A year ago, my friend recommended Invisible women — she had read it on and found it extremely powerful.
The title would lead most people to believe it is a work on feminism, and they would not be terribly off the mark. What is different is how starkly the book brings about male female inequality, and backs it up with volumes of data. The book describes how governments, businesses and individuals assume male population as a representative of both men and women. The focus is on how the gender data gap and the resultant male centered decision making leads to outcomes that have women living their lives on a backfoot. There are multiple precedents, from corporate lives to women safety to medical research to public policies to product development to infrastructure development to GDP measurement, wherein this data gap adversely manifests.
The book highlights several such instances where governments and institutions fail women, and reasons that this happens primarily because of lack of women in leadership and decision making positions. For instance, a drug research foundation with women on its grants panel is much more likely to appreciate why there is a pressing need to develop drugs to prevent menstrual pains, a debilitating experience for over 90% women in the world. Or how women leads in city adminstration teams can plan safer cities for women.
The book does not only call out problems, it suggests several solutions — easy and inexpensive ones at that. There are citations and expert consultations across the book, and these references make for a thought provoking read as well.
It is not entirely an easy book to read. Some of the chapters are data heavy — I took over two weeks to complete it. It is a tale of the numerous discomforts women go through everyday, of which most men, and sometimes women themselves are not aware of. Men understanding and acknowledging these issues is half the battle won.
Strongly recommend, especially to men. Swipe for some extracts from the book.
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