The full title is ‘Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men’
Here is the description:
Imagine a world where your phone is too big for your hand, where your doctor prescribes a drug that is wrong for your body, where in a car accident you are 47% more likely to be seriously injured, where every week the countless hours of work you do are not recognised or valued. If any of this sounds familiar, chances are that you’re a woman.
Invisible Women shows us how, in a world largely built for and by men, we are systematically ignoring half the population. It exposes the gender data gap – a gap in our knowledge that is at the root of perpetual, systemic discrimination against women, and that has created a pervasive but invisible bias with a profound effect on women’s lives.
Award-winning campaigner and writer 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 excluded from the very building blocks of the world we live in, and the impact this has on their health and wellbeing. From government policy and medical research, to technology, workplaces, urban planning and the media – Invisible Women reveals the biased data that excludes women. In making the case for change, this powerful and provocative book will make you see the world anew.
I was about 50% into reading the book when I saw some reviews talking about the author's TERF-y views based on some posts she had made and a petition from a woman's organization asking she not be chosen to speak at a festival due to these views. In all honesty, since this was a while ago alot of these posts have been deleted and harder to track down so it's hard for me to reflect on the accuracy of those specific claims (outside of the petition which did happen).
Reflecting on the book though, you do realize that it does not mention LGBT+ people in her analysis. This in itself wasn't the gripe I had with the book as unfortunately books can't always be exhaustive of everything. However, one or two lines mentioning the community and how this analysis would be outside of its scope at least acknowledges that LGTB+, particularly trans women, are also affected by a data bias. If I remember correctly, the book Doing Harm by Maya Dusenbery about how medical bias impacts women does have a sentence saying exactly this.
I didn't continue reading the book after I realized this. Should you read the book, it's something to keep in mind if these issues are of importance to you.