Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
Portuguese Women in Tech Book Club
On June 27th, we held the first book discussion of the Portuguese Women in Tech Book Club. In this first session, we discussed Caroline Criado Perez’s book: Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men.
Caroline Criado Perez is a British feminist, activist, author and journalist. She is best known for the Women’s Room project, where she fought for female experts to be better represented in the media. She also successfully campaigned against the removal of the only woman from British banknotes. You should follow her on twitter.
The Gender Data Gap
You probably have heard about the gender pay gap and the more broad gender gap, but you probably haven’t heard much about the gender data gap. In this book, Caroline Criado Perez shows that the lack of data about women and the lack of disaggregated data by gender has real consequences in the lives of women around the world.
Those consequences are felt by women in public spaces, in the workplace, in their representation in the media and in politics and in the access to healthcare.
To better explain what we mean by this, I selected a few quotes from the book:
“Sex is not the reason women are excluded from data. Gender is.”
“What is male is universal and what is female is niche.”
“Women have an equal right to public resources: we must stop excluding them by design.”
“Designers may believe they are making products for everyone, but in reality they are mainly making them for men. It’s time to start designing for women.”
“Countries where women are kept out of positions of power and treated as second-class citizens are less likely to be peaceful.” (295)
“Women’s unpaid work is work that the society depends on, and it is work from which society as a whole benefits. When the government cuts public services that we all pay for with our taxes, demand for those services doesn’t suddenly cease”.
“Women have always worked. They have worked unpaid, underpaid, under-appreciated, and invisibly, but they have always worked. But the modern workplace does not work for women. From its location, to its hours, to its regulatory standards, it has been designed around the lives of men and it is no longer fit for purpose.”
“But if in Silicon Valley meritocracy is a religion, its God, is a white male Harvard dropout.”
If like me, you like data rich books, this is mandatory reading. Caroline Criado Perez wrote a comprehensive and data-driven exposé on how the world sees and treats women. For sure, one of the best books I read on the topic.
Further learning
- Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys’ Club of Silicon Valley by Emily Chang
- We Should All Be Feminist by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger by Rebecca Traister
For more information about the work we do at Portuguese Women in Tech, check our website and subscribe to our monthly newsletter.
