helmet. They are you know, actively pursue women by
having these parties um in the garage where they teach women,
(03:23):
you know what safety safety tips, how to care for
a bike, how to pick up a bike when it's
you know, leaning over on the sidewalk, because I didn't
even really think about that. You know, if you had
a bicycle, you can just pop it right up. A
motorcycle a little bit different, like five pounds or something.
They're big, but these but these parties are women only. Yeah,
(03:45):
they can all the guys out of the shop and
it's just a time to you know, ask all these
questions you might have had when you were riding on
the back of a motorcycle that you want to know
before you get in the driver's seat. Because since about
that's how most Harley ads have put that's where they've
put the women is in the backseat, right, And this
marketing has paid off because women only comprised about two
(04:10):
of Harley's market and now it's up to twelve. I
mean it's still not a huge market share, but still
that's a jump. It's the biggest, biggest part of the thing.
I mean, like like this is sort of like the
car podcast, where they've sold all the motorcycles they think
they can to men, and so now they're kind of
going after the women. Although they were the ones who
started these ads that put women on the back seat
to begin with, right, So they kind of shot themselves
(04:30):
in the foot because you know, if you look back
in history, if we put it in reverse, so to speak,
it's it's not like women were never riding motorcycles. They
have kind of a long history. Right in the early
twentieth century, motorcycles were a vehicle of independence, if you will,
and a lot of women riders became these pioneers and
(04:52):
garnered a lot of publicity for taking these very impressive
motorcycle rides around the country at a time when America had,
you know, not as many highways, it was a more
treacherous trip. Let's let's talk about some of these these
women motorcyclist because they've got some pretty cool stories. Well,
in the nineteen fifteen, we've got a mother daughter team
and I love this. Their names are Avis and Effie
(05:12):
hotch Kiss and they went from Brooklyn all the way
to the West Coast on a three speed vach one
bike with a sidecar. So because it might have been
where I got the idea of a sidecar. Yeah, but
I like these hotch Kicks women because they are they
are nothing if not you know intuitive about fixing things
because in New Mexico they run out of spare inner tubes,
(05:35):
so they cut a blanket down to the right length
and just roll it in shape and donut and keep going.
Like these women don't need they don't need a mechanic
to keep them keep them going. And these two women,
the mother daughter duo, are the first women to cross
the United States on a motorcycle. The Hotchkisses. They did it. Now,
let's talk about Vivian Bales Kristen, because she is one cool,
(05:57):
one cool biker chick, if I may use that term.
She was born in nineteen o nine in Florida, but
moved to Albany, Georgia, which is our state of residence.
And uh, she was very proud of the fact that
she learned to ride a most motorcycle considering she was
only five to and weight ninety five pounds. Now, she
taught dance and then she took all the money that
she saved from teaching dance and bought Harley Davidson. And
(06:19):
at the age of twenty okay it's nine, she rides
a motorcycle from Albany, Georgia to Milwaukee and back or
about five thousand miles and she called herself the Enthusiast
Girl after the Harley Davidson magazine. And because she got
sort of permission to call herself this, Harley Davidson kind
of took care of her on our trip. They you know,
(06:41):
she'd stay with the david the Harley Davidson dealers in
their hometowns, and they would ride with her for long
sections at a time, and you know, they would arrange
for her to get pressed in all the places that
she was going. Um and it's one of the best
documentary road trips of all time. And we were actually
on a site called Women Writers. Now you can read
sort of her her remembrances of her journey, and I
(07:02):
think my favorite part is when she describes meeting Herbert Hoover.
She stops in DC, and you know, if you read her,
you can just hear the Southern accent and the Southern
attitude coming through. In my opinion, and I can't do
accents the way kristin Camp. But when she's writing about
meeting President Hoover, she says, I didn't vamp on him
because Mrs Hoover was President was present, so Vivian she
(07:25):
was gonna gonna lay some flirting out on the president
if the wife hadn't been there. But you know, she
she just writes about how you know it was it
was great to meet all these people, all these small
town folks that kept her going. And she said, I'm
glad I got to be in so many papers because
we need more press on women riding motorcycles. So even
back then, in the nineteen twenties, it was a unique
thing to do. But I don't think it was as
(07:47):
unique as it might have gotten a little bit later on. Well, now,
if we're going to talk about unique Vivian bills, smart cookie,
great gals, bums up, two thumbs up. But I would
argue Bessie's string Field. She was also very cool, pertty,
pretty cool. Now, Bessie string Field was another woman who
(08:07):
set out on her own on a bike, but she
was really the first black woman to gain some notoriety
for her motorcycle riding. And this is also in the twenties.
All of the stuff is happening in the twenties, we
were just nuts about motorcycles apparently, So now Bessie string Field,
a k a. The motorcycle Queen of Miami. She uh,
(08:29):
travel cross country solo, the first African American woman to
do that at the age of nineteen. She went through
all the lower forty eight States the thirties and the forties,
and you know, it's not an easy time to be
traveling across country a single woman on her own. She's
encountering racism, bigotry, sexism, um. And then World War Two
comes out and she is one of the many women
who volunteers to join like motorcycle dispatch units of army,
(08:52):
and so there were a lot of women who worked
as motorcycle couriers during World War Two. So it's it's
it's sort of that's sort of I think a peaked
I'm in American history for women and motorcycles, Yeah, because
we don't think about that aspect of a World War two.
