Invisible Women

Invisible Women takes on the neglected topic of what we don't know - and why. The result is a powerful, important and eye-opening analysis of the gender politics of knowledge and ignorance. With examples from technology to natural disasters, this is an original and timely reminder of why we need women in the leadership of the institutions that shape every aspect of our lives.

Cordelia Fine

The thoroughness of Invisible Women doesn’t detract from its absolute readability. This is entertaining, scholarly and so very important.

Adam Rutherford

Invisible Women is an absorbing cornucopia of thought-provoking facts - fascinating, alarming and face-palming in equal measures. Caroline Criado-Perez shows up the shortcomings of a world designed for men by men. The consequences of treating men as the default option, or women just as smaller men – if they get considered at all - has wide-reaching implications for everything (and everyone) from snow clearing to seat-belts and many branches of medicine. I shall certainly think of this book next time I have a heart attack, a car crash or just want to go to the toilet at the theatre.

Professor Gina Rippon

A blisteringly good book... never less than eye-opening, and frequently staggering

Bookseller

Here are the facts! Caroline Criado Perez shines her penetrating gaze on the absence of women from the creation of most societal norms – from algorithms to medicinal doses to government policy. Knowledge is power – we all need to know how our systems work if we want change. Arm yourself with this book and press it into the hands of everyone you know. It is utterly brilliant!

Helena Kennedy

Hugely readable, packed with facts and insight. An important book written with humour and flair

Robert Webb

Wide-ranging and vastly well-informed, Invisible Women is a book that promises to transform the terms of the equality debate

Sarah Ditum, In the Moment, **Books to Look Out for in 2019**

Invisible Women is a game-changer; an uncompromising blitz of facts, sad, mad, bad and funny, making an unanswerable case and doing so brilliantly…the ambition and scope – and sheer originality – of Invisible Women is huge; no less than the story of what happens when we forget to account for half of humanity. It should be on every policymaker, politician and manager’s shelves

Melanie Reid, The Times

It’s a smart strategy to invite readers to view [a] timeworn topic through the revealing lens of data, bringing to light the hidden places where inequality still resides... Criado Perez wields data like a laser, slicing cleanly through the fog of unconscious and unthinking preferences.

Guardian

Criado Perez comprehensively makes the case that seemingly objective data can actually be highly male-biased… Policymakers everywhere should take heed

Sarah Gordon, Financial Times

arguably one of the most important publications of the year

Susan Dalgety, Scotsman

An eye-opening examination

Decca Aitkenhead, Sunday Times

Anyone who doubts that we live in a world designed by and for men needs to read this book, with its implicit message that even what we’ve won so far can never be taken for granted.

Literary Review

Invisible Women shines a light on the gender gap in data and what every woman needs to know about it

Joanne Finney, Good Housekeeping

Jaw-dropping… This book is a snapshot of the dangers of a world designed to fit a minority

Barbara Speed

Plain, detailed and almost overwhelming prose… There is no anger in Criado Perez's pages – she is too busy with evidence for that

Tanya Gold, UnHerd

This book is a devastating indictment of institutionalised complacency and a rallying cry to fight back… Invisible Women should propel women into action. It should also be compulsory reading for men

Christina Patterson, Sunday Times

Caroline Criado Perez brilliantly exposes the appalling gender bias that underpins the collection of data and how it’s used. From medical treatments that fail to take female biology into account, to car safety features that are designed for the male body, women are the invisible 51%. This deeply researched and passionate book is the most important contribution to gender equality in years

Amanda Foreman

Invisible Women… is a book that changes the way you see the world

Allan Massie, Sunday Times

The book’s force doesn’t derive from the power of its rhetoric – instead it’s the steady, unrelenting accumulation of evidence, the sheer weight of her argument’

Sophie McBain, New Statesman

Caroline Criado Perez brilliantly exposes the appalling gender bias that underpins the collection of data and how it’s used. From medical treatments that fail to take female biology into account, to car safety features that are designed for the male body, women are the invisible 51%. This deeply researched and passionate book is the most important contribution to gender equality in years.

Amanda Foreman

In Invisible Women…Caroline Criado Perez expounds the far-reaching consequences of the "default male" mode… She urges a realignment of priorities… [a] call to action

Mia Levitin, Times Literary Supplement

Ending the biases she [Perez] exposes wouldn’t just reduce inequality; it would, in some cases, save actual lives

The Week, *Book of the Week*

Perez’s analysis is wide-ranging and compelling… one of the most powerful takeaways from Perez’s book is the extent to which so much of this [gendered] bias is unconscious, such that we are all infected by it. Feminism is the process of unlearning this, but it’s an ongoing process, for all of us

Conversation

Revelatory – it should be required reading for policy and decision makers everywhere

Nicola Sturgeon

An impeccably researched, determined and passionate demand for change

Sian Norris, Prospect

The depth and scope of this book will shock you… Invisible Women is an essential handbook in the fight to build a more equal world… Read it for yourself, then lend it to all your friends, of any gender

Philippa Matthews, Chemistry World

Invisible Women is an essential handbook in the fight to build a more equal world. It’s based on enough data to satisfy even the fussiest scientist and will make you look at the world in a new light. However, the style is light enough that it doesn’t feel like hard work. Read it for yourself, then lend it to all your friends, of any gender

