Today’s review is about INVISIBLE WOMEN by Caroline Criado Perez. This is a nonfiction compilation of essays that examine the gender gap in various facets of life.
Author:Â Caroline Criado Perez
Series:Â None
Age Category:Â Adult
Publisher:Â Harry N. Abrams
Publish Date:Â March 12, 2019
Print Length:Â 448
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Invisible Women Review
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez is a nonfiction compilation of essays that examine the pervasiveness of the gender gap in data and how that lack of sex-disaggregated data continues to put women at a disadvantage. Criado Perez introduces us to the “default male,” or how the structure of human society sees men as the human default and women as the departure from that standard (thanks, Aristotle). Because society as a whole sees maleness as universal, Criado Perez argues that data on males makes up most of the data we have, resulting in biases towards women in both normal, everyday situations and in situations where something goes awry.
Criado Perez shows us how gender inequalities exist regarding public infrastructure, such as public transportation, which often doesn’t consider women’s safety or travel patterns; medical research, which is mostly done on males and fails to account for the biological differences between males and females; unpaid work, which affects the amount of time women can perform paid work and therefore limits their economic contributions to society as well as their pensions; uniform sizing, which can result in personal injury in fields such as the military and law enforcement; and so much more. The research presented in this expose ultimately shows us how “gender neutral” does not automatically mean “gender equal” and how important it is to include diverse voices, women’s voices, which lend perspectives that the default male perspective may not consider.
In my opinion, Criado Perez did an incredible job researching for Invisible Women and summarizing her finds into an informative read. This research is evidenced not only in the text itself, but the comprehensive bibliography at the end of the book. I admit, though, that I did not always enjoy all chapters equally. In fact, I was tempted to shelve this because I didn’t appreciate the “click bait” style of naming chapters. The presentation of fact after fact (even though I do love facts) is also departure from the more narrative storybook style of nonfiction that I prefer to read.
However, I persevered based on the feedback from a book club I participate in. I’m glad I did because I found that as I got farther along into the book, the chapters became more relatable. The most memorable chapter for me was about the gender gap in medical research. My jaw dropped when I read that in drug trials women often make up (way) less than half of the participants. Most drugs aren’t tested on women at various stages of hormonal fluctuations tied to menstruation; this results in many drugs that don’t work as well in women as they do in men. Talk about an unscientific method!
So if you’re looking to broaden your understanding of the gender gap, or frankly if you just love data, then Invisible Women is the book for you.
Rating: 4/5
Content warnings: None
Reading format: Library hardback
If you liked this book, you may also enjoy JANE AGAINST THE WORLD by Karen Blumenthal.
Great review, Celeste! This one sounds really interesting and I’ve been quite tempted to add it to my TBR since my current job deals a lot with data innovation and this topic on the gender gap really piqued my interest. I’ve seen some data excerpts from this and it was shocking and I had no idea?! I’m not much of a non-fiction reader because I tend to struggle if the narrative is too dry, and your mention of ‘fact after fact’ sounds a bit like that… Was the writing dry/tedious? I’m still tempted by this and that you managed to connect to it the further you read also sounds promising. Maybe I’ll follow along with the audio. 🤔
The writing was a little more dry than I prefer–it’s definitely not a narrative nonfiction. But each chapter covers a different topic of the data gap and some are more relatable than others. By that I mean if you’re interested in one topic over another then the writing won’t seem as dry. For example, I wasn’t as invested in the transportation topic, but I found the one about medicine and childcare very interesting.