Winner of the 2019 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award
Winner of the 2019 Royal Society Science Book Prize

Data is fundamental to the modern world. From economic development, to healthcare, to education and public policy, we rely on numbers to allocate resources and make crucial decisions. But because so much data fails to take into account gender, because it treats men as the default and women as atypical, bias and discrimination are baked into our systems. And women pay tremendous costs for this bias, in time, money, and often with their lives.

Celebrated feminist advocate Caroline Criado Perez investigates the shocking root cause of gender inequality and research in Invisible Women, diving into women’s lives at home, the workplace, the public square, the doctor’s office, and more. Built on hundreds of studies in the US, the UK, and around the world, and written with energy, wit, and sparkling intelligence, this is a groundbreaking, unforgettable exposé that will change the way you look at the world.

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Product details

Publisher : Harry N. Abrams (March 12 2019)
Language : English
Hardcover : 272 pages
ISBN-10 : 1419729071
ISBN-13 : 978-1419729072
Item Weight : 699 g
Dimensions : 16.19 x 3.81 x 23.5 cm

Best Sellers Rank: #2,387 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3 in Social Sciences Research
- #4 in Feminist Theory (Books)
- #18 in Civil Rights

Customer Reviews:
3,811 ratings

Product description

Review

“Read this book and then tell me the patriarchy is a figment of my imagination.”

-- Jeanette Winterson, The New York Times

“Invisible Women is a game-changer; an uncompromising blitz of facts, sad, mad, bad and funny, making an unanswerable case and doing so brilliantly. … the ambition and scope — and sheer originality — of Invisible Women is huge; no less than the story of what happens when we forget to account for half of humanity. It should be on every policymaker, politician and manager’s shelves.”

, The Times (UK)

“Brilliant … Invisible Women lays out in impressive detail the many ways that human beings are presumed to be male, as well as the wide-reaching effects of this distorted view of humanity.”

, Katha Pollitt, The Nation

“The most important book I have ever read.”

, Women You Should Know

“An excellent book packed with practical information of the kind required by those attempting to dismantle the patriarchy.”

, The Irish Times

“As Invisible Women illuminates, in an almost overwhelming way, communities pay tremendous costs for the gender data gap: costs of income, time, women's health, and sometimes women's lives.”

, Bustle

"In clear language, the author builds a strong case for greater inclusion with this thoughtful and surprisingly humorous view of institutional bias and gendered information gaps. While some readers may suggest that equality has arrived and gender no longer matters, this book, which should have wide popular appeal, is a solid corrective to that line of thought."

, Kirkus Reviews

“Even with all the progress women have made in the last few decades, Invisible Women proves we still have a long way to go. Reading this book—preferably in a comfortably warm room—is the first step.”

, PureWow

"An incredible book."

, Roman Mars, "99% Invisible"

“A diligently researched and clearly written exposé.”

, Booklist

About the Author

Caroline Criado Perez is a writer, broadcaster, and feminist activist, named Liberty Human Rights Campaigner of the Year and OBE by the Queen. She has a degree in English language and literature from the University of Oxford, and she studied behavioral and feminist economics at the London School of Economics. She lives in London.

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Customer reviews

5 star		81%
4 star		13%
3 star		4%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from Canada

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Deb B

So many important stats and information

Reviewed in Canada on June 5, 2020

Verified Purchase

We can't change what we're not aware of, and what we don't measure. The millions of ways in which women are systematically discriminated against boggles the mind. It's criminal that woman's safety concerns are not even considered by the medical/pharmaceutical industry, automobile manufacturer's, and so on. Women are suffering and dying due to be left out of any planning that goes into...almost everything! Even safety equipment isn't safe, for women. A real eye opener. Makes you realize how hard we have to work to change the status quo.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Sarah

Excellent and long overdue

Reviewed in Canada on March 17, 2019

Verified Purchase

This book painstakingly catalogues the myriad ways in which women are short changed, ignored and harmed by our male centred society (Actually our male centred earth, it seems no country is immune).

Every page has dozens of links to references.

3 people found this helpful

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Margot

Everyone need to read this book

Reviewed in Canada on June 26, 2019

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Everyone needs to read this book! Then we need to change things. Caroline lays out how women - at least 50% of the population - are routinely ignored in every facet of every society from what seems like the beginning of time.

3 people found this helpful

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Lincoln Penner

Great while Enraging

Reviewed in Canada on May 15, 2020

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Such an important and necessary book. Enraging because if the incredible injustices perpetrated against women, the degree of which I didn’t know and hadn’t considered. I always thought of myself as progressive but this will change my view of many issues for the better.

