More Women to the Start Line
SRAM commits to achieving greater gender parity for International Women's Day
SRAM is joining the global effort in supporting International Women's Day on March 8, 2020, by outlining its commitments to pursue gender parity in the sport of cycling. SRAM is adding its voice to the #EachForEqual conversation by endeavoring to get more women to any of cycling's analogous start lines, including riding, racing, advocacy, and employment. SRAM is also appealing directly to athletes, industry professionals, and customers to help make a difference. For 2020, SRAM has made four commitments to support these efforts.
Community: A long-term commitment to the SRAM Women's Program, now in its fourth year of operation. The program's mission is to get more women on bikes through ambassador support and development, education programming, skills clinics, and by embracing peripheral communities at events. SRAM has a full-time team member dedicated to this program, who serves beginner to advanced cyclists in both road and mountain disciplines. The SRAM Women's Program has grown its reach to participants through events by 45% year over year and aims to continue this growth trajectory through 2020 and beyond.
Work: Since 2015, SRAM LLC has empowered women within the business to develop and lead the SRAM Women's Leadership Committee (SWLC). The group was founded to attract, develop, and retain more women to work at SRAM. The SWLC is responsible for creating global mentorship opportunities for all SRAM team members, including addressing the challenge of creating a more inclusive and diverse workforce. SRAM's global workforce today is 41% female. Our U.S. team has grown the number of women by 11.5% in the past 3 years.
Youth: Increased support to the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) through 2023. NICA provides entry points in cycling to youth in North America to learn the ins and outs of riding bicycles and supporting youth racing development. SRAM will actively be involved in helping NICA reach its goal of 33% female rider participation through collaborations with the Girls Ride Together Program (aka GRiT).
Athletes: SRAM will continue to endeavor to support female athletes and teams in at least equal proportion to men.
"SRAM believes that achieving gender parity in cycling is imperative for the long-term success of the industry as a whole," says Sara Jarrell, Marketing Coordinator of Women's Programs at SRAM. "And our commitments will be sustained well beyond March 8."
