Navigating a Man-Designed World: The Struggles Faced by Women in a Male-Dominated Society
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In today's world, gender inequality persists in various aspects of life, from clothing and transportation to medical care, technology, the workplace, and urban planning. This inequality is rooted in systemic design bias, which has historically prioritised male experiences and bodies, often leading to daily inconveniences, reduced safety, and ineffective treatment for women.
Clothing
Women's clothing often lacks functional pockets, limiting practical use and forcing women to adapt or carry extra items separately. This reflects gendered assumptions embedded in design choices, as men's clothing usually includes deep, functional pockets.
Transportation
Safety features like seatbelts and crash tests are frequently designed based on male physiology, resulting in seatbelts that fit women poorly and inadequate protection in accidents. This gender bias in transportation design poses safety risks for women.
Medical Care
Medical research and treatment have historically used male bodies as the norm, causing under-recognition of sex differences in disease symptoms and insufficient pain management for women. This gender bias in medical care often dismisses or minimises women’s health experiences.
Technology
Technologies, from wearable devices to user interfaces, often ignore women’s physical or cognitive needs due to male-centered design choices, making them less comfortable, accessible, or effective for women.
Workplace
Unconscious bias in hiring, promotion, and job design leads to systemic disadvantages for women, including stereotyping and undervaluing of female candidates. This bias impacts career growth and workplace inclusion.
Urban Planning
Infrastructure and public spaces are frequently designed without considering women’s distinct safety concerns, mobility patterns, or caregiving roles, limiting accessibility and increasing risks for women in daily urban life.
These biases stem from a lack of inclusive data sampling, historical male-centric perspectives, and failure to integrate diverse female experiences into the design process. Recognising and correcting this systemic male default requires deliberate inclusion of female perspectives in research, design, and policymaking to create equitable products and environments for all.
This systemic bias is an example of sampling or design bias where the “male experience” disproportionately shapes outcomes, while women’s distinct needs and bodies are underrepresented or ignored, leading to pervasive disadvantages across multiple life domains.
Medical Devices
The vaginal speculum, a device used for gynaecological exams, was originally designed without anaesthesia and has remained largely unchanged for nearly two centuries. This lack of consideration for women's comfort has contributed to the discomfort and fear experienced by about 35% of women during exams.
In 2024, a new prototype called "Lilium" was developed to redesign the vaginal speculum, addressing these issues.
Car Safety
Women are 47% more likely to be seriously injured in car crashes and 17% more likely to die due to inadequate car testing for female bodies. This gender bias in car safety design poses significant risks for women.
Historical Roots
The design of the vaginal speculum was achieved through experiments on enslaved Black women, highlighting the historical roots of gender and racial bias in medical research and design.
Professional Tools
Professional tools in various industries are often of the size of male's hands and strength levels, causing discomfort, accidents, and lower productivity for women.
Facial Recognition
Facial recognition software has shown higher error rates in identifying women, especially women of color, due to biased training data sets. This gender and racial bias in technology design can have serious consequences, including increased risk of misidentification and surveillance.
Urban Infrastructure
In urban planning, equal space for restrooms and inadequate safety measures disproportionately affect women. This gender bias in urban infrastructure can lead to increased risks and inconveniences for women in daily life.
The male default in healthcare, technology, and design has led to a myriad of issues that disproportionately affect women. Recognising and addressing these biases is crucial for creating a more equitable world for all.
- Fashion design may continue to disregard women's practical needs if it persists in ignoring the need for functional pockets in women's clothing, just as technology design may overlook women's physical and cognitive requirements when prioritizing male-centered design choices.
- Just as car safety has previously relied on male physiology in crash tests, leading to inadequate protection for women, advancements in facial recognition technology may inadvertently mirror this issue if it maintains biased training data sets, resulting in higher error rates in identifying women, especially women of color.
