What’s the
cost when women are left out of healthcare, education, and public policy data?



Data drives decision making in critical areas. Yet, in most cases, as Caroline Criado Perez, author of the book, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, points out, women are simply absent from the data.



Why is this?
Because we operate in a world where deeply ingrained cultural biases treat men
as the data default and women as the exception. Caroline explains, “If we look
at politics . . . news media . . . films, women represent about 20 percent of
the people we see and hear about. . . we are taking in that information and
thinking that this is what the world looks like. . . it creates this sense in
our heads that we don’t have to collect data on women.”



This data gap
leads to bad decisions with devastating consequences. What’s even more shocking
is that these gaps are hidden in plain sight, in places where it would seem
like gender couldn’t possibly matter.



For example,
when one Swedish town studied which roads got cleared first following a
snowstorm, they were surprised to learn their decisions were based on male
commuting patterns. The result was that women were getting hurt, and the town
was losing money. Caroline reveals that . . . “the cost of the accident and
emergency admission was three times the cost of the winter road maintenance.
And just by doing this simple switch of the order in which they do the snow
clearing, that cost went down dramatically.”



Caroline Criado Perez is a writer, broadcaster, and feminist activist and was named Liberty Human Rights Campaigner of the Year. Her first book was titled, Do It Like a Woman.



The Host



You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen, and Producer, Rob Mancabelli, by visiting @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net.



Episode Links



Pierre Bourdieu



Why Sweden Clears Snow-Covered Walkways Before Roads by Angie Schmitt



The Work that Makes Work Possible by Anne-Marie Slaughter



Women Lack Access to Private Toilets Around the World



Do the Math: Include Women in Government Budgets



Gender Budgeting in OECD Countries



Why Women Are No Longer Catching Up to Men on Pay by Ben Casselman



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