Only 7.2% of local time trialling entries are women. ?

This Saturday HPC have a number of athletes heading to the final round of the Victoria TT series, and for the first time since I can remember the ladies have their own section of the event. 12 ladies have entered and are grouped together to enable proper competition. (86 total entries).

I therefore decided to look back at other popular local TTs this season:
Hainault Hilly 8/102
Maldon Hilly 6/63
Chelmer Hardriders 4/84

18 females from a total field of 249 (7.2%). It’s such a shame.

In the Eastern Cyclocross leagues the ladies have to race with the Vet 50 men because there are not enough entries to create their own race! The Writtle event of the Eastern Cyclocross League was marginally better at 24/213 (11.3%), and the youth categories were 18/116, so better again at 15.52%. Maybe signs it’s going to improve over time.

I suspect this is a wider problem than just local time trialling, but 7.2% is alarming.

Would love to know everyone’s thoughts, especially from the ladies in this FB group, and what can be done to address the problem?

?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️