Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men | Caroline Criado Perez | Book Review

“When we exclude half of humanity from the production of knowledge we lose out on potentially transformative insights.” 

- Caroline Criado Perez, Invisible Women

Invisible Women is a very concrete book, full of examples taken from everyday life. It is a non-fiction book and its purpose is simple and straightforward: to demonstrate how women are systematically forgotten by society in all aspects of daily life.

In Invisible Women, Caroline Criado Perez focuses on the enormous data void that exists when it comes to women and the catastrophic consequences this data void causes. The data void exists in everything from medical research, technology, and politics to media and disaster management. Perez has collected an impressive number of studies and reports which point out the lack of regard for women in all these areas. 

In the six chapters:

• everyday life
• At work
• design
• The doctor's visit
• Public life
• If something goes wrong

Caroline Criado Perez uses numerous examples to explain the so-called gender data gap, i.e., the gap in gender-specific data, which disadvantages women in all areas of life.

The spectrum of topics raised by Criado Parez is impressively broad, from smartphone sizes and jeans pocket depths, through urban development planning and communication timetables to medicine and car crash testing procedures. The shocking lack of available data on women's bodies, habits, and needs. As in the case of smartphones, developed based on the size of men's hands; or the average office temperature, calibrated on male metabolism; or medical research, which excludes women from testing "for the sake of simplification." 

Starting from these surprising cases and examining many others, Caroline Criado Perez gives life to an investigation that shows us how the vacuum of gender data has created a pervasive and latent prejudice that has a profound, sometimes even fatal, repercussion on the lives of women. 

The author, through such data, has tried to show that our realities have been shaped by men for centuries, creating a world comfortable for them without taking into account the needs of women. This is happening in every field and company, from local to international. Everyday items are designed "by default" that is for men. 

The author has documented the problem going on for centuries that makes half of the world's population invisible. According to her, documenting these issues proves that many discriminatory situations could be avoided if we collect data covering the division by gender and took it into account while making decisions.  

In my opinion, Invisible Women is an essential book that may profoundly change your vision. It is a comprehensive presentation on the consequences of the absence or ignorance of gender data. This reading is instructive and necessary whether you are a woman or a man.