Review: Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez

Data Bias in a World Designed for Men - Otherwise known as why society is not built for women.

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Dates read: 11/09/24 to 13/10/24

Star rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Word to describe: Necessary

Genre: Feminism, Women's Sociology, Nonfiction, Science

Firstly, I like to think I am a good feminist. Secondly, this book destroyed that for me in the best possible way.

I already knew that this was going to be my No 1 book of the year. the high praise for Caroline Criado Perez has been shown all over the internet. Her book Invisible Women even made it onto Goodreads 2019 Readers Choice nominee list. This has been a beloved and celebrated book since its release. It is unsurprising that Invisible Women has made its way onto my list of five star reads for 2024 and has been passionately recommended to my reader friends.

Upon starting this book I suppose you could say I was innocent. Unaware of the depth to which gender biases play out in our world, I was living in a idealistic world where the dangers to women were the obvious ones (lack of reproductive rights, violence, sexual abuse etc.), and the unseen dangers of the world were, well, unseen. I knew that the world largely catered to men, it doesn't take a genius to know this, but to the degree at which this is at play, and the significance of this in every day life, was something I had never taken the time to truly consider. You could say, alongside my innocence, that I was simply ignorant to the bigger picture.

Invisible Women shattered my view of an idyllic world completely. For a short while, it left me so utterly bitter and inflamed with anger at the sheer audacity of half of the gender biases highlighted in this book that everything around me became a threat. I was almost paranoid that the world was simply designed to be cruel to women. Quite frankly, I have never had such an impactful reaction to a book. At what point of being alive are women expected to be included in society as members of society? Sure we can vote, have jobs, choose whether or not we marry and have children. But for something as basic as medical trials not including women, or limited toilets in public areas which disproportionally affect women compared to men, or even vehicles which are designed without women's comfort or safety being considered. Every time I remember the statistics from this book a small piece of my heart breaks.

Perez took no shame or guilt is throwing these statistics into the public eye. She, unapologetically, brought into the light the stark reality of life as a woman. Now, I listened to an audiobook version of this which was performed by the author herself and, as a result, was an insatiable read. The despair in Perez' voice when she outlined all of the issues at hand was palpable and haunting. And, for the most part I needed time to let myself get angry and step away from the audio. Each new section brought about about a frustration that was deeply routed in inaction and hopelessness.

I want to emphasise that this book is supposed to be frustrating, it is supposed to be emotionally charged and invigorating because it is based in reasoning that has never before been written so matter-of-factly. It is a compilation of events that have been discredited for far too long, it is filled with the female perspective that has been ignored for far too long, and it is filled with accounts from women around the world who have not been considered by the people around them as equals.

I admire Caroline Criado Perez so deeply. I am in awe at her writing and her ability to collect data and such a large scale and present it in a way that is easily digested. But I also envy the person I was before I read this book. It is heavy to know the deep routed plague - of simply forgetting women exist - on our society lies so close to every day life.