Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men

BPA is a synthetic chemical used in the production of clear, durable plastics and is found in millions of consumer products. In 2008, a federal health agency claimed that BPA could be linked to cancer, chromosomal abnormalities, and other disorders. This danger to human health could have been detected sooner if the health of the women producing these products had been studied.

The default male is the assumption that men can stand in for all human beings. Because men and women are different, the default harms women.

Dysmenorrhea is the pain up to 90% of women experience during their periods. It is chronically understudied, which is typical for women’s health issues. For example, pharmaceutical companies have failed to fund studies of Viagra, which one study showed to relieve pain for four hours with no side effects, because of fears of impacting its sales to men.

EDCs, toxins harmful at low concentrations, are found in many plastic containers, cosmetics, and cleaning products. These chemicals disrupt reproductive hormones and are linked to breast cancer, yet there is little regulation of these chemicals and not enough study of the cumulative effects of exposure to them.

Gender refers to the social meanings imposed on biological facts. It accounts for the way people are treated when they are perceived to be female. Discriminatory practices result from these social meanings.

The gender data gap is the absence or “absent presence” (xv) of women in the stories of the past, present, and future. Perez exposes these silences in several areas and explains their negative consequences for women and humanity.

The Henry Higgins effect, named for a misogynistic character in My Fair Lady, denotes the male wish that women be more like men. When products or systems designed for men, such as promotion processes or personal protective equipment, do not accommodate women, the inclination is to fix the women.

The plough hypothesis states that “societies that had historically used the plough would be less gender equal than those that hadn’t” (145). While critics of this theory claim that men dominate farming and cultivation even in areas where the plough was not introduced, Perez explains that it is difficult to evaluate that criticism because the data on women’s participation in farming is full of gaps. It appears, though, that their participation is greatly underestimated.

Sex refers to the biological characteristics determining whether an individual is male or female. Because there are important differences between the sexes in health and other areas, it is essential to collect information on both sexes.

Unencumbered workers are those with little to no care responsibilities. Most women do not fall into this category and the caring work they do is invisible. Such responsibilities often cause women to reduce paid work hours or to leave the paid workforce altogether.

Yentl syndrome describes the “phenomenon whereby women are misdiagnosed and poorly treated unless their symptoms or diseases conform to that of men” (217). Because of a lack of studies, physicians are often not familiar with the way symptoms present in women and with diseases particular to women. Women are at risk of poor medical outcomes and death as a result.

A zombie statistic is a spurious, coincidental, or meaningless statistic that takes hold in the public imagination. When data is scarce, as it so often is where women are concerned, it is even more difficult to combat belief in zombie statistics. In one example, in the determination of poverty, such statistics lead to a bad allocation of resources and penalize women.