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Asad Ansari

Eye opening

Reviewed in Canada on September 16, 2019

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I bought the book after reading a review in the Financial Times. That it has recently been short listed for the best book of the year award is not a surprise at all. All men (and women) need to read this book.

2 people found this helpful

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Stephanie Volpi

Well Written

Reviewed in Canada on October 24, 2019

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Hauntingly informative and spectacularly well written

One person found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Excellent book

Reviewed in Canada on November 13, 2020

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I am not going to write a full review, except to say that this is an awesome book and well worth the read. It relies on data rather than anecdote, which I appreciate.

Helpful

alicia

Simply brilliant

Reviewed in Canada on December 24, 2019

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It’s been years since I picked up a book that I couldn’t put it down once I started reading.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Aislinn O'Connell

Fascinating, accessible, and incredibly engaging.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 19, 2019

Verified Purchase

First things first: the designer of this book was clearly on a roll. The font is clear and delightful. The italics, in particular, are so beautiful I had to take a picture of them and send it to my friend so he could appreciate them too. The cover design is subtle and fantastic. When you take the dustjacket off, the overlaid blue male figures disappear, leaving the invisible women behind, which ties in wonderfully with the book’s overarching message. The texture of the dustjacket and hardcover is delightful, with a velvety-smooth overlay that is really pleasing to the touch.

The book is heavily referenced throughout with endnotes. These are collected directly after the acknowledgements, a full 69 pages of references. The impact of this collected body of commentary serves to underline the density of information and dedication of the research which went into this book. While I’m not a fan of endnotes, personally, the stylistic choice to collect them all together gives undeniable weight to the book, and makes it difficult to dismiss its conclusions.

But that’s enough about the physical construction of this book (for which Chatto and Windus deserves great praise). What about the content itself?

Well, I read this book with a combination of mounting horror, frustration, and rage. Criado Perez takes the reader by the hand and gently leads them along a journey of discrimination against women which is endemic in all areas of life. Split into six thematic sections (Daily Life, The Workplace, Design, Going to the Doctor, Public Life, and When it Goes Wrong), this book catalogues a pantheon of circumstances where what is female is considered as abnormal, as less than standard, as Other. Collected together, the ignorance of design to the differing needs of 50% of the population is both fascinating and incredibly infuriating.

Criado Perez doesn’t use this book as a stick with which to beat the patriarchy, however. Rather, she delicately unpicks the circumstances which lead to a lack of consideration of the needs of those other than what is considered to be the default. Her examples are wide-ranging, touching on every area of life, and consistently return the same conclusion: women just haven’t been thought about. It’s not that their needs have been considered and dismissed. It’s that the fact that they might have different needs hasn’t even occurred to the people creating these structures.

(Generally. There are some notable exceptions. One quote from Tim Schalk really burned my cookies. But it’s not actually the norm.)

From Sheryl Sandberg’s explanation at Google that heavily pregnant women can’t walk long distances to Apple Health’s omission of allowing tracking of a menstrual cycle, for many examples in this book, the reason for these omissions is that people didn’t even think of them as a potential need. Cars are crash tested rigorously before making it to market – but the dummies used are 1.7m tall. This is the size of the average man, not the size of the average person, and it leads to shocking statistics like the fact that women – despite being less likely to crash – if they are involved in a crash, are 47% more likely to be seriously injured. Criado Perez points out myriad ways that this unthinking acceptance of male as default – and as applicable to all – unfairly impacts on women, and leads to their being unconsidered in further development.

The book has one overarching message, which calls clearly from every page. Do something about this. Don’t accept data as applicable to all. Sex-disaggregate data, and investigate how men and women are differently impacted. In an era which relies on big data more than ever, the gender data gap needs to be acknowledged, counteracted, and filled. And it needs to be done with a specific focus on counteracting the detriment which the gender data gap had caused. Otherwise we end up with situations where a policy designed to create more family-friendly situations actually end up disadvantaging those it intended to help.

Criado Perez is not myopic in her discussions either – she skillfully acknowledges the intersections of race, gender identity, disability, and other minority identities can have to create a cumulatively detrimental effect. Invisible Women is a primer on how not to design, a feminist manifesto, a fantastic example of hard research with incredible readability, and a thoroughly engaging experience. It has filled me with rage and frustration – my friends and family have borne the brunt of several rants already – and I’ll be passing it on and recommending it to pretty much everyone I know.

232 people found this helpful

Dorson

A book every woman should read!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 31, 2019

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This book is amazing at opening the door on invisible bias, unfortunately I am not a fan of the writing style.

The author makes fantastic points backs it up with great facts but then in an attempt to cement her point she will suddenly and needlessly jump to unrelated examples of sexism e.g. she makes fantastic eye opening points on why women's toilets should be bigger than men's but then jumps from discussing women's needs and toilet requirements in the West to toilet issues faced by women in India (this just belittles her first point).

