The Lady Cyclists' Association was the United Kingdom's – and probably the world's – first cycling organisation expressly for women, set up to provide rides, tours and social gatherings for women cyclists.
Some of its members wore 'rational dress' and advocated women's right to wear comfortable clothing while cycling.
The founder and early driving force behind the association was Miss Lillias Campbell Davidson, who saw cycling as a path to the emancipation of women from restrictions imposed by society, opining that cycling offered "the greatest boon that has come to women for many a long day".
[3] She also wrote the ladies' column in the Cyclists' Touring Club Gazette.
[4] Julie Wosk, Women and the Machine: Representations From the Spinning Wheel to the Electronic Age (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001, 2003).