“Suffragettes embraced bicycles both symbolically and physically. Popular woman’s monthly Godey’s declared in the 1890s that ‘there is something women of every class have welcome as a shorter road to freedom than wide, welcoming college doors, or open gateways to the polls. In possession of her bicycle, the daughter of the 19th century feels that the declaration of her independence has been proclaimed.’ Susan B. Anthony herself wrote in 1896 that she thought the machine ‘has done more to emancipate women than any one thing in the world,’ and that she ‘rejoices every time I see a woman ride by on a bike.'”
Click here to read on.