If you’re looking for your next interesting, thought-provoking feminist read then look no further than Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez. This fascinating read exposes the data bias that favors men over women across the world, from the secret sexism of snow-clearing, to more serious issues surrounding women’s safety when driving. This is a truly eye-opening read that will illuminate you to all the hidden ways women are ignored and/or oppressed in the twenty first century.
Invisible Women is an easy read – Perez writes in a smooth fashion that’s easy to understand, allowing the reader to fully immerse themselves in her witty logic and share in her frustration around the unequal world the gender data gap has created.
Her argument isn’t that men have conspired against women, merely that data collected is on average mostly masculine, exposing only half of the true population. The result? Women are all too often rendered invisible. This can lead to inconveniences, such as smartphones being too big for women’s hands, but also much more serious consequences, like women being prescribed drugs that are harmful to them because of medical data gaps, or car safety systems being designed based on predominantly-male data, resulting in women being 47% more likely to be seriously injured in an accident.
I won’t delve any deeper into Perez’s exact findings as I don’t want to give away too many spoilers! But I will say this: Perez offers a broad and in-depth account of all the ways in which the gender data gap impacts the lives of women across the globe. From public life to the workplace, no stone is left unturned in exposing how the world we live in is mainly built by and for men by an invisible bias.
So, if you love data, feminism, or (like me) both, then give this fantastic new book a read. It’s well-researched, well-written, and jaw-droppingly eye opening.