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The Conversation: Is bad data killing women?

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Caroline Criado Perez and Lauren Klein

24/02/2020 GMT

Is bad data killing women?

BBC World Service - The Conversation, Is bad data killing women?

We look at the impact of a gender data gap and a ‘one-size-fits-men’ approach to design.

The impact of leaving women's bodies out of research ranges from phones that are too big for female hands, to women being more likely to die if they're in a car accident. Kim Chakanetsa talks to two women investigating the data gender gap and how to resolve it.

Caroline Criado Perez says a ‘one-size-fits-men’ approach to design, technology and research has resulted in a myriad of instances where women have been overlooked: from cars that are safer for men driving them to stab vests that don't work as well for women's bodies.  In her book, Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men she examines the impact on women of a world that has largely been built for and by men and looks at why data and statistics are far from 'gender-blind'.

Lauren Klein says part of the solution lies in the lessons learned by intersectional feminism. The Associate Professor at Emory University has co-authored a book called Data Feminism with Catherine D’Ignazio. It looks at data science and data ethics and their impact on parts of society that are often overlooked and discriminated against.

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L: Caroline Criado-Perez (credit: Rachel Louise Brown)
R: Lauren Klein (credit: Tamara Gonzalez)

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