Caroline Criado PerezInvisible Women: the Sunday Times number one bestseller exposing the gender bias women face every day

It’s not hyperbole to say that data bias is affecting every area of women’s lives; from medical research and technology to government policy and their workplaces. The world is built with men as the standard and women an afterthought at best, often with disastrous consequences.Wow. This was such an eye opening read. There were some parts that I knew, the fact that women are 47% more likely to be injured in a car accident due to crash test dummies being built based on male bodies was one, but many more that I wasn’t aware of. The lack of female participants in medical trials probably shouldn’t have surprised me but did. Even drugs specifically intended for women aren’t generally tested on women.Criado Perez’s writing is incredible. She’s done so much research and gathered together an overwhelming amount of evidence as well as calling for solutions.This book is not a stick with which to beat men, Criado Perez explains the circumstances in how this data gap came to be and pushes for people to do better. She points out the failings in data not being disaggregated by sex.Ironically, some of the problems come from the idea that feminism is calling for equality between the sexes, when what is really needed is equity. Instead of pretending the differences don’t exist and attempting to treat everyone the same, we need to acknowledge where there are differences and give people what they need to close the gap.This is something I’ve thought a lot about in my life as a martial artist. The doboks we wear are clearly designed with one shape in mind, an athletically built male. I’m sure it could be argued that equality was in mind in ensuring we all wear the same but that isn’t the way human bodies work and women’s bodies, specifically, need a different style.More than anything, this book served as reminder of how far we’ve come but also how far we still have to go.

First things first: the designer of this book was clearly on a roll. The font is clear and delightful. The italics, in particular, are so beautiful I had to take a picture of them and send it to my friend so he could appreciate them too. The cover design is subtle and fantastic. When you take the dustjacket off, the overlaid blue male figures disappear, leaving the invisible women behind, which ties in wonderfully with the book’s overarching message. The texture of the dustjacket and hardcover is delightful, with a velvety-smooth overlay that is really pleasing to the touch.The book is heavily referenced throughout with endnotes. These are collected directly after the acknowledgements, a full 69 pages of references. The impact of this collected body of commentary serves to underline the density of information and dedication of the research which went into this book. While I’m not a fan of endnotes, personally, the stylistic choice to collect them all together gives undeniable weight to the book, and makes it difficult to dismiss its conclusions.But that’s enough about the physical construction of this book (for which Chatto and Windus deserves great praise). What about the content itself?Well, I read this book with a combination of mounting horror, frustration, and rage. Criado Perez takes the reader by the hand and gently leads them along a journey of discrimination against women which is endemic in all areas of life. Split into six thematic sections (Daily Life, The Workplace, Design, Going to the Doctor, Public Life, and When it Goes Wrong), this book catalogues a pantheon of circumstances where what is female is considered as abnormal, as less than standard, as Other. Collected together, the ignorance of design to the differing needs of 50% of the population is both fascinating and incredibly infuriating.Criado Perez doesn’t use this book as a stick with which to beat the patriarchy, however. Rather, she delicately unpicks the circumstances which lead to a lack of consideration of the needs of those other than what is considered to be the default. Her examples are wide-ranging, touching on every area of life, and consistently return the same conclusion: women just haven’t been thought about. It’s not that their needs have been considered and dismissed. It’s that the fact that they might have different needs hasn’t even occurred to the people creating these structures.(Generally. There are some notable exceptions. One quote from Tim Schalk really burned my cookies. But it’s not actually the norm.)From Sheryl Sandberg’s explanation at Google that heavily pregnant women can’t walk long distances to Apple Health’s omission of allowing tracking of a menstrual cycle, for many examples in this book, the reason for these omissions is that people didn’t even think of them as a potential need. Cars are crash tested rigorously before making it to market – but the dummies used are 1.7m tall. This is the size of the average man, not the size of the average person, and it leads to shocking statistics like the fact that women – despite being less likely to crash – if they are involved in a crash, are 47% more likely to be seriously injured. Criado Perez points out myriad ways that this unthinking acceptance of male as default – and as applicable to all – unfairly impacts on women, and leads to their being unconsidered in further development.The book has one overarching message, which calls clearly from every page. Do something about this. Don’t accept data as applicable to all. Sex-disaggregate data, and investigate how men and women are differently impacted. In an era which relies on big data more than ever, the gender data gap needs to be acknowledged, counteracted, and filled. And it needs to be done with a specific focus on counteracting the detriment which the gender data gap had caused. Otherwise we end up with situations where a policy designed to create more family-friendly situations actually end up disadvantaging those it intended to help.Criado Perez is not myopic in her discussions either – she skillfully acknowledges the intersections of race, gender identity, disability, and other minority identities can have to create a cumulatively detrimental effect. Invisible Women is a primer on how not to design, a feminist manifesto, a fantastic example of hard research with incredible readability, and a thoroughly engaging experience. It has filled me with rage and frustration – my friends and family have borne the brunt of several rants already – and I’ll be passing it on and recommending it to pretty much everyone I know.

The book is great, full of insight and really well written. The seller however miss sold the book stating that it was like new, when in fact it had been written in on several pages.

A must read for all women and enlightened others. Great care over the references as well for any follow up.

Definitely worth a read and a bit of an eye opener. Just shows one size does not fit all and has serious concerns for us more slightly build females.

An amazing book. How can one person do this amount of research in one lifetime?This should be essential reading g for politicians everywhere, for people in the health profession, for educators.In fact everyone e should read this book and open their eyes to the change needed in society

I didn't expect that my own view of the world I grew up in was so blind to the bias that exists. There are some obvious gaps such as pay and care expectations placed on women that I'm well-versed in but I'd never considered the design of PPE or the effect that snow-clearing could have on the lives of women. It was the information regarding the medical profession that I found truly frightening. How many times have my loved ones and myself been let down by the medical profession because there isn't enough research on the female body and how our hormones interact with certain drugs? Let alone the drugs that are never investigated or researched in the first place.My husband found it disconcerting speaking to me after I'd finished a new chapter because I was so angry but we should all be angry, not just women. Men have wives, girlfriends, daughters, sisters, mothers, friends etc people they love; don't they want us to live in world that's fair and considered? A world where our lives and safety are just as much a priority as there's?