Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men Paperback – March 2, 2021

This book is easy to read with lots of good citations. As a woman engineer, it really struck a cord. The world is all about data now and, for ladies, its the equivalent of trash in = trash out. My husband asked why I wanted to add fuel to this particular personal fire and he does have a point. It is nice to feel heard, though.

As a woman working in a STEM field, I was already aware of biases, differences in pay, workplace harassment, and more against women in the workplace. I have experienced it myself. But this book brings a much-needed investigation that goes far beyond my anecdotal incidents and really looks at the data (both what exists and what is missing) and the consequences of dismissing half of the world’s population as irrelevant or atypical.This book is arranged with a preface, introduction, six sections, an afterword, an epilogue specific to Covid-19, and almost 100 pages of endnotes and index. Although the book (sans endnotes and index) is 326 pages long, it is very readable and so brilliantly written that it’s funny, and sad, and insightful, and infuriating, and more all at once. The author brings to light numerous issues that at first glance didn’t really seem to be gender/sex-related at all but after looking at them, they actually are. I think this book would be so helpful for people in many fields, especially in leadership in corporations, government, churches, the medical community, small businesses, and more.Introduction: The Default MaleThe introduction sets up the whole book to show how nearly universally, a default male (body, size, height, weight, shape, behavior, lifestyle, etc.) is used as the default for data, decisions, planning, policies, history, teaching, models, examples, etc. and how this excludes fully 50% of the world’s population’s experiences, bodies, behaviors, needs, and values.Part 1: Daily LifeIn the first chapter, “Can Snow-Clearing be Sexist?”, the author reveals how many activities, like plowing the snow from roads, have been set up based on male norms without consideration of how females have different norms. In the case of clearing the roads and sidewalks for travel and commuting, when women’s needs and patterns were considered, it was found that clearing side roads and sidewalks prior to major roads reduced injuries and accidents and the overall cost of snow conditions compared with the plan which only considered men’s needs and patterns. Chapter two, “Gender Neutral with Urinals”, looks and bathroom usage and compares the usable square footage and time to use restrooms of men’s bathrooms, which can accommodate more men, with the needs of women who cannot use urinals, often have children or elderly to help, and have physical needs which just take longer than men. As such, equal size bathrooms are simply not equitable. And many worldwide women don’t have access to safe facilities at all.Part 2: The WorkplacePart 2 has 4 chapters. “The Long Friday” refers to a day when 90% of women in Iceland decided to strike so that their contributions, many unpaid, would be recognized. Statistically, women do far more unpaid work like childcare, elder care, shopping, cooking, and cleaning compared with men. These tasks cannot be skipped; they are essential but unpaid. “The Myth of Meritocracy” shows how advancement in the workplace based on merit favors men who don’t have essential unpaid work to do at home and can invest more at work. Furthermore, men’s accomplishments are recognized and rewarded more often even when they are not more merit-worthy than women. “The Henry Higgens Effect” refers to a character in My Fair Lady who wonders why women can’t be more like men, as if the solution is to force women to act like men rather than recognize that half of the population is not male and behaving like a woman is quite appropriate for women. The final chapter in this section is “Being Worth Less than a Shoe” and discusses workplace safety standards and equipment that were developed for men without consideration for the women and their size and physiological differences. “Women have always worked. They have worked unpaid, underpaid, underappreciated, and invisibly, but they have always worked. But the modern workplace does not work for women. From its location, to its hours, to its regulatory standards, it has been designed around the lives of men and it is no longer fit for purpose. The world of work needs a wholesale redesign – if its regulations, of its equipment, of its culture – and this redesign must be led by data on female bodies and female lives. We have to start recognizing that the work women do is not an added extra, a bonus that we could do without: women’s work, paid and unpaid, is the backbone of our society and our economy. It’s about time we started valuing it.” p142.Part 3: DesignIn the section on Design, there are three chapters. “The Plough Hypothesis” looks at cultures where farm equipment, designed for men, allowed men who have significantly more upper body strength and hand grip to become the primary income-generating farmers but in cultures that used hoes, both men and women farmed. Farming practices that favor men aren’t limited to equipment but also impact crop types. Some high-yield varieties increase the time the women had to spend on cooking and preparing the crops and “clean” stoves designed to reduce harmful smoke emissions often increase the effort and time for women to cook and tend to the food. “One-Size-Fits-Men” discusses the issues with equipment, gear, and algorithms designed for an average-sized man and how these ill-fitting products do not properly protect, and sometimes even increase risk because they do not fit properly on women simply because women don’t have the same size, shape, and expression, as an average man. “A Sea of Dudes” shares the difficulties women have getting funding for research and products for women when often men are unaware of the needs of women and don’t value funding products that they themselves don’t need. “Designers may believe they are making products for everyone, but in reality they are mainly making them for men. It’s time to start designing women in.” p191.Part 4: Going to the Doctor“When Drugs Don’t Work” looks at the practice of testing drugs and dosages on men without considering how well they work (or don’t work) on women with different hormones and physiology. My mom is only about 85 pounds and I often wonder if the standard male adult dosage is appropriate for her tiny body. “Yentl Syndrome” starts by comparing typical heart attack symptoms in men versus women. Because symptoms in women differ from men, they are often misdiagnosed, sometimes fatally. Male-dominated funding panels impact how research funding is distributed and diseases that impact primarily women are less likely to be funded and studied. Women typically wait longer, take longer to diagnose, are misdiagnosed more often, and are not taken seriously by the medical community.Part 5: Public Life“A Costless Resource to Exploit” delves into the deliberate decision to exclude unpaid women’s work (childcare, elder care, cooking, cleaning, household activities, etc.) in the GDP. “It makes sense only if you see women as an added extra, a complicating factor. It doesn’t make sense if you’re talking about half of the human race. It doesn’t make sense if you care about accurate data.” p241. “From Purse to Wallet” looks at tax codes and how they favor men compared with women, particularly in that joint households receive tax credits to the head of the household, typically the man, and women may not have equal access to this money. “Women’s Rights are Human Rights” continues looking at how male-biased policies and gaps in government thinking are harming women. “The data we already have makes it abundantly clear that female politicians are not operating on a level playing field. The system is skewed towards electing men, which means that the system is skewed towards perpetuating the gender data gap in global leadership, with all the attendant negative repercussions for half the world’s population.” p286.Part 6: When it Goes Wrong“Who will rebuild” shows that “when things go wrong – war, natural disaster, pandemic – all the usual data gaps we have seen everywhere from urban planning to medical care are magnified and multiplied. But it’s more insidious than the usual problem of simply forgetting to include women. Because if we are reticent to include women’s perspectives and address women’s needs when things are doing well, there’s something about the context of disaster, of chaos, of social breakdown, that makes old prejudices seem more justified. The real reason we exclude women is because we see the rights of 50% of the population as a minority interest.” p290. “It’s Not the Disaster that Kills You” continues by pointing out that during disasters, it is women who are disproportionally negatively impacted. Women face increased domestic violence, trauma, displacement, injury, death, and female-specific injustices during warfare, pandemics, and natural disasters.The afterword offers some hope when women’s voices are included. Women bring valuable insight into the experiences of half the population and their experiences are good for business, economy, and humanity. The epilogue was added to specifically address the Covid-19 pandemic and, unsurprisingly, the “continual failure to systemically collect and sex-disaggregated data on symptoms, infection rates, and death rates from Covid-19.” p319. And of course, PPE that fit women (like masks) were disproportionally unavailable for the many women in healthcare settings who needed them.I found this book very well written, meticulously footnoted, and very eye-opening even though I was aware of some of the issues already. I would highly recommend the book to all leaders and all women. Although the author touched on women’s clothing and fashion, I wish she had chewed on it a little more, especially considering how men are able to purchase pants by style, waist size, and inseam whereas rarely are women offered the ability to buy based on measurements and most pants have only one inseam length as if all women are the same shape and height. Women, their bodies, and their needs matter in all areas of life and we should be considered.

