I first heard about this book when the author, Caroline Criado Perez, was interviewed on the podcast 99% Invisible. I was intrigued from first listen and paid an exorbitant amount to order it on Amazon (US$30 plus shipping from the UK!).
Perez’s book is about two things: 1) the ways in which Western societies were founded on and continue to promote ‘maleness’ as the normative centre; and 2) how maleness at the centre is not just inconvenient for women- statistically 51% of humanity- but in certain areas can be literally deadly. She is quick to point out that society doesn’t always set out to purposefully disregard women but that intent is irrelevant to harm. Her rallying cry to correct this inequality is that we need to seek and collect sex-desegregated data so that we can begin to build a society that adequately (or at all) addresses the needs of women.
Although the CAN$50 price was outrageous, I would pay it again. Perez writes well (and for a non-statistics class audience like myself) and she footnotes all the way through, which is satisfying- I want to know that I can rely on her statistics. She makes a very compelling argument for studies and projects to start including and collecting data on women
I fully intend to pull out a number of the stats and arguments from this book for years. In the immediate future I have plans to use some of this information for corporate ‘Safety Moments’: did you know that women often don’t display the ‘classic’ heart attack symptoms? Or that historically (and possibly still, depending on the jurisdiction) the only place vehicle manufacturers were required to use female crash test dummies was in the passenger seat? Compelling arguments for change, made in the language of statistics.
#Cbr11bingo- Reader’s Choice- using this square for “Two Heads Are Better Than One”
