Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men

A picture of the cover of Invisible Women

Philippa Matthews reviews Caroline Criado Perez’s new book

In Invisible Women Caroline Criado Perez collects together an unbelievable mass of data on how the design of the world around us affects women, presenting some stats that are quite literally killer. If a woman is involved in a car crash, she is 47% more likely to be seriously injured, and 71% more likely to be moderately injured than a man in the same position. She is also 17% more likely to die. This is because women are shorter on average, with shorter legs, so they sit further forward when driving. Despite making up over half of the population, women are considered non-standard, ‘out-of-position’ drivers and there’s no requirement to use a female-sized dummy when crash testing cars.