Breaking the Stereotype: Prominent Female Riders in the Motorcycle Community

Motorcycling is seen as a very manly thing to do, throughout history, it’s been seen as a masculine activity, and if you were to assign a gender to an unknown motorcycle rider, you’d likely pick male.

It has a sort of bad boy image, rebelling against the use of cars and riding motorcycles around with a female companion as the pillion on the back. In literature, movies, and history, motorcycling has always been shown and portrayed as being for men. For example, in the wars, men would hop on their motorcycles and ride into danger to help their fellow comrades.

It’s always had this sense of being male-dominated, the idea of taking risks, looking for speed, and generally being a bit of a hooligan has always been associated with men, who often would rather do something and think of the consequences later because that’s how our brains are wired, whereas women are more likely to take a methodical approach to things.

When you look at the statistics, motorcycle riding is hugely male-dominated within the UK, with an 80/20 split between the genders.

This means that women are drastically underrepresented in motorcycling. When you go to a bike meet, this is painfully obvious, with women being drastically outnumbered by men.

When in attendance at the World’s Largest Female Bike Meet last year, organised by Moto Advisor, it was interesting to speak to a number of women in the community and get their thoughts. It was overwhelming, with many stating that there isn’t enough for women in motorcycling and that they can often feel isolated or alone in the community.

There are a number of women who have been able to break the stereotype and prove that women can do it just as well as men. Here are a few:

Ana Carrasco

Ana Carrasco is a history-maker with a multitude of firsts for women within motorcycling to her name, the most notable being the first-ever female solo motorcycle world champion, doing so in the 2018 World Supersport 300 championship in a field made up of male and female riders.

In the Moto3 World Championship, she also became the first female rider to score points in the Moto3 class after it replaced the 125cc series, and additionally, in the World Supersport 300 series, she became the first female race winner in 2017.

Her achievements and mantra of ‘Ride Like A Girl’ have made her an inspiration to many across the globe. She currently competes in the Moto3 World Championship.

Melissa Paris

Team owner, racer, and mother, Melissa Paris has pretty much done it all, including racing while pregnant! As of 2023, she is a team owner with her husband Josh Hayes; however, she has achieved a significant amount in her career, regardless of gender.

Year after year, she has been able to push the boundaries of women within motorsport and motorcycling, competing in all-female teams in the endurance championships and racing in the British and World Supersport series, including being the first female rider in history to qualify for a World Supersport race.

In 2011, she also became the first woman to test a MotoGP machine when Tech3 Yamaha offered her the chance to ride their prototype Yamaha M1. She really has done it all.

Kiara Fontanesi

Kiara Fontanesi is a six-time female motocross World Champion and is officially the most successful woman in motocross; she is an idol to many riders and girls across the globe for her achievements.

The Italian has been able to step away from the sport on two different occasions to have her two children, the latter including a full year away on maternity leave, yet despite this, she was able to make her comeback to racing in March 2023 after 17 months away and win on her return in the Italian Motorcross Championship.

Since then, she has returned to the Women’s World Motocross Championship and has already secured some podium finishes at the time of writing.

Sinje Gottwald

Moving away from the racers and onto Sinje Gottwald, Sinje is a traveller, revelling in riding the open roads for as long as she physically can. She recently became the first person in history to complete a solo, unassisted ride across the African continent on an electric motorcycle.

She is renowned for breaking down barriers and showing everyone that anyone can do anything they desire, no matter their gender or the engine in their motorcycle.

Additionally, she completed a solo circumnavigation around the world in 2017 and doesn’t seem to be stopping any time soon; who knows where she will end up next?

Anne-France Dautheville

Anne-France Dautheville is another heroic woman, dedicating much of her life to riding motorcycles across the globe, including becoming the first woman to circumnavigate the world on a motorcycle and riding in the 1972 Raid Orion, riding from France to Iran before heading towards Afghanistan.

She was a freelance writer and would fund her riding by writing novels such as “Girl on a Motorcycle” and “And I Followed the Wind,” both documenting her experiences as a woman riding motorcycles and the distances that she covered.