Organization and Historical Context in Wheels of Change, Part 6 Answers

Read the excerpt from Chapter 5 of Wheels of Change.In 1895, Stanton contributed an article to the American Wheelman celebrating this "wonderful new style of locomotion." In the article, titled "The Era of the Bicycle," she pointed out that cycling was increasing people's mobility, eliminating the cost of feeding and housing horses, and encouraging the building of good roads. However, she saved her greatest praise for the bicycle's effects on women. "The bicycle," she wrote, "will inspire women with more courage, self-respect and self-reliance and make the next generation more vigorous of mind and of body; for feeble mothers do not produce great statesmen, scientists and scholars."

Read the excerpt from Chapter 5 of Wheels of Change.When Cambridge University in England decided to offer female students full admission in 1897, the male students protested by hanging a figure of a woman on a bicycle in effigy.

What accurately describes this synthesis of the text? Check all that apply.

Read the excerpt from Chapter 5 of Wheels of Change.Would the bicycle help bring about a new kind of equality between men and women? Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her colleagues certainly hoped so. At any rate, the image of a female cyclist quickly became associated with efforts to win more rights for women. When Cambridge University in England decided to offer female students full admission in 1897, the male students protested by hanging a figure of a woman on a bicycle in effigy.

Read the excerpt from Chapter 5 of Wheels of Change.Poets and writers also explored the impact of the wheel and the changing dynamics between the sexes that it helped bring about. Magazines and some newspapers regularly published poetry and short stories at that time, and cycling was a popular theme. In 1893, poet Madeline S. Bridges celebrated the female cyclist's new freedom by contrasting her with the maidens of the past who used wheels to spin thread.

Read the excerpt from Chapter 5 of Wheels of Change.For decades, Willard, along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and many others, had been working toward increased political and economic rights for women. Now the bicycle brought a taste of independence to women on a very personal level, and some of them took the opportunity to express their discontent with old traditions and expectations. In August 1895, a cyclist named Ann Strong caused a stir when she compared the value of a bicycle to that of a husband in the Minneapolis Tribune. "I can't see but that a wheel is just as good company as most husbands," she declared. "I would as lief [sic] talk to one inanimate object as another; and I'd a great deal rather talk to one that can't answer than one that won't."

Review the information in the graphic organizer based on Chapter 5 of Wheels of Change.