Rating: 4/5 stars
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men is a great overview of systemic biases that harm women. It's a little like a cultural version of the more biological Delusions of Gender;
it's a well-organized, well-referenced, approachable/conversational
synthesis of a broad range of sexist beliefs/sexist structures. Criado
Perez did a fantastic job in tracing how small biases or assumptions,
power imbalances in who makes decisions, individual choices, etc,
translate into much broader social injustices. I also appreciated that
she would highlight positive efforts and the benefits they've already
brought; it's easy to criticize something, and harder to fix it.
This
book was not without it's own biases. European languages were the
emphasis of studies like how language shapes perception of gender.
Western countries, or charities/NGOs based in western countries, made up
nearly all the examples of pro-women initiatives; many of the examples
of injustices in western countries were very much "white collar" sexism,
while examples of sexism in developing countries were very much
centered around sanitation issues. Despite being the home for one seventh of
the world's women, China was virtually ignored. Despite housing another
seventh of the world's women, discussion of women's issues in India was
largely limited to the availability of public toilets - certainly a
very, very, very crucial issue... but in contrast, the life of a woman
in the UK was sliced and diced in pretty much every way imaginable.
The
chapter on politics was, I thought, a little disappointing. The author
advocates for women taking up a broader proportion of parliamentary
bodies, citing, as far as I can tell, as single study that found that
governments with more women pass legislation that promotes education and
healthcare. Her summary of this study doesn't describe whether these
women are from progressive/left wing parties, but later the author
indeed describes how in many countries, the conservative/right wing
parties have poorer representation of women. One might imagine that it
is not the balance of women, but the overall political persuasion of the
government that is the causal factor in both a
pro-education/pro-healthcare policy as well as a more gender-balanced
governing body. The author translates this into a shakily-founded
critique of Bernie Sanders/ advocacy for Hillary Clinton (c. 2016
democratic primary). According to the author, Clinton would, by virtue
of her gender, be a better leader for women - with no investigation of
the two leaders' policies, nor even a glance at the gender make-up of
their aides, assistants and advisors (the people who typically write the
legislation proposed by the leaders and interpret the legislation voted
on by the leaders). I'm a little bit exhausted of reading liberal
feminists working through their 2016 Democratic Primaries grief, but at
least this section wasn't as bad as Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny.
Still, this type of bias makes me question the author's interpretation
of some of the fields she discusses that I am less familiar with - and
that's a shame!
Despite these flaws, I think it is a book worth
recommending and worth reading, and even those familiar with literature
on how medicine, technology, law, etc propagate injustice against women
will probably come away with something new.
I read the audiobook, which was narrated by the author, and her reading was enjoyable.
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