Gender and the e-bike: Exploring the role of electric bikes in increasing women’s access to cycling and physical activity

In low-cycling countries like Aotearoa New Zealand, women are much less likely to cycle.  Previous research has identified improvements to cycling infrastructure and increasing gender equality as key ways to open up cycling to women.  The electric bicycle (or e-bike) may be another tool that could be used to lift women’s cycling rates.  In this paper we explored findings from the Electric City research project in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand that touched on aspects of gender and e-cycling experience.  We used data from interviews with three groups, e-cyclists, e-bike retailers, and cycling planners and policy-makers, to gain insights into the gendered dimensions of the e-cycling assemblage (rider, bike, environment).  The results showed that e-bikes act as a cycling enabler for women in ways that both reinforce as well as challenge aspects of traditional gender socialisation:  E-bikes enable women to meet traditional care responsibilities, and achieve traditional feminine expectations of presentation on a bike.  However, they also increase women’s cycling confidence and assertiveness, provide less fit women with more empowering physical activity experiences, improve the quality of bikes available to women, and can create more inclusive bike retail environments.  We concluded that these benefits are less likely to be available to lower-income women, due to the high cost of e-bikes.