Of these women on motorcycles, like Bessie string Field, you know,
zipping around with saddlebags still of classified documents, you know,
(09:16):
keeping the wartime effort going on the home front as well.
And Harley Davidson obviously played a big part in the war.
They donated tons of motorcycles to the war effort, and
so they there's a there's sort of a discussion about
how when those when those people came home from World
War Two and they wanted to, you know, get some
get some stress out, they'd go back to their bikes.
(09:36):
And that was sort of when you know a lot
of men robikes just for long distances. And what we
have in N seven is a pretty famous acts, a
pretty famous incident that I think it starts to turn
the tides about what motorcycles mean in our society. Yeah,
it starts to take on the dark or more rebellious
connotation that we have with motorcycles. So July four, nine
(10:00):
forty seven, Hollister, California, I remember it well. I remember,
I remember it like it was yesterday. Basically, people had
her little party. It's part the July. It was a
four the July ended. People are happy, but they get
a little too crazy with the bikes. They get a
little rally. So some people have some motorcycles, got some
motor bikes out there, and so they start they start
(10:24):
getting littlerowdy and motorcycles get involved. Well what exactly happens, Well,
they start racing down the main drag. They start doing
all these doughnuts and wheelies, and a few people start
to drive straight into the local bars and saloons without
getting off their bikes, which obviously is quite quite a
rowdy thing to do. Water balloons and beer bottles are
just raining down from windows like it is. It's kind
(10:46):
of mayhem. And the San Francisco Chronicle covers it pretty extensively,
lots of pictures of just damage and the police officers
just sitting there crying at all the things they can't control,
and uh, it got in Life magazine, and it just
really was the beginning of this brand of motorcyclists as
these dangerous outlaws. And of course all the people on
(11:07):
the picture, all the people in the pictures are men.
So I think that also as a big turning point
in terms of motorcycles becoming a very male associated thing,
and that a year later, Harley Davidson, as I said,
all their ads start featuring men in the driver's seat
and women only in the back, despite this history of
women in World War Two and women doing all these
(11:28):
cross country trips. I think seven with the Hollister incident
and then ninety eight with these ads changing kind of
spells the end of women and motorcycles, well, the end
of women and motorcycles for a little while, because, of course,
Hollywood picks up the cue from this Hollister incident and
they actually make a movie version of that fateful day
(11:49):
in the nineteen fifty four classic The Wild One, which
is basically followed up by all of these kind of
b biker flicks. And then of course we have Rebel
without a Cause, and it creates this cultural perception of
guys on bikes as these rugged, rugged outlaws live outside
(12:09):
the bounds of society's easy writer, easy writer. Of course,
we have easy writer, and the women, as reflected in
the Harley Davidson advertisements, are sort of just beautiful accessories.
And the guys are on these gorgeous spikes and they've
got gorgeous girls behind them. So we've got these two
images of the male motorcyclist in the United States who've got,
(12:29):
as Kristen said, these people who are outlaws, and they've
got you know, maybe a clean cut fellow with this
lady on the back of the bike, maybe trying to
be dangerous, but you know, the real the real danger,
the real appeals with the outlaws, like the Hell's Angels
and uh, you know, Kristen, when we were researching this
wanted to find, you know, maybe an outlaw gang of
women motorcyclists. There's there's not one. Didn't happen, But we
(12:54):
did come across a pretty interesting paper about uh, motorcycle
clubs and women's roles and them by M. Shelley Connor.
And guess guess what the source of this paper was, Kristen, Oh,
this is the best journal title ever. I think we're
going to try and use this journal in every podcast
from now on somehow. The International Journal from my Motorcycle Studies, Yes, people,
(13:14):
it exists, is the source for this um. And the
title of the article that we're going to go through,
just kind of briefly is first wave feminist Struggles in
Black Motorcycle Clubs. And she goes through a few of
the books have been written about female motorcyclists because as
Harley has appealed to them more, they have become a
more prominent thing. There are a few history books about
(13:34):
women in motorcycles that will go over the stories of
women like hotch Kiss and Stringfield. UM. But you know,
Connor makes the point that all of the motorcyclists that
you see about in these books are white. It's a
very white hobby that a very hobbyist associated with white people.
And she is a member of a black motorcycle club
in Chicago. So she's just drawing from her own experience
(13:56):
um modern day as a black woman in its motorcycle club.
And so even within the motorcycle community and these outlaw clubs,
there's a race divide. There's these white motorcyclists, there's these
black motorcyclists. You know, there were no black men trying
to get into the Hell's Angels. Yeah, and we should
say too that when we're talking about outlaw clubs like
the Hell's Angels and this club that the study author
(14:19):
as a part of, and outlaw means that they have
no affiliation with the American Motorcyclists Association. So these are
more of the renegade groups, not the people who are
going to the Harley Davidson garage parties and learning how
to pick up their bikes. Let me, oh, yeah, this
is you know, she writes, the outlaw clubs claim the
outlaw are one percent er image, which is based on
a claim mistakenly attributed to the a m A that
(14:41):
of all motorcyclists are good, decent, law buying citizens. It
is remaining one percent the outlaws that are responsible for
the motorcycles sinister image. I quote from our paper, so
and she and even in this paper she was saying
that she can't reveal any any identities because it's sort
of like these these secret groups motorcycle game. And she
writes about, you know, women were really active in these
(15:03):
earliers and motorcycling World War two. Motormates was this motorcycling
organization that wanted to get women involved in the nineteen forties.
