From Alexa to car safety, even pianos, it’s still a man’s world
We had a gang in over the Christmas.
Sitting around a blazing fire, drinks in hand, Christmas tree glowing in the corner, I’d happened to mention that half the time Alexa wouldn’t do what I asked.
That she’d ignore me, or provide the complete wrong thing, or else tell me that what I wanted – eg, Morning Ireland on RTÉ - couldn’t be found.
That I’d call in my husband to talk to Alexa, and Alexa would instantly comply with the instruction voiced in a deep bass tone.
The males, some in their twenties, some older, thought this was hilarious and that I was deluded. After all, Alexa was herself (supposedly) a female.
Surely, I said, a bit irritated, they’d heard or read anecdotes about this? Or about how some short people (eg, women) have found that automatic doors won’t open for them because the sensors don’t register the presence of people who are shorter than what is, quite possibly, the average male height?
How they have had to wait for a man to arrive behind them for the doors to register an incoming human and open?
“For all the time you lot spend on social media, you never came across any of that?” I said, disbelieving.
All right then. What about the fact that women often struggle to reach a top shelf set at the norm for a man’s height?
They howled.
What about, I snapped, actual research that says women have been driving cars whose safety measures are not geared for the female body because cars have been designed using car-crash test dummies based on the average male - significantly taller and heavier than an average woman, with male muscle mass proportions and a male spinal column?
The USA only started using a female crash test dummy in 2011, and in EU regulatory crash tests, according to the research I read, in no test is an anthropometrically correct female crash-test dummy required.
A study of regulatory tests worldwide found that, with some exceptions, regulatory tests were still using the average male crash test dummy to represent the whole adult population.
Research also says the only seat that’s commonly tested with a female crash-test dummy is the passenger seat. That the male crash-test dummy is still the standard dummy for the driver’s seat.
They didn’t believe it.
“Let me show you this book I’m reading,” I said.
Which, believe this or not, says that even the ‘female’ dummy being tested in the passenger seat is not really based on the female body at all. It’s just a scaled-down male dummy.
And women’s bodies, as we know, are definitely not scaled-down versions of male bodies.
Then there’s the issue of pregnant women. Although a pregnant crash test dummy has been created, testing with it is still not government-mandated, either in the EU or in the USA.
I held up the book I’d been reading.
Despite an abundance of data showing that women have, on average, smaller hands than men, for example, equipment continues to be designed around the average-sized male hand, I said.
Take pianos. Research shows that female pianists have around 50% higher risk of injury and pain than male pianists … because, it’s now believed, the standard piano keyboard is, er, basically too big for their hand-span. Because they’re designed for the male hand.
As are the screens of many smartphones. The average man can generally use his device one-handed, but the average woman’s hand is not much bigger than the handset itself.
What about the claims in the book that the voice command systems in some cars don’t respond to a female voice?
Similarly, I said, there is research showing that notes dictated by emergency doctors using speech recognition software resulted in higher transcription error rates for female medics than for male medics... that speech recognition technology is based on large databases of voice recordings which are dominated by recordings of male voices.
“Where are you getting all this?” they asked me finally.
I produced the book.
“Bet it was written by a woman,” a man crowed.
“Yes,” I said, coldly; it was.
They all fell around laughing again.
“It was written by a woman called Caroline Criado Perez,” I said.
Perez, I told them, is a writer, broadcaster and award-winning feminist campaigner who some men felt compelled to threaten with rape, mutilation and death some years back because she suggested that a female historical figure be represented on the back of English banknotes.
“Those were just nutters,” one male said dismissively.
Not so sure about that, I said.
There are plenty of men out there who, when confronted by even the mildest perceived challenge from a female, will come roaring out of their boxes, bristling with testosterone and aggression. Just scratch the surface, I said.
The men looked offended and outraged.
“Trust me,” I said. “Most women will tell you that.”
Perez’ central thesis is that perceiving men as the ‘human default’ is fundamental to the deepest, most ancient roots and structures of human society.
She says that while it’s hard to understand why, for example, a proper female crash-test dummy hasn’t been made a legal requirement in car tests years ago, given all that we know about how women and their bodies are routinely ignored in design and planning, it’s actually not that surprising at all.
From smartphones to medical tech and cars, tools and devices of all kinds are developed without reference to women’s needs.
Designers may believe they’re making products for everyone, but in reality they’re making everything for men.
Time for change.
App?
