Book review- Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado-Perez

 

Pic from internet

Women have been the silent partners in the building of our world. Seldom has it happened that the efforts are voiced with the same intensity as those for contributions of males in the journey of human progress are shouted. The data gap has widened- in places where the data is collected, there is no sex-disaggregated data; and where we do have data, it is conveniently overlooked. The book highlights the adverse effect of this data gap on the overall grooming of fairer counterparts of the human species.

"Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men" is the version of all the good that has happened vis-à-vis the silent and not-generally recognized contribution of another half of the human population, especially in terms of the records and data. With 16 chapters, she has investigated the shocking root cause of gender inequality and took a dive into women’s lives at home, the workplace, the public square, the doctor’s office, and more uniforms, city travel, or treatments for medical conditions, etc.

Most of the data presented in the book are so intriguing… that I opined for it to act as Gita (or Bible) for the entire feminist group and for all those anti-feminists, it is a required read in order to get a fact-correction and in general to broaden the area of our thinking and understanding perspective of human (read as she-man) struggles.

On any account, it is a must-read!!!

The book is not a way to defend women's status in society but an honest attempt in the revelation of data gap that exists in the historical record-keeping on account of women being active contributors (and not the passive ones) which is an eye-opener. It was just not a mere emotional journey for me but a factual feed onto the things least talked about. It has reminded me of all the hidden systems we take for granted but that have actually been created to allow our society to function.

"Invisible Women" is a book grounded in science, but its bedrock is the emotional truths of empathy and compassion. There were many me-too moments in the book, like fewer options for the mobile handsets for female hands, the voice recognition failure in automatic cars, the lesser number of options available for female hiking shoes, etc.

The author points out unconscious bias because it's not about men deliberately excluding women ... although… it is also sadly true that once the bias is pointed out, it's not always top of the list to make safety adjustments. And that's really one of the most important points of the book- it will endanger women if the design and building of the world continue without considering women's needs and habits. Women are built in a particular way, they are socially conditioned in a particular way, and they're treated in a particular way - comparing all this to men's situation is useful only to a certain extent because it is so easy for everyone to slip into the mindset that men are the default human, and women are, as the author notes, "niche".

Invisible Women presents a provocative and convincing case for changing how society should quantify and compulsorily include women’s experiences without any taglines or subtitles or excuses. It is high time!!!

Some of the quotes from the book-

“The gender data gap isn’t just about silence. These silences, these gaps have consequences.

“Men have confused their own point of view with the absolute truth. There are issues, be it the female body, women’s unpaid care burden or the male violence against women that have always warranted serious discussions but have often been overlooked and deemed unimportant.”

“There is no such thing as a woman who doesn’t work. There is only a woman who isn’t paid for her work.”

This is unsurprising: women are conditioned to be modest, and are penalized when they step outside of this prescribed gender norm.”

“All ‘people’ needed to do was to ask women.”