Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men in Science and Inquiry

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Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men

Caroline Criado P茅rez

Start date: November 1, 2019

Finish date: November 30, 2019

Discussion: Book Club 2019

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Book Club 2019

December 2019 - Uninhabitable Earth
By Betsy , co-mod · 8 posts · 108 views

last updated Dec 21, 2020 08:09AM

November 2019 - Invisible Women
By Betsy , co-mod · 17 posts · 122 views

last updated Oct 18, 2020 06:07PM

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What Members Thought

Feb 24, 2021 Bel rated it really liked it

Shelves: the-f-word, book-club, non-fiction, science, health-and-medicine

After 5 years of running a feminist book club I was starting to think I was running out of new things to make me angry. Turns out I was wrong. I'm not going to explain them all here. Just go and read this book. ...more

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Aug 20, 2019 Mitchell Friedman rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nonfiction, five-star, history, library, liked-reviews, favorites, political, published-2019, five-star-non-fiction, favorite-book-read-in-a-year

A re-read with work friends. Made me angry a second time. Basically a reminder that to work on an issue, you might need to focus on it. Much of this had commonalities with books on racism and anti-racism we've been reading.

Overwhelming. The basic problem described in this book is apparently everywhere. And its worse than you think. Too many specific stories, issues, problems to possibly remember. I wouldn't think of this as a reference book but in reality it probably needs to be one. Or expanded ...more

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Mar 23, 2020 Anna rated it really liked it

Invisible Women is a concise yet overwhelming exploration of how the lack of data on women鈥檚 experiences and failing to account for women as standard humans have a physical and economical cost to women and the societies in which they live. For those who keep appraised of feminist issues, many of the statistics and experiences described aren鈥檛 new or surprising; others are disturbingly unexpected and enlightening. For example, the existence of sexist snow plowing schedules sounds like a clickbait Invisible Women is a concise yet overwhelming exploration of how the lack of data on women鈥檚 experiences and failing to account for women as standard humans have a physical and economical cost to women and the societies in which they live. For those who keep appraised of feminist issues, many of the statistics and experiences described aren鈥檛 new or surprising; others are disturbingly unexpected and enlightening. For example, the existence of sexist snow plowing schedules sounds like a clickbait headline that would instigate ardent social media back-and-forth for a few days. However, the beauty of this book and its thesis is that it isn鈥檛 based only on perception of sexism - it鈥檚 based on data (or the lack of it). Where data does exist, it shows differences in how women move through the world, handle money, and experience disease. The failure to obtain and utilize this data contributes to insidious forms of gender discrimination and violence in every sphere of women鈥檚 lives. As someone who uses data and empirical evidence to make decisions in many areas of my life, it highlights the need to dig more - especially in regards to being an informed patient or taxpayer, for example - to ensure the data I am utilizing is complete and applicable to me.

I love that this book is about data, making it all the more convincing to skeptics who need 鈥渉ard鈥� evidence to believe what women have been saying for generations. Though a very complete and well-researched book with substantial endnotes, I would have appreciated an accessible list of organizations and individuals working to eliminate the gender data gap so that I could easily follow-up on some of the research and topics described in this book. I also note that excellent companion reads to Invisible Women would be Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy (mentioned in Invisible Women鈥檚 text) and Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick (for more on women鈥檚 experiences navigating medicine).

(Physical distancing read #3!) ...more

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May 03, 2020 CK rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

The universal (normative) assumed gender is male. Thus products, policies and everything are typically designed for men and can often be ill-fitted for women. This self perpetuates as men gain benefits that result in leadership positions and aren't aware of women issues. ...more

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Jun 21, 2020 Kathleen (itpdx) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: lwv-book-group, lwv-suggest, non-fiction, audio

I listened to the audio book read by the author. It is tremendous. Her frustration comes through loud and clear along with a bit of humor (you have to laugh or you will cry). Now I will have to purchase a paper copy to really look at the data. A lot of numbers fly by.
At first I thought: I cannot believe that 50 years later we are still facing this but Perez makes it clear why. In a world where most things are designed for the default male body by mostly males, it becomes clear where things are ...more

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