Book Review: Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez

Recommended by: Courtney Hicks, Lamm Tech

Invisible Women provides an interesting take on how the gender data gap can have profound effects on the lives of women. Caroline Criado Perez references case studies, anecdotes, and new research to illustrate how women are left out, excluded, and sometimes just plain forgotten when it comes to building systems, spaces, products, and much more.

We might not realize it, but this data gap influences things we use every day. The temperature in our workplaces, the safety of the cars we drive, and even the size of our cellphones – are not necessarily designed with women in mind. Perez sites studies where there are times that when these types of things are being discussed and created, women are not in the room, or even considered at all.

This book makes a moving case for change, illustrating how our lives might look differently with the close of the gender data gap. From government policy, health care and medical research, to urban planning and technology – data drives so much in our world and it should not leave anyone out.