On Monday 10th April 2021 PropelHer’s Book Club discussed Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez.
Thanks to Vintage Books for sending a free copy of the book.
In this summary of Invisible Women, I’ll be briefly summarising the book to help you make a decision about whether you should buy a copy of the book for yourself.
In the introduction, Caroline explores the male bias and how “we read most things as male unless they are specifically marked as female”. This has resulted in women being invisible. Caroline believes that this needs to be changed and ends the introduction by writing “It’s time for women to be seen”.
The book is then split into five parts:
Part I: Daily Life
Part II: The Workplace
Part III: Design
Part IV: Going to the Doctor
Part V: Public Life
Part VI: When It Goes Wrong
In each part of the book Caroline shares case studies and lots of data that shows how the gender data gap and the lack of women making decisions results has a detrimental impact on the lives of women and society as a whole. These examples shared cover a wide range of topics from toilets, car safety, gaining VC funding, surviving a natural disaster and the development of farming equipment. The example show how the gender data gap appears across the world and impacts those in developing countries, as well as developed countries.
The book ends with a preface in which Caroline shares the three main themes that she believes need to be addressed going forward.
That’s it! You now have an idea about what you can expect to find inside of Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez.
Like the sound of Invisible Women? Why not buy a copy of the book and read it yourself?
Buy your copy of Invisible Women from The Bookshop (and support local bookshops) or Amazon.
Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez was read as part of PropelHer’s Book Club. PropelHer’s Book Club is an online non-fiction book club for ambitious women that meet monthly. Every month PropelHer’s Book Club reads a different book to help ambitious women concentrate on their personal development and professional success. You can see what else we have read so far here. If you would like to join PropelHer’s Book Club you can find full details here.
And don’t forget to share your book pictures! Tag @Propelherorg or use the hashtag #PropelHer