And so she traces how that divide happened. But within
like let's take out just the race divide, and within
these black clubs she has experience with because they formed
their own not being able to get into Hell's Angels,
(15:23):
she says, the women, you know, we're sort of subjected
to a reversal of all the feminism first wife feminism
work to achieve. And they kind of have to go
in knowing this, knowing that they're either going to be
property of the club, is how she describes it. Like
you're basically saying in the back, the outlaws are in
charge of you. You you're I guess a groupie would
(15:44):
be the way to Yeah, I mean if you kind
of you kind of know your place. Like. She recounts
one woman's experience in the club where they were about
to go to a club dance, I believe, and this
guy comes up to her and says, hey, babe, ride
with me, and she doesn't want to ride with him
(16:04):
because he's acting kind of sketchy, and so she indicates
to him that she is property essentially of the club's president,
and so he leaves her alone. Now there are women
who become what she calls associate members, and this is
instead of being like a full fledged rider of the group,
here's kind of they're like, maybe you ride your bike,
but they're not really gonna respect you because they're a woman.
(16:25):
And she was talking about going to a club meeting
where you know, someone who was her friend was saying,
don't talk. You know, they're not gonna listen if you talk.
Just if you want to say something, just tell me.
I'll say it. How these women are, if they're gonna
be riders, must be seen and not heard well. And
we should say to um when she's talking about these clubs.
Hell's Angels obviously the big, best known outlaw motorcycle group.
(16:48):
But then in nine nine we have the East Bay
Dragons m C, which is one of the oldest black
motorcycle clubs that was modeled after the Hell's Angels, and
they just flat out for him to women from becoming members.
So really their only option was to get in through
this kind of I guess sex objects sort of way
(17:09):
of being serving more as property and accessories to these
men and their bikes. And I think that's sort of
the larger argument that's being made in this paper is
that I think when you see how Harley markets motorcycles
to white women, but it's all about freedom and you know,
you and the open road and the wind in your hair,
and you don't need, you know, to ride behind the man.
You're you're writing for yourself, whereas in this outlaw community,
(17:31):
in the black outlaw community, women are not treated like
that at all. It's nothing about freedom, and the open
road is more about you're gonna be property, You're gonna
be seen and not heard, and how it just really
is um an interesting you know, race divide that's happening
within the motorcycle community. But at the same time, I
would say that you'll find the same kind of gender
(17:52):
dynamic in white outlaw communities like Hell's Angels as well.
There was an article or a study I should say,
in the Journal of can Temporary Ethnography that I couldn't
find the entire uh study, but still the abstract pointed
out that biker women are a lot like street gang
girls in terms of their relationship to the men in
(18:13):
the groups, because a lot of times in these earlier gangs,
like in the early days of Hell's Angels, women were
quote simply partners and parties and hedonistic sexuality, whereas today
it seems like their role has evolved somewhat in these
outlaw gangs, at least according to this ethnography study, to
(18:34):
where while they still have more of a submissive role
in the group, they are expected to participate more in
the economic pursuits of going out and making money for
the group or carrying out what whatever kind of crazy
motorcycle gang shenanigans are going to pull off. And you know,
(18:56):
since outlog mes are you know, I think a small
part of this, I guess let's pull back out and
look more at um the bigger picture. Yes, because we
promised we talked about married women and why that's important.
And you know, one but one last thing on outlock
News I do think that one way that um motorcycle
companies are effective at selling motorcyclest women is to emphasize
(19:17):
for the social aspect. Yes, like you all go riding
together with your friends. Um, they were we were reading
something about how, um, there's this one motorcycle group that
their symbol is a quilting square and instead of like
riding to bars or wherever men go and they ride motorcycles,
they ride to like craft stores and UH have t
like it sounds I'd really like to be in that
(19:39):
motorcycle group. But UM, I do think that social aspect
has been really successfully employed in terms of getting women
to um, to get into this. And that's one of
the reasons that researcher named Carol J. Aust investigated when
she wrote a paper called Transcending Potential, Anti State and
Leisure Constraints, which is very I have to say, Carol J. Auster,
(20:01):
a very dull title for what your study was actually about,
which is why women overcome all these you know, gender
stereotypes about mass about motorcycles being so masculine to actually
write them there's themselves And so she uh pulled a
lot of four hundred fifty three women members of the
American Motorcycle Association as to why they started writing, and
(20:21):
freedom and independence was the number one reason. Outdoors, fresh
air and nature was number two. Fun and pleasure was
number three. So those are some reasons why women are
starting to ride motorcycles. But she wanted to know if
the reason these women started specifically was because they were
exposed to them in other realms of their life, because,
as you point out, Kristen, people adopt motorcycle riding pretty late.
(20:44):
Forty two was the median age. Yeah, a lot of
the women start writing later in life, and as the
dull titled survey found, a lot of the women were
first exposed to motorcycles through their husband's right. Nine of
the people in this survey had been a passenger on
a motorcycle before becoming an operator of a motorcycle, which
I don't I bet that's not true for me and
(21:05):
I met men sort of just go straight into driving it. Um.
But yeah, these women by and large have been exposed
by either a husband, a brother, or a father to
ride motorcycles and has been being the most significant category.
So it's you know, you get married and do something together.
But if Harley could have its druthers these days, it
wouldn't want that to be the case. They want women
(21:25):
to start writing of their own accord because they, you know,
they've created this super low bike. They're obviously trying trying,
trying to get our attention, to get us on bikes
and forget the men. They can have these garage parties
where it's women's only, you know, it's like the you know,
today's like Tupperware party or something. Well, another thing that
I really like about motorcycle riders in general, it's just
(21:46):
how much charity work they do. You're always seeing motorcycle
rides for something or other, and I think that's another
way that women can kind of get together and get
comfortable writing with each other. Well, you know what I've
been hearing throughout this podcast is I think there's I
think there's a little, uh, a little inner biker in you,
a little inner biker in me, And I would like,
I don't know, I'm the one who wants to ride
(22:06):
in the sidecar. Sorry, I start as passengers before they
get as operators. Christen, Well, if you trust me enough
to ride the bike, Milline, that's that means a lot
that I do trust you. Christen, Well, you know what, Mollly,
I think that we need to go get back to
planning our cross country motorcycle road trip. He can't wait.
So let's wrap things up and hey, ride us in
(22:28):
women on bikes. We want to hear from you. And
you know it's probably been clear throughout this podcast, Christen,
I are not motorcycle experts in terms of riding them. Yeah,
I've got I haven't felt the one through my hair.
I've got an awesome eight speed Schwin. It's great. But
so let us know what we missed. What you think
about when you're riding your bike? Do you face gender stereotypes?
(22:48):
Are people surprised to see you on your bike? What's
the deal? What's the deal? May I close with one
less anecdote? Of course, best first date move guy ever pulled?
Took me on spike. Oh I don't. I don't know
if I could trust it on the first date to
take me on his bike. You know I was. I
was pretty scared. But guys out there, I'm just saying,
if you had a bike it, uh, you can pull
(23:09):
some charm points with that. Oh my no, not with
this girl. I need to make sure you're very trustworthy
responsible for I'm getting on a bike with you, and
always wear your helmet. Absolutely, always wear your helmet, because
that was one last, one, last tidbit of all of
the traffic accident statistics involving motorcycles. Like of them, it's
all men be careful out their men on your bikes.
(23:30):
Women far more cautious on their motorcycles. Right, So where
your helmet? And now for listener mail. I have one
here from Caitlin and she writes in about a story
in current events that she thought we might be interested in.
She writes, the National Women's History Museum was founded over
(23:50):
a decade ago and has since been fighting Congress to
purchase land on the National Mall. Apparently, this past year,
the proposed built to purchase land from the government was
passed in both the Senate and House of Representatives. However,
two Senators, Jim DeMint and Tom Cobram from South Carolina
and Oklahoma respectively, put a hold on the bill. I
from South Carolina, so I find this especially tragic. Apparently
the concerned with him for America were concerned about how
(24:11):
pro abortion rights would play into museum and ask the
senators to put the hold on the bill. Also, the
Senators have put out a statement claiming that a National
Women's History Museum would replicate a number of women's history
museums all over the country, like a Lilac garden, a
cowgirl museum, and a quilt museum. She writes, seriously, it's
clear how much a priority American women's history is to
this country, don't you think so? It seems. She writes
(24:33):
that the bill will have to be reproposed with the
new Congress after the midterm elections, which is just sad.
So if you guys want to track the story, I
think it's pretty interesting. Write your congress person if you
feel pretty strongly about it. I'd go to a women's
history museum on the mall absolutely, So thank you Caitlin
for leting us know about that. And if you want
to write in about motorcycles, current events, or anything else,
(24:53):
you have a lot of options. You can write us
at mom stuff at house stuffworks dot com. You can
write on our Facebook wall and start discussions there. You
can drop this a line on Twitter our handle his
mom stuff podcasts, and you can visit our blog which
is at how stuff works dot com for more on
this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff
(25:15):
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It's ready, Are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to stop? Mom? Never told you?
From housetop works dot Com. Hello and welcome to the podcast.
This is Molly and I'm Kristen. Kristin the chill Us
(00:20):
off and talk about taking a trip to see all
our our listeners across the country. If we want to
go across Canada, we all want to go to Scandinavia obviously, um,
because it's the most friendly place to women. If you'll
listen to that podcast. Um, you know, we just have
all these ideas about places to go and spots of
women's history to see, and you know, things like that.
(00:43):
I want to add another element to it. Go for it.
I think we should do the trip by motorcycle. But
I think that what I want is to get in
a motorcycle with the side car and I want to
ride the sidecar. Oh that means I get to drive
the motorcycle. Yeah, absolutely, let's do it. How do you
feel about that idea? I think it's great. I think
it would be great also because I think that we
(01:04):
would uh upend some traditional stereotypes about whether women can
ride motorcycles, and that is the topic of today's podcast,
Women and Motorcycles. Yes, although I wanted to talk just
exclusively about our cross country trip, we are going to
get to some facts about women and motorcycles. Let me
break it down by numbers to start out with Molly
motorcycles today, and then maybe we can put it in reverse.
(01:27):
Christ there's more where that came from. Here in the
driver's seat on this one, go for it right. So well,
this is from two thousand and six bits probably fairly accurate.
