Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men

Caroline Criado Perez (Narrator)

• ISBN10: 1982699329
• ISBN13: 9781982699321
• Publish Date: 25 June 2019
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Blackstone Publishing
• Edition: Library Edition
• Format: Audiobook (CD)
• Duration: 9 hours and 25 minutes
• Language: English

Reviews

[Quirky Cat]

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez is exactly what the title implies. It is a novel full of information and details, all of which point to the same conclusion. Data bias. Specifically, data bias formed around men.

Caroline Criado Perez's novel dives into a world of research and gender gaps, pointing out all the little biases that surround our daily lives. From the way a phone is designed, to the way lifesaving research is designed and orchestrated. Perez lays it all out in alarming detail, in a way that is both approachable and mildly terrifying.

To be clear, this isn't a novel full of conspiracy theories or anything like that. Caroline Criado Perez has painstakingly collection data, evidence, and case studies to prove each of her theories. It's hard not to see the correlations when they are all laid out in this manner.

Let me just start by saying that Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men is not a light read. Nor should it be, not really. It's downright depressing at times, especially if you let yourself think too much about the implications of some of the data revealed.

Yet, that simply makes this read all the more important. We can't just stick our heads in the sand and hope for the best. I feel that Caroline Criado Perez has made that point abundantly clear, as I imagine any other reader would agree with as well.

One of the major points that Caroline Criado Perez makes is one that is so simple, and yet so breathtakingly powerful and clear all at the same time. What is happening, and has been happening, isn't automatically a malicious decision. We live in a society that fails to notice simple facts and biases. It's a fact that has snowballed, to put it lightly.

It is hard to explain how that revelation made me feel, if I'm being honest. As such, I feel like I should recommend that everyone interested gives Invisible Women a chance. Caroline Criado Perez's writing is perhaps most effective when read directly, after all.

Check out more reviews from Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed by Men is equal parts enlightening and infuriating. I first came across Criado Perez’s work when I read a February 2019 article in the Guardian, where she discusses everything from office buildings being too cold for women to cars not being tested for women’s safety to medicines not being tested for women’s bodies. The issues are much deeper and much broader than this, however. The book is basically an endless list of how literally everything in our world has been designed for men and not for women. This is not a neutral oversight, but rather has staggeringly dangerous and far-reaching effects on women that, frankly, it seems shocking our societies have not noticed or addressed before.

Some of the information seems a bit frivolous or unimportant. I am always cold (and frankly sick of being always cold and then being told to wear a sweater, as if it’s normal to dress like a skier inside in summer, or as if my comfort is less important than other people’s, usually men). But on some level, I do accept I just have to “deal with it,” that it’s somehow my personal problem that I’m always cold. The research presented here helps me feel vindicated, but at the end of the day, I just shiver and put on my sweater. However, the more the book goes on, the darker and more depressing it gets. It turns out that women aren’t overlooked just when it comes to setting the air conditioner. They are overlooked literally everywhere, on public transportation, in politics, in chemical safety testing, in designs for safety equipment for the police and the military, in workplace polices, in public planning for available restrooms. Everywhere. If you think women are doing alright and generally being treated equally in your country, even if there is some room for improvement here and there, this book will make you think again.

I’ve talked to some men who seemed defensive about the information presented in the book, but Criado Perez emphasizes that, in most cases, the overlooking of women is not necessarily malicious or overtly sexist. It’s just that when people hear the term “average person,” they imagine a man and go from there. Office temperatures are comfortable for the average man. Piano keys are designed for the average man. Car safety features are designed for the average man. City buses are convenient for the average man. But none of these things work nearly as for women and acknowledging that is the first step to changing. The itself book is also filled with examples of men who refused to believe evidence presented to them that things needed to change because the issues didn’t affect them, and that’s incredibly frustrating. However, there’s enough data and references to studies in the book that Criado Perez will be convincing to anyone who has an open mind, and I hope those people aren’t only women.

This is a book I really recommend that everyone read. It is eye-opening. I found the whole thing very readable and got through it in a matter of days, but you can also go through it and read chapters about topics that particularly interest you. Then go buy copies for everyone you know and try to change the world.