Not disagreeing with the need for improved conditions but I also agree that it is annoying when there's articles trying to make things a gender issue, without actually providing the data that would say that it is a gender issue. From what I can tell bike riders are generally the victims of abuse, especially from car drivers, to the point where they're even seen as undesirables or other dehumanizing things that would warrant the abuse (from the perspective of the abuser).

The gap itself between genders on bikes is simply due to the lack of safe infrastructure. We see this in countless examples around the world. There's just more men who are willing to take the risk to drive in unsafe traffic conditions, but the numbers of women (and also kids) go up significantly every time there's good infrastructure change.