Women only club rides

[mjr]

Purely because something similar cropped up at work today, is it not discriminatory to have women only rides in the same way that is unacceptable to have , I dunno, vegetarian/ pierced ears/3 dog owning/ likes Neighbours only rides?
Just playing devils advocate.

Not really, because "3 dog owning" and "likes Neighbours" aren't protected characteristics. "Vegetarian" and "pierced ears" requirements may be, as eating meat or fish may be required by some religion for all I know, and I think it would have to be "some of any ears that you have are pierced"!

I believe that it would be unlawfully discriminatory to have women-only rides except that BC relies on the general exception for Sport in the Equality Act 2010 that allows them.

Oh yeah. I agree with Nearholmer . Subsets are inevitable and to my mind desirable. You get what you want with no messing about with anything you don't want.

Subsets are not the problem, as I've tried to clarify in a recent post.

[Nearholmer]

I'm not aware of any of those taking millions of pounds of public money

But do BC affiliated clubs receive any public money?

I think only by grant funding, which has to be applied for from “BC Central”, and relates to very specific activities like the “places to ride” programme, which is actually very Sustrans-like in its objectives.

As it happens I sort-of “get” your objection to BC being seen as, and to some extent portraying itself as, “the face of cycling in Britain”, because it is too sport-focused to play that role meaningfully. Cycling is possibly unique in spanning from pure utility to highly athletic professional sport in a a practically seamless fashion, and it needs voices at various places on that spectrum (and to some degree has that).

[mjr]

I'm not aware of any of those taking millions of pounds of public money

But do BC affiliated clubs receive any public money?

I think only by grant funding, which has to be applied for from “BC Central”, and relates to very specific activities like the “places to ride” programme, which is actually very Sustrans-like in its objectives.

And the women only ride "Breeze" programme, which I think is how it relates to this topic.

There may be more. I'm not a BC member, so don't know all its programmes.

Glad we're a bit closer to understanding each other.