Designing tools for work is traditionally done considering the *average* man and not woman

This can be observed in how clothes include a zipper for peeing, but for women it may require taking off the entire apparel [@criadoperez2020Invisible women: exposing data bias in a world designed for men , chapter 5]. This also includes more extreme examples of nurses being subject to violence in hospitals, and their work environments not being designed to take into account this reality. For example, by adding protective glass to nursing stations, or designing the entire hospital in such a way that there are no long corridors so colleagues can always be seen.

The same ideas extrapolate to tools designed for men, from very simple ones like piano keys (@criadoperez2020Invisible women: exposing data bias in a world designed for men, chapter 8) but also including bricks or farming tools. The fact that the tools themselves are not designed to keep in mind women’s physiology means that they will automatically be excluded from the jobs, and hence the problems will not only persist but will be exacerbated.

Tags: #gender-bias #gender-bias-in-jobs #gender-bias-in-design