How to encourage more women to cycle?

What made me hesitate to cycle for many years were:

1) A deep dislike of motorised traffic: noise, pollution, aggression. Do I really want to be close to those beasts?
2) Knowing that it would take me a while to build the confidence and therefore scared of doing something stupid that could potentially hurt me or kill me
3) not knowing anything about bike mechanics - what to do when you have a puncture, can I be bothered to learn about bike maintenance, I can't do it, I don't like doing it etc.
4) what kind of bike to get?
5) parking and theft
6) how to manage a change of clothes at work

Véro, you've summed up the sentiments I've heard from my wife on the subject. After her bike was stolen just after she finished at university, there was an enforced haitus from riding, and then getting back into it never happened; and the fear-from-a-distance gradually increased. Number 6 doesn't really figure for her, but a hybrid of 5 & 6 i.e. parking at work, would be an impediment at the moment, were it not for the fact that she walks to work.

In recent years, since I've sorted out a new bike for her, she prefers to ride with me (leisure / utility), partly due to it being convenient to rely on my established mechanical savoir faire, partly because I tend to know a route, and partly because she feels less vulnerable to 101 Wankers type events happening. I don't want to dwell on the negative, but there is this reality of anti-cyclist invective also being tinged with misogyny/sexual harassment when it comes to the treatment of women cyclists; but, as with previous comments, this is an issue which is more to do with women in society rather than just women in cycling, and the lack of change in attitude amongst governing bodies, law enforcers, and some of the public at large.

MrsFix certainly spends a lot of time on the turbo trainer, though I'm not sure where this figures in the debate.