PODCAST: Caroline Criado Perez on how living in a world made for men hurts women

Many of us already know that the world is biased in favour of men — we’ve been aware that patriarchy exists for some now… But what does this mean in real life? In her new book, Invisible Women, Caroline Criado Perez finds that everything from transportation systems, to medical devices and treatments, to tax structures, to smartphones are made for men, not women. And this is more than just inconvenient. It can be deadly. Cars built for men are more dangerous for women to drive. Not recognizing women’s heart attack symptoms mean we are more likely to die. And not understanding how certain chemicals or drugs impact the female body vs the male body is similarly dangerous. The list goes on.

Caroline is a british writer, campaigner, and consultant. She won the Liberty Human Rights Campaigner of the Year Award 2013 and in 2015 she was named an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. Her first book, Do It Like A Woman, was published by Portobello Books in May 2015. Her second book, Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, was published in March 2019 by Chatto & Windus (UK) and Abrams (US). I spoke with her over the phone from her home in London.