Chemistry World

HELL YES. This is one of those books that has the potential to change things – a monumental piece of research

Caitlin Moran

An extraordinary book

Anthony Reuben, Big Issue

One of the most compelling books I’ve read in years

Josie Cox, Independent

[An] astounding book

Dominic Browne, Highways

A strong case for change

Sarah Shaffi, Stylist

Invisible Women makes excellent points about how biased data are hidden and have pervasive negative impacts on the lives of women and girls

Margaret McCartney, Lancet

Criado Perez’s devastating indictment is a worthy bestseller

Guardain, *Summer Reads of 2019*

This book is a wake-up call for us all

Church Times, *Summer Reads of 2019*

Overwhelmingly powerful

Kistina Rapacki, Disegno

Few books this year are as important as activist Criado-Perez’s data crunch into the inequalities between men and women. She finds something to engage and enrage on every page

Sarah Hughes, i, *Best books of 2019*

A fascinating look at the gender biases affecting our everyday lives

Women's Running

This book is comprehensive, well researched and thoroughly referenced with copious endnotes… [it] made me…shift my perspective

Toni Sekinah, DataIQ

Revelatory, frightening, hopeful. A secular Bible

Jeanette Winterson

Thought-provoking, eye-opening

Iona Grey, Heat

Not only a gripping but an important book… It’s funny when it’s not horrifying, deeply researched and done with real verve

Sam Leith, Spectator, *Books of the Year*

Few books really change the way you look at the world. Invisible Women is one of those rarities

Robbie Millen, The Times, *Books of the Year*

What makes Invisible Women so compelling is the mountain of data she draws on… a brilliant exposé

Ian Sample, Guardian, *Books of the Year*

Every man should read this book… [Invisible Women] chats, in page after steely, meticulous page, precisely how the world…is designed around men, and how this puts women at an impossible disadvantage

James McConnachie, Sunday Times, *Books of the Year*

It took the writer and campaigner Caroline Criado Perez to reveal the true extent of the man’s world we live in. What makes Invisible Women so compelling is the mountain of data she draws on. Data, it turns out, matters... The pervasiveness of the problem is staggering...this is a brilliant exposé that deservedly won the Royal Society science book prize

Ian Sample, Guardian, Best science, nature and ideas books of 2019

Book that did most to change the way I thought? Caroline Criado Perez's Invisible Women... Perez has delivered a much needed correction: full of persuasive examples and analysis of areas from public policy, medicine, economics and elsewhere in which data have been gathered in such a way as to obscure or omit matters of most concern to women. I learned a lot

Tim Harford

Funny, exasperating and anger-inducing, there is something for everyone

Eleanor Parsons, New Scientist

The essential book of the year, mayhap the decade

Marina Vaizey, Tablet, *Books of the Year*

A staggering expose of design prejudice and an impassioned call to action

List

Perez takes the truism that ours is a world designed for men and backs it with evidence. Impressively collating vast amounts of research

Prospect, *Books of the Year*

A must-read for men and women alike

Hannah Beckerman, Sunday Express

This calm, dispassionate, hilarious, entertaining, maddening, infuriating narrative is a highly readable manifesto for real change

Marina Vaizey, The Arts Desk, *Books of the Year*

This well-researched book turns everything we accept as normal on its head…[Invisible Women] succeeds in making a powerful case for change in a non-preachy, educative style… It is not entertainment; it is a thesis – and a powerful one at that

Alison Herbert and Dr Phyl Hughes, Law Society Gazette

This incredibly well-researched and engaging book highlights how the lack of gender-focused data results in the needs of more than half of the population being ignored. The numerous examples cited by Criado-Perez – ranging from infrastructure to healthcare – are shocking and sobering… Invisible Women offers valuable insight into the transformative power of diversity and equality to drive better economic outcomes

Christie Guimond, Briefing

Such an insightful book and a good read for everyone

Julie Stewart, Business Times

Incredibly topical and relevant in a rapidly changing world, Criado Perez’s multi-award-winning exposé on data bias has seen her become an authority on modern day inequalities

Capacity

Invisible Women...is already a classic, but I can't recommend it enough

Sarah Pedersen, Times Higher Education

A powerful, insightful book

Tim Harford, Week

Compelling... revelatory... Criado Perez provides bountiful evidence of her thesis

Mariel McKone Leonard, London School of Economics

A huge eye-opener

Jojo de Noronha, Grocer

A witty, furious page-turner

Emma Donoghue, Week

Invisible Women is highly recommended to both men and women as an incredibly readable piece of journalism... Many of you will also find you cannot put down this passionate and informative book until you've finished it... illuminating and engaging

Platinum Business Magazine

Criado Perez keeps the gobsmacking revelations flowing in a conversational manner, making the reader feel like she’s having lunch with a funny, knowledgeable and passionate friend

Science News

Compelling

Dr Mariel McKone Leonard, London School of Economics

A deeply important and useful book... Fast, funny, angry and vital... A proper game-changer.

Caitlin Moran, Foyles, *Author Picks for Christmas*

Filled with hair raising facts and figures, [Invisible Women] investigates the jarring matter of discrepancy and representation in our modern world... make no mistake, once you begin reading, it's hard to stop

Reilly Dufresne, Glasgow Guardian, *Christmas Gift Guide 2020*