Prior to the "safety bicycle", bicycles were not gender specific because the rider was always presumed to be male. Ladies who pursued this sort of exercise used the expensive tricycle, which allowed for their copious, restrictive garments. The advent of the more balanced and stable diamond frame allowed for the development of a variety of new designs, including the "drop-frame safety", with a sloping top tube, directed specifically toward a female market. The development of the step-through frame changed the relationship women were to have with cycling, making it so popular that Susan B. Anthony credits it with single-handedly advancing women's liberation more than any other thing. The notion of designing a bicycle for women has been primarily about preserving the decorum and accommodating the clothing of women. There is reference, in Garratt's Modern Safety Bicycle, to the "graceful undulations" of curving down tubes being more aesthetically pleasing, and therefore more marketable to women, if structurally suspect. The step-through, or "women's", frame still does what it was originally intended to do by being skirt-friendly, and maintains certain advantages for people with less flexibility who do not wish to swing a leg high over the top tube. It remains a popular design today. By focusing on trade catalogues, literature, and periodicals such as "The Bicycling World", Spaulding's Official Bicycle Guide, and The Modern Safety Bicycle, and others of the late 19th century (which may be found in the collection of the Smithsonian Museum of American History), I will contrast this information with current magazines and literature on performance cycling such as "Velonews" and "Bicycling Magazine". Looking at performance road bikes of today, regardless of gender, the basic diamond frame is remarkably similar to that devised over one hundred years ago, yet there remains a popular perception that women need a different kind of bicycle from men. With the exception of the contact points of seats and handlebars, there has been no anatomical reason to design bicycles differently for women. I would argue that this perception has more to do with historical precedent, fashion restriction, or gender bias marketing than anatomical need. Were each individual's needs better taken into account, we'd see far more men on step-through frames, although probably not in pink.