Reviews

Näkymättömät naiset: Näin tilastot paljastavat miten maailma on suunniteltu miehille by Caroline Criado Pérez

jessica__downing's review against another edition

3.0

(Audiobook) Very educational. I learned a lot I didn’t know before. I found myself saying “did you know that [insert fact]?” to my husband multiple times a day. Definitely fueled my feminist fire. Appreciated the section about women’s experiences in the software industry. Gave it 3 stars because it’s not exactly a page turner. It was a great book to listen to while doing other things.

erinstar87's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

lilwiccankitten's review against another edition

challenging informative slow-paced

4.25

Admittedly with all the numbers thrown around it is a bit of a dry read but still very interesting and informative 

am_paro's review against another edition

1.0

Based on the assumption that there are exactly two genders and two sexes, this book provides overwhelming evidence for the ways in which nearly every society on earth privileges men (the default) over women (the other).

The book touches lightly on other factors that harm women as well, including racial minority status and socioeconomic status. But a glaring omission--indeed, it is erasure--is any discussion of transgender women and men, as well as nonbinary/other genders, intersex people, and any other person who is not a "man," that is, a cis man. While it's true that societies largely do operate on a gender/sex binary, the oppression that this results in does not only fall on cis women. I am dismayed that a book like this would be published in 2019 without a full discussion of intersectionality.

This is a problem with the book's premise, that improving the availability of data on women's experiences can lead to better policy and thereby more equitable outcomes. While that's true in some of the examples cited by the author, is the lack of data really the big problem? I fear that even if we were swimming in data showing that "the other" were disadvantaged in every way, policy would not change so long as "the default" were in charge, because the source of the unwillingness to collect and use the data in the first place is misogyny, transphobia, etc. Why bother to make women's lives better if you hate women? if you hate anyone who is not a "man"--someone who presents as male and performs sufficient masculinity? It's easy to throw out the rational comfort of data with this irrational attitude.

hooksbookswanderlust's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

This book floored me from the Forward. Talk about a hook! I’ve never consumed a nonfiction book as readily as I consumed this one. And the Forward was just the beginning. This book not only hooked me but held me all the way to the last word. In fact, in my group chat with my girlfriends, I was regularly blasting them with “oh my gosh, this book!”

I am not a person to take anything at face value, especially this day in age. If you want to convince me of something, you need hard facts and evidence. Criado Perez delivers on every front. Those things don’t typically make for a riveting read (or listen as in this case), but Criado Perez presents this data in a way that is both approachable and eloquent, turning facts and figures into something you actually want to keep reading and making the case for implicit bias against women undeniable.

The audiobook version is read by the author, who in my humble opinion sounds like a fast-talking Emma Watson. I definitely had to slow down my normal 1.5x speed so I could properly digest what I was hearing and make sense of the data. It’s clear in both the speed in which she speaks and the tone she takes that she is passionate about this topic, which went a long way to keeping me rapt. That said, I would consider this a fast-paced audiobook but if I were eyeball reading it, I would say it would likely be a slow-paced book due to all the facts and figures.

The book starts by describing the concept of the default male, the idea that men, specifically straight, white men, are the standard or norm in society and the world is designed around their bodies, experiences, and behaviors. She goes on to cite countless studies and examples where the data collected for products, systems, and policies are focused primarily, if not entirely, on men, resulting in a failure to accommodate women’s needs. This can lead to poorer living circumstances, poorer health, and dangerous goods and services for women. She acknowledges that the failure to include women in data collection is not necessarily done out of malice, but is often because it is too complicated or because of a complete oversight of the need to include women, circling back to the default male concept.

From medicines that don’t work correctly in women’s bodies, car seats and seatbelts that are built for male bodies, down to voice recognition technology that yields far more errors for women’s voices than it does for men’s or phone sizes designed for men’s larger hands making it harder for women to hold, Criado Perez shines a light on all the ways, big and small, that the gender data gap hurts women and by virtue humankind. There was even a crochet reference! In the Afterward, Criado Perez talks about the mathematician Daina Taimina, who solved a problem that had stumped male mathematicians for years to the point they were ready to give up. Her male counterparts had been endeavoring to create a model of the hyperbolic plane, unsuccessfully, until Taimina attended a workshop about the topic and noted how she could model it easily with crochet. All it took was a single woman’s perspective to solve this years-long problem. Why? Because crochet is a typically female hobby. Also, if you’re a crocheter, you should check out Taimina’s models! She took one look at the men’s paper model and said, I can do that better with crochet! Read about her experience here.

This book is smart, insightful, and surprisingly hard to put down. I loved everything about it and can’t recommend it enough!

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I hope you enjoyed this review! This review and many more appear on my blog, Hooks, Books, & Wanderlust, where you'll find book reviews, lists, crochet tutorials & patterns, as well as camping, hiking and travel adventures.

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cbonella's review against another edition

4.0

The only flaw of this book is how tightly packed the statistics and acronyms are in some sections. Some areas were very dense

allisonbuzard's review against another edition

informative inspiring medium-paced

4.0

This book contains a compelling call to remedy the gender data gap globally, historically, and presently. The author presents ample vignettes that bring stories to the data. I think the book would have been strengthened with a more robust exploration of the gender spectrum and an inclusion of trans and non binary folks in the discussion. Some of the sexual violence against women sections felt reductionist and could have benefitted from a more nuanced discussion.

irowe's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.25

Very informative and stats heavy but also gave a good perspective on women’s issues. Would be interesting if it was written after the pandemic to see the differences it affected women. 

nisheehy's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring tense medium-paced

4.25

movandiireads's review against another edition

informative fast-paced

5.0

This was so eye opening to see the data and how it impacts half the population.