From the #MeToo era to Kamala Harris becoming the first female vice president of the United States, it’s hard to deny that women have come a long way in recent years. But while society continues to make attempts to tackle misogyny and hidden male biases—from edging closer to smashing the gender pay gap to the introduction of flexible work hours that ease the emotional load of women in the workforce—the modern experience for men and women remains largely different.
This week, a tweet from user Karly Hou (@kbarley66) is going viral for that very notion, putting forward all the ways that prove the world wasn’t designed for women—from cars to smartphones—with the scariest part revealing that ignorance to such facts could present dangerous consequences.
Taking to Twitter, Karly shares her first example of gender disparities she’s noticed hidden in design, explaining that crash-test dummies for cars were based on male bodies.
She writes, “For a long time, test dummies were based on the average male body, which meant female drivers had 47% higher chances of serious injury than their male counterparts. Even now, the female dummy is usually just a smaller male dummy, but that doesn’t, account for differences in centre of mass, different organ placements, etc. In addition, protective equipment doesn’t account for seating differences (e.g. women typically sit closer to the wheel because of shorter legs).”
Author Caroline Criado Perez did a deep dive into this exact disparity in her 2019 book, Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed For Men, in what she calls the “gender data gap.”
In Invisible Women, Criado Perez notes mannequins are used by car manufacturers to ensure vehicles are safe enough for human use, but because they do not take into account that women are typically lighter in weight and sit closer to the wheel, the ‘safety check’ puts them at greater risk.
The second design flaw Karly looks to is smartphones, writing: “As screens get bigger and bigger, they become harder and harder for women to hold with one (on average, smaller than male) hand.”
It’s not just size that puts women at a disadvantage when using their phones, though. If you’ve ever noticed Siri or other voice recognition technology difficult to use, it’s not you, it’s them.
Many voice technologies are developed using male-driven data, which means they’re not programmed to recognise high-pitched voices or those from non-English speaking countries.
The solution, as suggested by one voice technology supplier, to TIME magazine in 2019? Women could be “taught to speak louder, and direct their voices toward the microphone.”
If that wasn’t eye-opening enough, Karly’s next disparity points out that medicine is biased in more ways than you may think, a point Criado-Perez did plenty of research on for her book.
As TIME reported in 2019 in its review of Invisible Women, heart-attack symptoms known to the wider public rarely relate to women. While men may experience chest pains, women tend to report stomach pains, nausea, and breathlessness, resulting in 60 per cent of women more likely to be misdiagnosed.
Plus, the absence of female subjects in medical textbooks and research papers means many doctors simply didn’t know how to treat heart disease in women, or even how to recognise it.
But one of the real kickers from Karly’s viral thread is that even something as simple as office air conditioning temperatures were made to make men more comfortable.
How many times has a female colleague been wrapped in a blanket—that they take from job to job to sit underneath their desk—to protect themselves from the freezing cold office air-conditing, while male colleagues seem to be breezily walking around in short-sleeved button-ups?
The thing is, the standard office temperature was calculated in the 1950s based on the metabolic rate of an average man, making typical office spaces much more comfortable for them but far too cold for women.
While it may not seem like a big deal, it means the productivity of women can diminish when not comfortable sitting at their desk. And considering women now constitute half of the workforce, perhaps it’s time for a rethinking of this standardised model?
That’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to design flaws that prove the world was designed by men for men, and it’s high time we see more women in rooms where such decisions are made.
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