Why did Susan B. Anthony called bicycle the “freedom machine”?

Susan B. Anthony, the wold-known feminist called it the “freedom machine”. Can you guess why?

The safety bicycle gave women unprecedented mobility, contributing to their larger participation in the lives of Western nations.

As bicycles became safer and cheaper, more women had access to the personal freedom they embodied, and so the bicycle came to symbolise the New Woman of the late nineteenth century, especially in Britain and the United States. Feminists and suffragists recognised its transformative power.

Susan B. Anthony said, “Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel…the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.”

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