It's from Christian Science Monitor. This is women bikers by
the numbers. We have six thousand women owning motorcycles in
the US, which is about of all American motorcycle operators.
(01:52):
More than half these women are married, which is something
we'll get to a little while later. And of women
motor cyclists also have college degree or postgrad degrees. We
have some smart ladies on these hogs. And forty two
is the medium age of woomen motorcyclists. So it seems
like it's usually something that women adopt a little bit
later in life. And as we will also discuss in
(02:17):
more detail, women are really becoming Harley Davidson's most coveted
demographic America. Women are the fastest growing part of the
motorcycle business. You will find story after story, as we
did when we're researching this about the ways in which
Harley Davidson is trying to woo these female bikers. Yeah,
there was an article in Bloomberg not too long ago
(02:39):
that was talking about how Harley has really really tried
to market to women. And in July of this year,
it introduced a new bike called the super Low, which
was designed specifically to appeal to women in and first
time writers. And it has the lowest seat in Harley's
um of Harley's entire lineup, and it makes it a
(03:01):
lot easier to ride. And it's also hundred fifty pounds
lighter than the average bike. Very cool. And yeah, they
ad just handlebars and wood shields, so it's more more
comple just for smaller riders since a lot of women
are smaller than men. But it's not just redesigning bikes
or you know, putting a few rhyin stones on a
motorcycle helmet. They are you know, actively pursue women by
having these parties um in the garage where they teach women,
(03:23):
you know what safety safety tips, how to care for
a bike, how to pick up a bike when it's
you know, leaning over on the sidewalk, because I didn't
even really think about that. You know, if you had
a bicycle, you can just pop it right up. A
motorcycle a little bit different, like five pounds or something.
They're big, but these but these parties are women only. Yeah,
(03:45):
they can all the guys out of the shop and
it's just a time to you know, ask all these
questions you might have had when you were riding on
the back of a motorcycle that you want to know
before you get in the driver's seat. Because since about
that's how most Harley ads have put that's where they've
put the women is in the backseat, right, And this
marketing has paid off because women only comprised about two
(04:10):
of Harley's market and now it's up to twelve. I
mean it's still not a huge market share, but still
that's a jump. It's the biggest, biggest part of the thing.
I mean, like like this is sort of like the
car podcast, where they've sold all the motorcycles they think
they can to men, and so now they're kind of
going after the women. Although they were the ones who
started these ads that put women on the back seat
to begin with, right, So they kind of shot themselves
(04:30):
in the foot because you know, if you look back
in history, if we put it in reverse, so to speak,
it's it's not like women were never riding motorcycles. They
have kind of a long history. Right in the early
twentieth century, motorcycles were a vehicle of independence, if you will,
and a lot of women riders became these pioneers and
(04:52):
garnered a lot of publicity for taking these very impressive
motorcycle rides around the country at a time when America had,
you know, not as many highways, it was a more
treacherous trip. Let's let's talk about some of these these
women motorcyclist because they've got some pretty cool stories. Well,
in the nineteen fifteen, we've got a mother daughter team
and I love this. Their names are Avis and Effie
(05:12):
hotch Kiss and they went from Brooklyn all the way
to the West Coast on a three speed vach one
bike with a sidecar. So because it might have been
where I got the idea of a sidecar. Yeah, but
I like these hotch Kicks women because they are they
are nothing if not you know intuitive about fixing things
because in New Mexico they run out of spare inner tubes,
(05:35):
so they cut a blanket down to the right length
and just roll it in shape and donut and keep going.
Like these women don't need they don't need a mechanic
to keep them keep them going. And these two women,
the mother daughter duo, are the first women to cross
the United States on a motorcycle. The Hotchkisses. They did it. Now,
let's talk about Vivian Bales Kristen, because she is one cool,
(05:57):
one cool biker chick, if I may use that term.
She was born in nineteen o nine in Florida, but
moved to Albany, Georgia, which is our state of residence.
And uh, she was very proud of the fact that
she learned to ride a most motorcycle considering she was
only five to and weight ninety five pounds. Now, she
taught dance and then she took all the money that
she saved from teaching dance and bought Harley Davidson. And
(06:19):
at the age of twenty okay it's nine, she rides
a motorcycle from Albany, Georgia to Milwaukee and back or
about five thousand miles and she called herself the Enthusiast
Girl after the Harley Davidson magazine. And because she got
sort of permission to call herself this, Harley Davidson kind
of took care of her on our trip. They you know,
(06:41):
she'd stay with the david the Harley Davidson dealers in
their hometowns, and they would ride with her for long
sections at a time, and you know, they would arrange
for her to get pressed in all the places that
she was going. Um and it's one of the best
documentary road trips of all time. And we were actually
on a site called Women Writers. Now you can read
sort of her her remembrances of her journey, and I
(07:02):
think my favorite part is when she describes meeting Herbert Hoover.
