Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men

by Caroline Criado Perez Narrated by Caroline Criado Perez

Overview

Data is fundamental to the modern world. From economic development, to healthcare, to education and public policy, we rely on numbers to allocate resources and make crucial decisions. But because so much data fails to take into account gender, because it treats men as the default and women as atypical, bias and discrimination are baked into our systems. And women pay tremendous costs for this bias in time, money, and often with their lives.

Celebrated feminist advocate Caroline Criado Perez investigates the shocking root cause of gender inequality and research in Invisible Women, diving into women's lives at home, the workplace, the public square, the doctor's office, and more. Built on hundreds of studies in the US, the UK, and around the world, and written with energy, wit, and sparkling intelligence, this is a groundbreaking, unforgettable exposé that will change the way you look at the world.

Editorial Reviews

Refinery29 (UK)

Feminist campaigner, Caroline Criado-Perez left us gobsmacked with Invisible Women, an in-depth look at how women are (still) excluded in society.

"99% Invisible" Roman Mars

"An incredible book."

The Nation Katha Pollitt

Brilliant … Invisible Women lays out in impressive detail the many ways that human beings are presumed to be male, as well as the wide-reaching effects of this distorted view of humanity.

Professor Emeritus of Cognitive Neuroimaging, Aston University - Georgina Rippon

Invisible Women is an absorbing cornucopia of thought-provoking facts - fascinating, alarming and face-palming in equal measures. Caroline Criado Perez shows up the shortcomings of a world designed for men by men. The consequences of treating men as the default option, or women just as smaller men – if they get considered at all - has wide-reaching implications for everything (and everyone) from snow clearing to seat-belts and many branches of medicine. I shall certainly think of this book next time I have a heart attack, a car crash or just want to go to the toilet at the theatre.

author of Delusions of Gender and Testosterone Rex - Cordelia Fine

"Invisible Women takes on the neglected topic of what we don't know - and why. The result is a powerful, important and eye-opening analysis of the gender politics of knowledge and ignorance. With examples from technology to natural disasters, this is an original and timely reminder of why we need women in the leadership of the institutions that shape every aspect of our lives."

author of A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived - Adam Rutherford

The thoroughness of Invisible Women doesn’t detract from its absolute readability. This is entertaining, scholarly and so very important.

PureWow

Even with all the progress women have made in the last few decades, Invisible Women proves we still have a long way to go. Reading this book—preferably in a comfortably warm room—is the first step.

Women You Should Know

The most important book I have ever read.

Stylist

Shocking, yet essential, reading.

Bustle

As Invisible Women illuminates, in an almost overwhelming way, communities pay tremendous costs for the gender data gap: costs of income, time, women's health, and sometimes women's lives.

The New Statesman

There’s a sense of rage simmering beneath the surface of Invisible Women, every now and then it bubbles up in the text, but the book’s force doesn’t derive from the power of its rhetoric – instead it’s the steady, unrelenting accumulation of evidence, the sheer weight of her argument. … Reading Invisible Women one might experience, as I did, the dizzying sensation that so many of my own stories, so many of my friends’ stories, so many incidents I had experienced as discrete and unrelated – at work, at home, on the streets, in hospital – are in fact interconnected. As women, we are so used to contorting ourselves to fit into men-shaped spaces, we’ve learned to ignore how often it hurts.

The Times (UK)

“Invisible Women is a game-changer; an uncompromising blitz of facts, sad, mad, bad and funny, making an unanswerable case and doing so brilliantly. … the ambition and scope — and sheer originality — of Invisible Women is huge; no less than the story of what happens when we forget to account for half of humanity. It should be on every policymaker, politician and manager’s shelves.

Sunday Times (UK)

This book is a devastating indictment of institutionalised complacency and a rallying cry to fight back… Invisible Women should propel women into action.

The Bookseller

"A blisteringly good book... never less than eye-opening, and frequently staggering."

Booklist

A diligently researched and clearly written exposé.

The New York Times - Jeanette Winterson

Read this book and then tell me the patriarchy is a figment of my imagination.

The Irish Times

An excellent book packed with practical information of the kind required by those attempting to dismantle the patriarchy.

The Guardian

Criado Perez doesn’t set out to prove a vast conspiracy; she simply wields data like a laser, slicing cleanly through the fog of unconscious and unthinking preferences.

The Economist

Brilliant.

Booklist

A diligently researched and clearly written exposé.

Nature

A powerful call to bust the myths and bridge the gap.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169525304
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	06/25/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos