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A review by lillimoore
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez
5.0
Caroline Criado Pérez took on the monumental task of evaluating loads and loads of gender-bias data to present her case in Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, and the results are startling. Page by page, this book observes all the ways in which the world is designed for men and against women, and they are seemingly endless.
I got a good taste of this when I began Women's History Month with Katrine Marçal's Mother of Invention: How Good Ideas Get Ignored in an Economy Built by Men (which I highly recommend especially if you enjoyed Invisible Women), and even that was disconcerting. Until you sit down and learn about it, it's easy to ignore all the ways in which the economy is set up to benefit one half of the population and not the other. We don't even think about it. We're conditioned not to. But Pérez thinks about it. I have to imagine that when you are as analytical as someone like her, you never stop thinking about it. You see it everywhere.
Right off the bat, Pérez points out that "the lives of men have been taken to represent those of humans overall," establishing just how low the level of consideration for the lives of women and non-binary people are worldwide. The lack of gender-based data segregation leads to unconscious biases that prevent true equality among genders. Some of the most glaring examples include transportation planning that does not account for women's additional stops and typical routes, which exposes the deeper issue of women's unpaid labor not being accounted for in any data collection. Women perform a large majority of the unpaid labor in this world—up to 75%—ranging from childcare to household maintenance to caretaking for older family members and more. Transportation isn't the only sector that ignores this important point; employers, medical providers, and many others do not account for the additional labor women are performing and subsequent consequences on their health, well-being, and finances.
Because of the gap in data, women are also not frequently accounted for in the design of public spaces. They are less likely to apply for and interview for jobs when the posting uses generic masculine descriptors. They are underrepresented in educational materials such as textbooks and documentaries. They work tirelessly for their families and communities with no pay, and this overload of work—paid and unpaid—leads to burnout physically and mentally. After having children, the pay gap only widens for women and widens to an even greater chasm for women of color.
Women are expected to have the same characteristics and men. Women are expected to require the same medical treatment and procedures as men, and to respond to medication and treatments the same way men do in clinical research studies. But biologically, this is often not possible.
I could go on and on but at this point I may just end up summarizing the whole book. The biggest takeaway for you if you're reading this review is READ THIS BOOK. Read it again and again. Let the contents enmesh themselves with your brain so you move around the world differently. The information in this book is SO IMPORTANT. No, it doesn't offer solutions. No, it isn't as inclusive as maybe it could be as far as others on the gender spectrum are concerned, but other books out there do cover this topic so I would seek those out if that is what you are looking for. Those flaws are minor, because being armed with the knowledge that this book will give you is crucial if anything is going to change. I use this book in my work every day. It has shaped my worldview and is an invaluable resource to me, and I think everyone else should give it a chance to shape them as well. Not to mention it was written in a way that makes it accessible to folks with all educational backgrounds and was very enjoyable to read, even if the content was at times disheartening.
Despite everything, I am so glad I am a woman. This book made me proud of the work women do in this world, of the space we take up, of the noise we make, and it made me even more determined to be a part of the journey towards equity for all women and LGBTQIA+ people. Thank you to the author for writing something so enlightening!
I got a good taste of this when I began Women's History Month with Katrine Marçal's Mother of Invention: How Good Ideas Get Ignored in an Economy Built by Men (which I highly recommend especially if you enjoyed Invisible Women), and even that was disconcerting. Until you sit down and learn about it, it's easy to ignore all the ways in which the economy is set up to benefit one half of the population and not the other. We don't even think about it. We're conditioned not to. But Pérez thinks about it. I have to imagine that when you are as analytical as someone like her, you never stop thinking about it. You see it everywhere.
Right off the bat, Pérez points out that "the lives of men have been taken to represent those of humans overall," establishing just how low the level of consideration for the lives of women and non-binary people are worldwide. The lack of gender-based data segregation leads to unconscious biases that prevent true equality among genders. Some of the most glaring examples include transportation planning that does not account for women's additional stops and typical routes, which exposes the deeper issue of women's unpaid labor not being accounted for in any data collection. Women perform a large majority of the unpaid labor in this world—up to 75%—ranging from childcare to household maintenance to caretaking for older family members and more. Transportation isn't the only sector that ignores this important point; employers, medical providers, and many others do not account for the additional labor women are performing and subsequent consequences on their health, well-being, and finances.
Because of the gap in data, women are also not frequently accounted for in the design of public spaces. They are less likely to apply for and interview for jobs when the posting uses generic masculine descriptors. They are underrepresented in educational materials such as textbooks and documentaries. They work tirelessly for their families and communities with no pay, and this overload of work—paid and unpaid—leads to burnout physically and mentally. After having children, the pay gap only widens for women and widens to an even greater chasm for women of color.
Women are expected to have the same characteristics and men. Women are expected to require the same medical treatment and procedures as men, and to respond to medication and treatments the same way men do in clinical research studies. But biologically, this is often not possible.
I could go on and on but at this point I may just end up summarizing the whole book. The biggest takeaway for you if you're reading this review is READ THIS BOOK. Read it again and again. Let the contents enmesh themselves with your brain so you move around the world differently. The information in this book is SO IMPORTANT. No, it doesn't offer solutions. No, it isn't as inclusive as maybe it could be as far as others on the gender spectrum are concerned, but other books out there do cover this topic so I would seek those out if that is what you are looking for. Those flaws are minor, because being armed with the knowledge that this book will give you is crucial if anything is going to change. I use this book in my work every day. It has shaped my worldview and is an invaluable resource to me, and I think everyone else should give it a chance to shape them as well. Not to mention it was written in a way that makes it accessible to folks with all educational backgrounds and was very enjoyable to read, even if the content was at times disheartening.
Despite everything, I am so glad I am a woman. This book made me proud of the work women do in this world, of the space we take up, of the noise we make, and it made me even more determined to be a part of the journey towards equity for all women and LGBTQIA+ people. Thank you to the author for writing something so enlightening!