Book Review: Invisible Women

Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men

Caroline Criado Perez (2019)

Digital Tattoo Rating: 5/5

Very few books horrify me. There was a horror book I read in high school which scared me a bit, and I’ve definitely read a few books the quality of which left me a bit shocked, but actual horror – have-to-force-myself-to-keep-reading, can’t-read-too-much or it’s-too-much- to-take, horror – is rare for me as a reader.

Invisible Women horrified me. This book is witty, thoroughly researched, engaging, and difficult to get through. Caroline Criado Perez has done an amazing job writing a fascinating book about a terrible topic. 

Perez’s thesis, that there is a “data gap” concerning women worldwide and that this has oftentimes fatal consequences for women, is depressing enough as it is. It becomes more depressing as one reads this book and sees, time and time again, just how right Perez is. Even examples which seem relatively harmless, such as backpacks being designed with neutral (male) bodies in mind, can have dire consequences such as increased rates of hip fractures in women. As you read Invisible Women, it dawns on you that literally everything you interact with has been designed, not to disadvantage you per se, but to advantage someone else. 

It is important to note that while this is a strong example of applied feminist research, it does gloss over the complexities of gender in favour of a binary understanding of sex. “Women” is used as a term to cover the experiences of all people with physiology traditionally determined to be “female.” The complexities of the spectrum of biological sex (which is not in fact binary) and the complexities of the gender spectrum are left unexamined here, resulting in a book which erases the experiences of trans women and trans femme individuals elsewhere on the gender spectrum. This is itself another massive data gap. What this means for the reader is that, for this book to make sense in a world in which we understand that “woman” is not simply a list of biological realities, the word “woman” here may be better understood to mean “individuals who, due to their physiology, were believed to belong to a homogeneous group.” The same is true for the use of “men” throughout the book. Reading the text through this lens doesn’t erase the cissexist assumption inherent in the use of the word “women” throughout the book. However, it does allow the book to make more sense in a society in which we understand that women don’t have a given hip structure or build associated with whatever hormones they produce or receive medically. 

The reason this book was so difficult to read was that, as a woman, it was just so familiar. So many of these examples rang true, and the book demonstrated to me that what I saw as minor inconveniences were also examples of misogyny impacting my everyday life, and possibly precursors to much bigger and more serious challenges facing me down the road. It was also a stark reminder of how privileged I am as a White woman living in Canada. The impact of the processes Perez discusses on my life aren’t anything to sniff at, but compared to many of the women whose experiences are discussed in this book they sound almost laughable. For example, as a woman in a city with lots of traffic, I am more likely to hurt my back during winter (women tend to drive less and walk more, and city snow-clearing policies usually deprioritize sidewalks). A shame, to be sure, but I was never made to leave school and get married at a young age, therefore limiting my ability to escape domestic violence. This book was an important reminder to me that while things might be tough for me, I’m one of the lucky ones. The range of experiences (and oppression) caused by the data gap is truly staggering, and extend far beyond the confines of my comfortably privileged experience. 

Without a doubt, this is the most important book I have read in a long time. I genuinely think everyone should read it, but most specifically men and White women. We certainly have the most to learn from it, and while it is horrifying to read, it behooves us not to look away. Invisible Women offers few solutions to the problems it outlines, primarily because there isn’t currently sufficient data about women’s experiences from which to draw solutions. However, it prompts the reader to do one important thing: start paying attention.

What do you think? How can we act to pay better attention? Will you be reading this book?

You can find Invisible Women in both the University of Toronto and University of British Columbia libraries.

Written by: Samantha Summers

Edited by: Eseohe Ojo

Slider image: “The Future is Feminist,” by James McNellis. Used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.