Invisible Women: What Happens When Women Are Forgotten

Book Review: Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez

A powerful and data-rich exploration of how the world ignores half the population

Caroline Criado Perez’s Invisible Women is a meticulously researched and deeply urgent book that shows what happens when we build systems, policies, and tools around the assumption that men are the default. Through page after page of well-sourced data and clear analysis, Perez demonstrates how women have been systematically left out of the equation, both literally and figuratively. The result is a world that too often works poorly or even dangerously for women.

This book does not simply point to obvious inequalities. It goes much further, uncovering how gender-blind data practices have shaped everything from public transit schedules to medical research, product design, disaster relief, and artificial intelligence. Perez argues that the issue is not deliberate malice, but a longstanding failure to collect sex-disaggregated data. The result is what she calls the gender data gap, a phenomenon that silently disadvantages women across nearly every aspect of daily life.

What the book promises

Perez sets out to prove that data is not objective when it excludes the experiences of women. The central premise is that women are quite literally invisible in the data that shapes our world. She aims to expose this gap and its real-world consequences, while also offering a framework for how things might be improved by simply asking different questions and including women in data collection and analysis.

Rather than presenting this solely as a feminist issue, Perez shows how designing better systems for women leads to better outcomes for everyone. She promises a broad, global, and deeply evidence-based tour through the many ways women have been forgotten in decisions that affect infrastructure, safety, healthcare, employment, and technology.

What the book delivers

Invisible Women delivers an overwhelming amount of data, stories, and case studies to back its argument. The book is divided into six thematic parts: Daily Life, The Workplace, Design, Going to the Doctor, Public Life, and When it Goes Wrong. Each section presents detailed evidence of how gender data gaps have real consequences, including poorly designed crash-test dummies that fail to protect female drivers, city planning that overlooks how women travel with children, and policies that ignore the value of unpaid care work.

Perez draws on a wide range of disciplines and locations, using both academic research and fieldwork examples. One striking case involves snow-clearing policies in Sweden, where changing the snow-removal order to prioritize sidewalks over roads led to reduced injuries, especially for women, who are more likely to walk and trip-chain errands. It is a seemingly small shift with outsized results, and one that makes the problem and solution incredibly tangible.

In healthcare, she outlines how most drug trials and diagnostic criteria have been designed around male physiology, leaving women at risk of misdiagnosis or inadequate treatment. From voice recognition technology that fails to understand women’s voices to economic models that ignore unpaid care work, the examples accumulate and point to a common root cause: a world that assumes men are the standard and women are the exception.

Style and structure

Perez’s writing is clear, forceful, and often laced with irony. She manages to translate technical concepts and research into highly readable prose. The tone is confident and occasionally biting, but never alienating. Perez maintains a strong ethical compass throughout, guiding the reader toward awareness without resorting to polemic.

The structure is logical and well-paced. Each chapter builds on the last, though the book does not require a linear read. The thematic divisions allow readers to dip in and out depending on their area of interest. Despite the heavy content, the narrative flows smoothly, thanks to Perez’s ability to balance hard data with real-world examples and personal anecdotes.

One of the book’s stylistic strengths is how it continually returns to lived experience. Perez is not content to let statistics sit in isolation. Instead, she connects them to everyday scenarios that bring the numbers to life. She also frequently points out where data is missing or where studies have failed to disaggregate by sex. This technique reinforces the book’s thesis while building trust with the reader.

Where the book shines

Invisible Women shines most in its clarity and scope. Perez does not just catalogue problems. She shows how systemic and structural this bias really is. From school textbooks to smartphone design, the cumulative effect of male-default thinking becomes painfully obvious. The author’s ability to track this pattern across so many domains is what makes the book both compelling and infuriating.

Another strength is how effectively Perez dismantles the illusion of neutrality. She makes a persuasive case that what is often called gender-neutral is in fact male-oriented, and that real gender-neutral policy must begin with inclusion, not assumption. Her insights into how this bias persists, often unintentionally, encourage critical reflection without shaming the reader.

The book also challenges the notion that women’s needs are niche. Perez insists that designing for women is not special treatment. It is fair, accurate, and necessary. And often, it leads to designs and systems that are better for everyone.

Light limitations

For some readers, the sheer volume of examples and data may feel overwhelming. There is little narrative arc, and the density of information may make it difficult to absorb all at once. This is not a book that offers easy solutions or a prescriptive path forward. Instead, it provides evidence and demands that the reader confront the consequences of inaction.

Additionally, readers seeking more intersectional analysis may notice that the book’s focus is primarily on gender, with less sustained attention given to how race, class, or disability intersect with the gender data gap. While Perez does mention these aspects, they often feel secondary to the core argument. Still, she acknowledges this limitation directly and expresses the challenge of gathering intersectional data within a system that fails to collect basic gender information in the first place.

Final thoughts

Invisible Women is a landmark work of investigative non-fiction that forces us to reconsider how we define objectivity, neutrality, and inclusion. Caroline Criado Perez has written a bold and necessary book that shines a light on the blind spots in our most trusted systems. She does not ask for sympathy. She asks for accuracy. She asks for women to be counted.

This is a book that will change how you see the world. It will make you question design choices, survey questions, medical guidelines, and policy decisions. It will also equip you with the language and data to advocate for better.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in gender equity, data ethics, social policy, or simply making the world more fair and functional for everyone.