Help! Discrimination against female cyclists

[shootingstar]

This is exactly what I meant with my comment on the economics of it all, thank you for expanding on it.

When I hear the word discrimination, I really think of the intent to keep a group down: Jim Crow, segregated schools, organizations that exclude based on gender, religion etc.

In women's sports, I don't think its an intention to exclude; I think that it's whomever in charge following the money.

I understand about the chicken and egg problem.
However to garner corporate sponsorship dollars, often it requires educating potential sponsors of why it's worth investing in training support dollars for a marginalized group or a group of players /people that general public don't know their potential.

Canadian women playing hockey at the national and international levels is an interesting case...where more and more girls/women are playing hockey when they are younger.

My partner worked for a major national oil firm that consciously promoted its women into senior management ranks since the 1970's. This was a huge deal when there were less women in engineering positions compared to now. The firm's committment to equity is reflected as one of the corporate sponsor's for Canadian women's hockey.
http://www.whockey.com/country/canada/nats/ It wouldn't be surprising that this sponsorship is highly influenced by:

a) their employees who have daughters who play hockey. Or some female employees playing hockey. One has to influence the decision-makers who hold the corporate purse strings for big dollar sponsorship for a women's sport that is not well known for large numbers of pro /international participation. And some of those decision-makers in senior ranks...are women. I am a strong believer in ripple effect of social change in 1 area that spills over in ever-widening circles.

b) there is a critical mass of a) that generates public interest who will pay.

c) a) +b) enough experienced athletes to influence/inspire next generation for more regular participants in races, etc.

The big question for corporate sponsorship of women in pro cycling/events from their perspective is: Why bother? How does corporate dollars in pro cycling translate for long-standing benefits to the bigger community/world?

Methinks that alot of us long-term cyclists can immediately respond what would be the long-term benefits of corporate dollars spent on encouraging competitive cycling, or cycling in general for that matter. Problem sometimes, is motivating others to stick to/get into cycling long enough.

Maybe we're thinking just about the current type of racing choices. Why couldn't there be a long endurance race of all women's teams across the continent? This might give more long term publicity that would be comparable to the tour. Of course, back to same 'problem', would there be enough qualified women who would want to pariticipate.