She stops in DC, and you know, if you read her,
you can just hear the Southern accent and the Southern
attitude coming through. In my opinion, and I can't do
accents the way kristin Camp. But when she's writing about
meeting President Hoover, she says, I didn't vamp on him
because Mrs Hoover was President was present, so Vivian she
(07:25):
was gonna gonna lay some flirting out on the president
if the wife hadn't been there. But you know, she
she just writes about how you know it was it
was great to meet all these people, all these small
town folks that kept her going. And she said, I'm
glad I got to be in so many papers because
we need more press on women riding motorcycles. So even
back then, in the nineteen twenties, it was a unique
thing to do. But I don't think it was as
(07:47):
unique as it might have gotten a little bit later on. Well, now,
if we're going to talk about unique Vivian bills, smart cookie,
great gals, bums up, two thumbs up. But I would
argue Bessie's string Field. She was also very cool, pertty,
pretty cool. Now, Bessie string Field was another woman who
(08:07):
set out on her own on a bike, but she
was really the first black woman to gain some notoriety
for her motorcycle riding. And this is also in the twenties.
All of the stuff is happening in the twenties, we
were just nuts about motorcycles apparently, So now Bessie string Field,
a k a. The motorcycle Queen of Miami. She uh,
(08:29):
travel cross country solo, the first African American woman to
do that at the age of nineteen. She went through
all the lower forty eight States the thirties and the forties,
and you know, it's not an easy time to be
traveling across country a single woman on her own. She's
encountering racism, bigotry, sexism, um. And then World War Two
comes out and she is one of the many women
who volunteers to join like motorcycle dispatch units of army,
(08:52):
and so there were a lot of women who worked
as motorcycle couriers during World War Two. So it's it's
it's sort of that's sort of I think a peaked
I'm in American history for women and motorcycles, Yeah, because
we don't think about that aspect of a World War two.
Of these women on motorcycles, like Bessie string Field, you know,
zipping around with saddlebags still of classified documents, you know,
(09:16):
keeping the wartime effort going on the home front as well.
And Harley Davidson obviously played a big part in the war.
They donated tons of motorcycles to the war effort, and
so they there's a there's sort of a discussion about
how when those when those people came home from World
War Two and they wanted to, you know, get some
get some stress out, they'd go back to their bikes.
(09:36):
And that was sort of when you know a lot
of men robikes just for long distances. And what we
have in N seven is a pretty famous acts, a
pretty famous incident that I think it starts to turn
the tides about what motorcycles mean in our society. Yeah,
it starts to take on the dark or more rebellious
connotation that we have with motorcycles. So July four, nine
(10:00):
forty seven, Hollister, California, I remember it well. I remember,
I remember it like it was yesterday. Basically, people had
her little party. It's part the July. It was a
four the July ended. People are happy, but they get
a little too crazy with the bikes. They get a
little rally. So some people have some motorcycles, got some
motor bikes out there, and so they start they start
(10:24):
getting littlerowdy and motorcycles get involved. Well what exactly happens, Well,
they start racing down the main drag. They start doing
all these doughnuts and wheelies, and a few people start
to drive straight into the local bars and saloons without
getting off their bikes, which obviously is quite quite a
rowdy thing to do. Water balloons and beer bottles are
just raining down from windows like it is. It's kind
(10:46):
of mayhem. And the San Francisco Chronicle covers it pretty extensively,
lots of pictures of just damage and the police officers
just sitting there crying at all the things they can't control,
and uh, it got in Life magazine, and it just
really was the beginning of this brand of motorcyclists as
these dangerous outlaws. And of course all the people on
(11:07):
the picture, all the people in the pictures are men.
So I think that also as a big turning point
in terms of motorcycles becoming a very male associated thing,
and that a year later, Harley Davidson, as I said,
all their ads start featuring men in the driver's seat
and women only in the back, despite this history of
women in World War Two and women doing all these
(11:28):
cross country trips. I think seven with the Hollister incident
and then ninety eight with these ads changing kind of
spells the end of women and motorcycles, well, the end
of women and motorcycles for a little while, because, of course,
Hollywood picks up the cue from this Hollister incident and
they actually make a movie version of that fateful day
(11:49):
in the nineteen fifty four classic The Wild One, which
is basically followed up by all of these kind of
b biker flicks. And then of course we have Rebel
without a Cause, and it creates this cultural perception of
guys on bikes as these rugged, rugged outlaws live outside
(12:09):
the bounds of society's easy writer, easy writer. Of course,
we have easy writer, and the women, as reflected in
the Harley Davidson advertisements, are sort of just beautiful accessories.
And the guys are on these gorgeous spikes and they've
got gorgeous girls behind them. So we've got these two
images of the male motorcyclist in the United States who've got,
(12:29):
as Kristen said, these people who are outlaws, and they've
got you know, maybe a clean cut fellow with this
lady on the back of the bike, maybe trying to
be dangerous, but you know, the real the real danger,
the real appeals with the outlaws, like the Hell's Angels
and uh, you know, Kristen, when we were researching this
wanted to find, you know, maybe an outlaw gang of
women motorcyclists. There's there's not one. Didn't happen, But we
(12:54):
did come across a pretty interesting paper about uh, motorcycle
clubs and women's roles and them by M. Shelley Connor.
And guess guess what the source of this paper was, Kristen, Oh,
this is the best journal title ever. I think we're
going to try and use this journal in every podcast
from now on somehow. The International Journal from my Motorcycle Studies, Yes, people,
(13:14):
it exists, is the source for this um. And the
title of the article that we're going to go through,
just kind of briefly is first wave feminist Struggles in
Black Motorcycle Clubs. And she goes through a few of
the books have been written about female motorcyclists because as
Harley has appealed to them more, they have become a
more prominent thing. There are a few history books about
(13:34):
women in motorcycles that will go over the stories of
women like hotch Kiss and Stringfield. UM. But you know,
Connor makes the point that all of the motorcyclists that
you see about in these books are white. It's a
very white hobby that a very hobbyist associated with white people.