I read a raft of feminist nonfiction books, and I must say this was one of the better ones--very good indeed. It was so good, in fact, that I had to put it down from time to time because it upset me by delineating the sheer and overwhelming abuse-by-neglect of half the planet's population.If you are a woman, likely you know a bit of this simply by being alive. But I am betting it's still a new perspective on the "why" of it.If you are a man, you may know a few stats, but you almost certainly have no clue about the global and right-in-your-neighborhood ramifications of ignoring the needs of women. (Not just moms--as a reviewer here complained.) From birth, women are never the "default" in anything, thus the majority of systems and things never serve them well. The state of sanitary sewer or toileting systems around the world, alone, along with a lack of running or close-to-fetch water is an often fatal injustice particularly cruel to women and girls.People who make policy--and men--need to read this. Send a copy to your Rep. or Senator?

Did you know that snow plowing/clearing can be sexist?Yup, it is guys. Major streets, highways, and thoroughfares get most of the attention after a snowfall because duh! people need to drive to work and stuff, right? But, according to the author, this benefits men disproportionately as they have relatively straightforward commuting patterns and are less likely to use public transport. Women, on the other hand, must contend with circuitous patterns of commute (i.e. kid's school, groceries, parents, work, laundry, kid's practice, etc.) that not only expose them to less tidy roads after inclement weather, but also sloppy sidewalks that have shown to result in more injuries which translate to lost productivity and eventually more expenditure on healthcare programs, etc. And that's just the appetizer...So....women are difficult to measure, non-linearly commuting humans that do 75% percent of the world's unpaid labor, who are disproportionally affected by cuts to social programs, who are constantly being subjected to an infuriating double standard, and whose contributions to the nation's GDP has been largely unaccounted for.If you are not the "default human" in most studies (i.e. a male) then grab some calming chamomile tea and take your blood pressure medication or something cause each chapter is sure to make your blood boil. If you are a "default human" however, then be prepared to have an entirely new understanding of the word privilege...There is some overreaching in terms of the arguments that caused me to squint and purse my lips the way I do when I'm extremely skeptical about something, like when she presented the idea that it's hard for women to perform similarly to men in construction jobs cause cement bags are just too darn big and so are bricks! If they were to change the world standard for bricks though...problem solved eh?Also, apparently men drove the trend towards bigger and bigger phones, cause we have big manly hands and we can handle them whereas women must contort their digits in all kinds of ways causing them much discomfort. But they do make them smaller I thought? Anyways, the point is that they won't fit in their darn pants pockets! By Jove, If the patriarchy just stopped designing Lululemons, yoga pants, skinny jeans, pantsuits and tiny purses, then...Hmmm. Methinks women in the fashion industry have it well within their province to address these issues, yes?In general tough, this book is an eye-opening, world-view changing kind of work that has research in spades and deserves every accolade and award thrown its way.Must read recommendation!

A well-written scholarly review. I was riveted once I started reading. I never understood how many low-key ways research carried out on armed forces personnel winds up disregarding women and costing our towns, states and nation lots of money.