She also uses the term 'White Men' a lot, I really cannot stand generalisations but stuck with it. The author seems blame all the issues faced by women on men but reading this book makes you think a lot of these issues are a product of their time and are now a systematic societal issue which is as much women's fault as men's; for example 76% of teachers are women and women by far make up the majority of childcare, so why/how are children still being raised with a male gender bias? We have everything we need to change it so why hasn't it been changed? the reason is because the women themselves (and men) don't know issues exist, both genders need educating on these issues.

Everyone should read this book as it provides great insight into bias we cannot see but live with but I think blaming one gender for the issues faced by another will create division and stall progression.

119 people found this helpful

Stuart Barry

Some good stats - but a little too much opinion

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 3, 2019

Verified Purchase

I bought this book intending it to be a gift for a family member. We have a shared interest in statistics and this seemed like a good punt. Unfortunately it will not be passed on.

Firstly the positives:
The author is clearly very passionate about her field and has put together a truly awe inspiring set of statistics that completely support the stance that women are biased against in society. This clearly needs to change, and there are some very good examples of where this could be done easily and effectively. It has been an eye opener to me to consider some of the examples brought up, crash test dummies, drug testing and outdated sexist guidance in a number of areas.

The negatives:
There is a consistent pattern of stating a set of statistics, and then expressing an opinion that this is an example of gender bias which could be fixed with gender disaggregated data. On a first read the conclusions, which seem consistently that men make decisions and that those decisions are implicitly designed to make women worse off off, are not entirely supportable by the statistics gathered.

As an example, snow sweeping - which is carried out by clearing the main roads first and then minor roads. The statement made is that this is biased against women as this benefits those commuting by car (men) and harms (physically) those who travel on minor roads as pedestrian (women). The conclusion that data should have been gathered which included more women to prevent this bad decision.
Firstly, it could be plausible that the decision makers - being commuters by car themselves - might have made a decision based upon their experience. This is in and off itself is decoupled from gender. One could imagine a mixed panel of working men and working women making the same poor decision with equal gender representation.
Secondly, the bias that exists seems to be that men benefit more from the status quo than women due to the nature of the jobs they do (paid work, full time, greater male proportion). The imbalance here is not how streets are cleared but who the jobs are carried out by - so addressing gender bias via the job market would be a better path to removing the gender bias without addressing the poor decision making of how to clear snow.
Thirdly, if one were to gather gender dis-aggregated data this might incentivise equal gender participation. However, this does not guarantee that the set of people involved were from different selection groups and might still exclude those "people" that do not commute via main roads. I am sure plenty of women also benefited from the 'main road first' approach - so one could imagine a poll of opinions which covers 50/50 by gender but excludes non-commuters.

All of the above are independent on what the best way to clear snow is and what we even mean by "best" in this context (cheapest for execution, reducing road accidents, reducing hospital attendance).

I've already fixated on this one example too much, there are others but if you have read this far I risk boring you too much. The issues raised in the book could probably more accurately be expressed as a journey into poor decision making by excluding groups given selection bias. The biases are not specifically gender and do not generally indicate a bias against women (there are other biases and poor decision making at play that predominantly harm women as a side effect) - although there are also examples of terrible bias that deserve to be considered - crash test dummies for everyone please!!

I think the author sets off with an axe to grind, and spends the book grinding it. If you are feminist or pro-equality with a view that the world is biased there will be a lot to enjoy here. If you attack it objectively there are still some gems with regards to systemic bias but there are plenty of opinions that do not bear up to analysis.

Overall a good book (I think), just lacking a level of objective scientific rigor that would have made it's message more convincing.

101 people found this helpful

Kindle Customer

Mind the gap

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 13, 2019

Verified Purchase

Firstly, this is a great read. The reader is taken on a tour of an unknown yet familiar world as the author lays out the facts and costs of the gender data gap. You can't get accurate answers if you don't have quality data- or if you don't ask the right questions in the first place. This isn't presented as a conspiracy against women but as the result of just not seeing slightly more than half the population in the data. The results can range from the inconvenient (not being able to access tall shelves or straps on the Underground) to the fatal (women and men react differently to drugs but mostly only male data is recorded.) The most common reaction to these problems where they are recognised is to try and "fix" women to be more like men (suggesting voice coaching for women to use voice recognition software that responds to male voices). This is a valuable and useful book. Please buy one for the engineer in your life.

76 people found this helpful

Mimi

Incredible

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 11, 2019

Verified Purchase

Incredible book. Brilliantly researched and backed up. Easy to read, not boring at all. Read if you want to be miserable about the state of the world for women but also more intelligent and having enjoyed a few jokes.

40 people found this helpful

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