The situation of women in professional road cycling in the contexts of media and finance

Abstract

The article aims to present the current situation of women in professional road cycling with a special focus on areas of inequality in media and finance. The research had two main objectives: (1) to analyze the situation of women in road cycling based on secondary data and (2) to gather opinions from women in the cycling community regarding the current situation of women in professional road cycling. Two research methods were used to achieve the stated research objectives: survey and desk research. The survey included 145 women between the ages of 19 and 56 who declared that they ride a road bike or gravel bike. The results indicated that the majority of female respondents were aware of existing inequalities in the areas of finance and media visibility. To explore areas of inequality in more detail, an analysis of the secondary data was also used. The results indicate significant inequalities in prize pools between men’s and women’s races, in favour of the first category. Furthermore, media coverage of women’s cycling remains notably underrepresented.