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The cover of Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men

Caroline Criado Perez, 2019

See how a world built on data about men leaves women out, from snow clearing to crash test dummies and drug trials, and what it costs women's health and lives.

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18 parts, about 34 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • Shows how data built around the male body leads to cold offices, unsafe cars and drugs tested mostly on men
  • Traces how city planning, from snow clearing to public toilets, ignores women's travel patterns and unpaid care work
  • Points to remedies that worked, including blind auditions, leave reserved for fathers and planning that starts by asking women

Who it is for

  • Urban planners, designers and engineers who build for the public
  • Medical and health researchers questioning male default research
  • Readers wanting evidence on gender gaps in pay, work and care

What the summary covers

  1. The Gender Data Gap3 min
  2. Snow Clearing and the Female Travel Pattern2 min
  3. Equal Floor Space Is Not Equal Provision3 min
  4. The Long Friday: Unpaid Work2 min
  5. The Myth of Meritocracy2 min
  6. Designed for Reference Man1 min
  7. Worth Less Than a Shoe2 min
  8. Tools, Crops and Cookstoves1 min
  9. One Size Fits Men1 min
  10. A Sea of Dudes2 min
  11. The Drugs Don't Work2 min
  12. Yentl Syndrome2 min
  13. A Costless Resource to Exploit2 min
  14. From Purse to Wallet2 min
  15. Women's Rights Are Human Rights2 min
  16. Who Will Rebuild1 min
  17. It Is Not the Disaster That Kills You2 min
  18. Closing the Data Gap2 min

Recommended by

  • Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieNigerian writer
    Nothing delights me more than a well-written and well-researched book that teaches you and never bores you
  • Caitlin MoranEnglish journalist and author
    HELL YES. This is one of those books that has the potential to change things – a monumental piece of research
  • Jeanette WintersonEnglish author
    Revelatory, frightening, hopeful. A secular Bible
  • Cordelia FinePsychologist and philosopher of science
    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.
  • Adam RutherfordEnglish geneticist and science communicator
    The thoroughness of Invisible Women doesn't detract from its absolute readability. This is entertaining, scholarly and so very important.

About the author

  • Caroline Criado PerezBritish feminist author, journalist and activist
    • Helped found The Women's Room, campaigned to put a woman on Bank of England banknotes, pushed Twitter to revise its abuse procedures, and campaigned for the statue of suffragist Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square.
    • Received the Liberty Human Rights Campaigner of the Year Award in 2013 and an OBE in the 2015 Queen's Birthday Honours.
    • Studied at the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics.
    • Her first book, Do It Like a Woman (2015), profiles pioneering women from around the world.
    • Won the inaugural Unwin Award in 2025, given to authors whose work is considered to have made a contribution to the world.
    • Holds honorary doctorates from the University of Lincoln, the University of Westminster and The Open University.
    • Born in 1984; read English Language and Literature at Keble College, Oxford as a mature student and graduated in 2012.

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