And she is a member of a black motorcycle club
in Chicago. So she's just drawing from her own experience
(13:56):
um modern day as a black woman in its motorcycle club.
And so even within the motorcycle community and these outlaw clubs,
there's a race divide. There's these white motorcyclists, there's these
black motorcyclists. You know, there were no black men trying
to get into the Hell's Angels. Yeah, and we should
say too that when we're talking about outlaw clubs like
the Hell's Angels and this club that the study author
(14:19):
as a part of, and outlaw means that they have
no affiliation with the American Motorcyclists Association. So these are
more of the renegade groups, not the people who are
going to the Harley Davidson garage parties and learning how
to pick up their bikes. Let me, oh, yeah, this
is you know, she writes, the outlaw clubs claim the
outlaw are one percent er image, which is based on
a claim mistakenly attributed to the a m A that
(14:41):
of all motorcyclists are good, decent, law buying citizens. It
is remaining one percent the outlaws that are responsible for
the motorcycles sinister image. I quote from our paper, so
and she and even in this paper she was saying
that she can't reveal any any identities because it's sort
of like these these secret groups motorcycle game. And she
writes about, you know, women were really active in these
(15:03):
earliers and motorcycling World War two. Motormates was this motorcycling
organization that wanted to get women involved in the nineteen forties.
And so she traces how that divide happened. But within
like let's take out just the race divide, and within
these black clubs she has experience with because they formed
their own not being able to get into Hell's Angels,
(15:23):
she says, the women, you know, we're sort of subjected
to a reversal of all the feminism first wife feminism
work to achieve. And they kind of have to go
in knowing this, knowing that they're either going to be
property of the club, is how she describes it. Like
you're basically saying in the back, the outlaws are in
charge of you. You you're I guess a groupie would
(15:44):
be the way to Yeah, I mean if you kind
of you kind of know your place. Like. She recounts
one woman's experience in the club where they were about
to go to a club dance, I believe, and this
guy comes up to her and says, hey, babe, ride
with me, and she doesn't want to ride with him
(16:04):
because he's acting kind of sketchy, and so she indicates
to him that she is property essentially of the club's president,
and so he leaves her alone. Now there are women
who become what she calls associate members, and this is
instead of being like a full fledged rider of the group,
here's kind of they're like, maybe you ride your bike,
but they're not really gonna respect you because they're a woman.
(16:25):
And she was talking about going to a club meeting
where you know, someone who was her friend was saying,
don't talk. You know, they're not gonna listen if you talk.
Just if you want to say something, just tell me.
I'll say it. How these women are, if they're gonna
be riders, must be seen and not heard well. And
we should say to um when she's talking about these clubs.
Hell's Angels obviously the big, best known outlaw motorcycle group.
(16:48):
But then in nine nine we have the East Bay
Dragons m C, which is one of the oldest black
motorcycle clubs that was modeled after the Hell's Angels, and
they just flat out for him to women from becoming members.
So really their only option was to get in through
this kind of I guess sex objects sort of way
(17:09):
of being serving more as property and accessories to these
men and their bikes. And I think that's sort of
the larger argument that's being made in this paper is
that I think when you see how Harley markets motorcycles
to white women, but it's all about freedom and you know,
you and the open road and the wind in your hair,
and you don't need, you know, to ride behind the man.
You're you're writing for yourself, whereas in this outlaw community,
(17:31):
in the black outlaw community, women are not treated like
that at all. It's nothing about freedom, and the open
road is more about you're gonna be property, You're gonna
be seen and not heard, and how it just really
is um an interesting you know, race divide that's happening
within the motorcycle community. But at the same time, I
would say that you'll find the same kind of gender
(17:52):
dynamic in white outlaw communities like Hell's Angels as well.
There was an article or a study I should say,
in the Journal of can Temporary Ethnography that I couldn't
find the entire uh study, but still the abstract pointed
out that biker women are a lot like street gang
girls in terms of their relationship to the men in
(18:13):
the groups, because a lot of times in these earlier gangs,
like in the early days of Hell's Angels, women were
quote simply partners and parties and hedonistic sexuality, whereas today
it seems like their role has evolved somewhat in these
outlaw gangs, at least according to this ethnography study, to
(18:34):
where while they still have more of a submissive role
in the group, they are expected to participate more in
the economic pursuits of going out and making money for
the group or carrying out what whatever kind of crazy
motorcycle gang shenanigans are going to pull off. And you know,
(18:56):
since outlog mes are you know, I think a small
part of this, I guess let's pull back out and
look more at um the bigger picture. Yes, because we
promised we talked about married women and why that's important.
And you know, one but one last thing on outlock
News I do think that one way that um motorcycle
companies are effective at selling motorcyclest women is to emphasize
(19:17):
for the social aspect. Yes, like you all go riding
together with your friends. Um, they were we were reading
something about how, um, there's this one motorcycle group that
their symbol is a quilting square and instead of like
riding to bars or wherever men go and they ride motorcycles,
they ride to like craft stores and UH have t
like it sounds I'd really like to be in that
(19:39):
motorcycle group. But UM, I do think that social aspect
has been really successfully employed in terms of getting women
to um, to get into this. And that's one of
the reasons that researcher named Carol J. Aust investigated when
she wrote a paper called Transcending Potential, Anti State and
Leisure Constraints, which is very I have to say, Carol J. Auster,
(20:01):
a very dull title for what your study was actually about,
which is why women overcome all these you know, gender
stereotypes about mass about motorcycles being so masculine to actually
write them there's themselves And so she uh pulled a
lot of four hundred fifty three women members of the
American Motorcycle Association as to why they started writing, and
(20:21):
freedom and independence was the number one reason. Outdoors, fresh
air and nature was number two. Fun and pleasure was
number three. So those are some reasons why women are
starting to ride motorcycles. But she wanted to know if
the reason these women started specifically was because they were
exposed to them in other realms of their life, because,
as you point out, Kristen, people adopt motorcycle riding pretty late.
(20:44):
Forty two was the median age. Yeah, a lot of
the women start writing later in life, and as the
dull titled survey found, a lot of the women were
first exposed to motorcycles through their husband's right. Nine of
the people in this survey had been a passenger on
a motorcycle before becoming an operator of a motorcycle, which
I don't I bet that's not true for me and
(21:05):
I met men sort of just go straight into driving it. Um.
But yeah, these women by and large have been exposed
by either a husband, a brother, or a father to
ride motorcycles and has been being the most significant category.
So it's you know, you get married and do something together.
But if Harley could have its druthers these days, it
wouldn't want that to be the case. They want women
(21:25):
to start writing of their own accord because they, you know,
they've created this super low bike. They're obviously trying trying,
trying to get our attention, to get us on bikes
and forget the men. They can have these garage parties
where it's women's only, you know, it's like the you know,
today's like Tupperware party or something. Well, another thing that
I really like about motorcycle riders in general, it's just
(21:46):
how much charity work they do. You're always seeing motorcycle
rides for something or other, and I think that's another
way that women can kind of get together and get
comfortable writing with each other. Well, you know what I've
been hearing throughout this podcast is I think there's I
think there's a little, uh, a little inner biker in you,
a little inner biker in me, And I would like,
I don't know, I'm the one who wants to ride
(22:06):
in the sidecar. Sorry, I start as passengers before they
get as operators. Christen, Well, if you trust me enough
to ride the bike, Milline, that's that means a lot
that I do trust you. Christen, Well, you know what, Mollly,
I think that we need to go get back to
planning our cross country motorcycle road trip. He can't wait.
So let's wrap things up and hey, ride us in
(22:28):
women on bikes. We want to hear from you. And
you know it's probably been clear throughout this podcast, Christen,
I are not motorcycle experts in terms of riding them. Yeah,
I've got I haven't felt the one through my hair.
I've got an awesome eight speed Schwin. It's great. But
so let us know what we missed. What you think
about when you're riding your bike? Do you face gender stereotypes?
(22:48):
Are people surprised to see you on your bike? What's
the deal? What's the deal? May I close with one
less anecdote? Of course, best first date move guy ever pulled?
Took me on spike. Oh I don't. I don't know
if I could trust it on the first date to
take me on his bike. You know I was. I
was pretty scared. But guys out there, I'm just saying,
if you had a bike it, uh, you can pull
(23:09):
some charm points with that. Oh my no, not with
this girl. I need to make sure you're very trustworthy
responsible for I'm getting on a bike with you, and
always wear your helmet. Absolutely, always wear your helmet, because
that was one last, one, last tidbit of all of
the traffic accident statistics involving motorcycles. Like of them, it's
all men be careful out their men on your bikes.
(23:30):
Women far more cautious on their motorcycles. Right, So where
your helmet? And now for listener mail. I have one
here from Caitlin and she writes in about a story
in current events that she thought we might be interested in.
She writes, the National Women's History Museum was founded over
(23:50):
a decade ago and has since been fighting Congress to
purchase land on the National Mall. Apparently, this past year,
the proposed built to purchase land from the government was
passed in both the Senate and House of Representatives. However,
two Senators, Jim DeMint and Tom Cobram from South Carolina
and Oklahoma respectively, put a hold on the bill. I
from South Carolina, so I find this especially tragic. Apparently
the concerned with him for America were concerned about how
(24:11):
pro abortion rights would play into museum and ask the
senators to put the hold on the bill. Also, the
Senators have put out a statement claiming that a National
Women's History Museum would replicate a number of women's history
museums all over the country, like a Lilac garden, a
cowgirl museum, and a quilt museum. She writes, seriously, it's
clear how much a priority American women's history is to
this country, don't you think so? It seems. She writes
(24:33):
that the bill will have to be reproposed with the
new Congress after the midterm elections, which is just sad.
So if you guys want to track the story, I
think it's pretty interesting. Write your congress person if you
feel pretty strongly about it. I'd go to a women's
history museum on the mall absolutely, So thank you Caitlin
for leting us know about that. And if you want
to write in about motorcycles, current events, or anything else,
(24:53):
you have a lot of options. You can write us
at mom stuff at house stuffworks dot com. You can
write on our Facebook wall and start discussions there. You
can drop this a line on Twitter our handle his
mom stuff podcasts, and you can visit our blog which
is at how stuff works dot com for more on
this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff
(25:15):
works dot Com. Want more how stuff works, check out
our blogs on the house. Stuff works dot Com home
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