You Don’t Have to be Nice with Caroline Criado Perez

Did you know that women are 17 percent more likely to die in a car crash than men—and 47 percent more likely to be seriously injured? That’s because cars are designed for the average male, not the average human. This week’s guest is Caroline Criado Perez, and she’s on a mission to change that.

Caroline Criado Perez is a journalist, a feminist campaigner, and the author of a new book called Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men. It’s an in-depth look at the ways everything from heart-attack symptoms to snow-clearing routes put men first—and what needs to happen to change that. Caroline is also a fierce campaigner for women’s rights, and has a certain knack for making her feminist campaigns go viral. As you might guess, we absolutely love her.

You don't have to be nice all the time. Women are always taught we have to be nice and everyone has to love us. And actually, if you're trying to make change, that is impossible and you have to be okay with that.

—Caroline Criado Perez, author of Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men

Caroline chats with us about:

• Gender bias and how it’s dangerous for women, even (and especially!) in medical situations.


• The invisibility of women in data, including in medical tests and medication, unpaid labor, disaster relief, car designs, and more.


• How a gender audit of policies in Sweden led to a change in how they clear the snow to best allow citizens to go about their day, instead of continuing to automatically favor men to the detriment of women.


• Why having women in the room when designing things for massive public use—like Twitter—is essential if you’re aiming to create something that will work for more people, not just white men.

Links:

• Caroline on Twitter


• Caroline’s website with tour dates, writing, and her current campaign


• Book: [Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men]](https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/invisible-women_9781419729072/)

Plus:

• #YouKnowMe, Shout Your Abortion, and why women seem to always have to share their most personal stories just to be seen as human.


• FY to seven girls at Bronx Prep Middle School who created a podcast about periods—called Sssh! Periods—and won the grand prize for middle school in NPR’s Student Podcast Challenge.