Invisible Women: The Data Gap That Built the World Wrong
Some books change the way you think. This one changes what you see.
Caroline Criado Perez’s Invisible Women is basically a giant spotlight on something most of us walk right past every day: the world was built on male-default data. Not intentionally, not through some villainous plot—but through years of assuming that men were the “standard” and women were just… variations.
Once you notice it, you can’t unsee it. https://amzn.to/4ncDGRn
🚗 Crash Test Dummies and Everyday Risk
Take car safety. For decades, the “standard” crash test dummy was modeled on the average male body—about 5’9”, 170 lbs. Women were literally tested as smaller men, if they were tested at all.
The result? Women are 47% more likely to be seriously injured in a car crash and 17% more likely to die, simply because seat belts and airbags weren’t designed with their bodies in mind.
That’s not a glitch. That’s a design decision built on missing data.
🧠 Medicine That Doesn’t Fit
Medical research has the same problem. Women were often excluded from drug trials (partly because researchers worried hormones would “complicate” results). So the baseline for dosage, side effects, and symptoms was male.
Heart attacks? Classic “male” symptoms like chest pain got all the attention. But women often experience different warning signs—like nausea, fatigue, or back pain—and those were ignored for decades. That gap cost lives.
🗣 Tech That Doesn’t Hear You
Voice recognition is another wild one. Early systems were trained mostly on male voices. Siri, Google, Amazon—error rates were significantly higher for women’s voices, especially if they had accents. Why? Because the data didn’t represent them.
If tech doesn’t recognize your voice, it’s not neutral. It’s just not built for you.
🚶♀️ Cities That Assume Everyone Moves the Same
Perez even points out how city design is biased. Snowplowing routes in some European cities prioritized commuter roads (used mostly by men driving to work) over sidewalks (used more by women walking with kids or running errands). When they flipped the order—sidewalks first—injuries dropped and costs went down. One simple design tweak. Huge impact.
👀 Once You See It…
That’s the thing about this book. It’s not trying to guilt-trip anyone. It’s showing, very clearly, how invisible data gaps shape everything—from the medicine we take to the spaces we move through.
The problem isn’t that women are “forgotten.” It’s that they were never fully measured in the first place. And if you don’t count it, it doesn’t count.
Invisible Women isn’t light reading—but it’s essential. It makes you question “neutral” design and realize how many systems quietly work better for some than others.
Once you know, you can’t go back. And honestly, that’s the point.
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