The project ‘Fostering Gender Equality and Diversity in Mountain Biking’ will co-create a national policy framework for increasing women’s participation in mountain biking in England. It is a strategic partnership between UoB, British Cycling and Forestry England. The policy’s specific focus will be on facilitating a national framework for visibility, inclusivity and diversity for women’s mountain biking, opening up English forests to a more diverse public.
Background and context
Like other action sports, and cycling more broadly, there is gender inequality and a lack of diversity in mountain biking, despite efforts at industry, community and policy level. 75-90% of mountain bikers in the UK are male and most are white. There are particular benefits to group mountain biking, which can tackle social isolation and bring mental health benefits through connectedness to nature. However, there are also unique challenges to widening participation in mountain biking, such as trail access and facilities, but also in relation to the sport’s image, propagated by industry marketing and media that reconstitute it as male-dominated, dangerous and adrenaline-fuelled. The poor diversity amongst women and non-binary mountain bikers represents that in other action sports, where women, non-binary and ethnic minorities are also underrepresented. Working to increase women’s participation in mountain biking reflects the recommendations of the 2022 Women’s Health Strategy for England, which points to the importance of reducing disparities between the physical activity levels of women and men across the life course, as well as between different groups of women. Indeed, Spotswood’s previous research has illuminated how different groups of women face unique barriers to incorporating active leisure into their lives, which contributes to gender-based health inequalities.
British Cycling and Forestry England both have existing strategic commitments to increasing inclusivity in outdoor, active leisure, and particularly in increasing the diversity of participation in mountain biking. See, for example, One Million More Women on Bikes and the commitment to being ‘Always Inclusive’ in their strategy to 2024; and Forestry England’s Active Forests Programme, which advocates for ‘engaging, inspirational and motivating sport and exercise opportunities for new and existing forest visitors’. Yet, none of these specifically focuses on fostering diversity and inclusion in mountain biking, particularly focusing on women. The proposed project builds on these commitments, drawing on research insights from an earlier project led by Spotswood, funded by the British Academy/Leverhulme.
The previous project, entitled ‘Gender injustice in action sports’ has explored how women connect with the culture of mountain biking, including its marketing mediated image. It explored women’s pathways to recruitment and retention, and experiences of inclusion and exclusion in the sport, particularly by the least represented groups. British Cycling and Forestry England have been important stakeholders in this prior work. The research insights include that:
• Women mountain bikers are disengaged from industry media and marketing, which they feel does not represent them. This supports research that highlights the role of women’s representation in marketing and media in shaping the way women engage with action leisure.
• Women who cycle but do not mountain bike focus on the sport’s dangers, difficulties of access and specificities of equipment. They view mountain biking as mysterious and ‘hidden’ from view, practised by an expert few and mostly men.
• Women who mountain bike often engage with the sport through informal networks fostered through social media, purposefully away from men, in nurturing, supportive, women-only networks. These networks are reliant on a few key champions and are fragile.
These research insights underpin the proposed national policy framework that will enable British Cycling and Forestry England to meet their commitments to equality and diversity, and also help shift the culture of mountain biking towards diversity and gender inclusion.
Aims
The project will develop a national policy framework to foster visibility, inclusivity and diversity in mountain biking. The policy framework will work with, and influence, ongoing strategic programmes in British Cycling and Forestry England for promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion in outdoor activities. In particular, the policy framework will set out an approach to foster and support new, thriving networks of women and non-binary mountain bikers, which are led and championed by women and actively seek to include women from less represented groups. These networks will connect women and non-binary people who already mountain bike as a leisure activity, provide a nurturing environment for new recruits, and raise the visibility of women in the sport, normalising participation for those traditionally excluded. The networks will be strategically and geographically connected to Forestry England trail sites, building on existing frameworks of implementation, promotion and evaluation.
The policy framework will also set out a framework for inclusive marketing communications for both organisations that can help reframe mountain biking. This will have an impact for women and non-binary people already mountain biking, who currently do not connect with the mediated image of mountain biking, and for potential recruits from diverse backgrounds who currently do not feel they connect with images and stories representing mountain biking in digital and traditional media. The current image of mountain biking is of a masculine, high-adrenaline and non-diverse action sport. The marketing communications framework will guide strategic programmes of marketing activity by British Cycling and Forestry England designed to improve and advance the inclusivity, diversity, and broader representation of women in mountain biking. British Cycling and Forestry England have a unique opportunity to shift the image of mountain biking and provide different images and stories that are an important part of building an inclusive culture.