Book Review: Invisible Women – Caroline Criado Perez
Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez is a book that will naturally gravitate to more of a female audience. However, I would stress the importance of everybody reading this book. There is a lot of content in here that puts into perspective the female experience and why we are on the back foot of society.
From women in poorer countries being afraid to use the communal bathroom at night for fear of assault, to female crash test dummies not being regularly used when developing safety features in cars, there’s a lot to unpack!
Invisible Women – Caroline Criado Perez
Genre: Non-fiction
Pages: 411
Audience: Adult
Publisher: Portfolio
Publication Date: 12 Mar 2019
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Discover the shocking gender bias that affects our everyday lives.
‘HELL YES. This is one of those books that has the potential to change things – a monumental piece of research’ Caitlin Moran
Imagine a world where…
· Your phone is too big for your hand
· Your doctor prescribes a drug that is wrong for your body
· In a car accident you are 47% more likely to be injured.
If any of that sounds familiar, chances are you’re a woman.
From government policy and medical research, to technology, workplaces, and the media. Invisible Women reveals how in a world built for and by men we are systematically ignoring half of the population, often with disastrous consequences. Caroline Criado Perez brings together for the first time an impressive range of case studies, stories and new research from across the world that illustrate the hidden ways in which women are forgotten, and the profound impact this has on us all.
My Thoughts
If you feel women are under represented in society, then Invisible Women will reinforce that belief. The book focuses on data bias and how women are pushed to the background by an absence of data.
If you’ve ever wondered why speech recognition software picks up and understands the male voice better than a woman’s, it is because the data provided to the software in development is skewed by data bias. Sample data used features the male voice compared to female representation.
In the same example of vehicles above, car safety standards do not account for female differences in bone density and anatomical differences. In the past, women have been represented in tests with a scaled down male dummy. And even then, only until recently, in the passenger seat only…
It is these examples and more beside that should make readers angry. Although a non-fiction book, I found Invisible Women interesting and provocative in the right way. It made me want to advocate for my rights as a woman and for all the others out there who are currently not treated fairly.
The book covers a wide range of topics. From personal to the workplace, and far more besides. There is something we can all relate to in this book. It goes a long way to stress that the problem is not limited to a small subset of the population. It affects all women.
Summary
I have gone on to recommend Invisible Women to a few people now, and it is out on loan at the moment to a friend of mine. Here I recommend it to you. Although it will naturally gravitate more towards women in the audience it attracts, I stress it’s important for everyone to read this book.
Have you read Invisible Women? Does it grab your attention and make you want to read it?
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Threads
