Designers may believe they are making products for everyone, but in reality they are mainly making them for men. It’s time to start designing women in.
🚗 Gender Bias in Car Safety
Key Points:
Women at Higher Risk:
Women involved in car crashes are 47% more likely to be seriously injured and 17% more likely to die than men. Even after controlling factors such as height, weight, and seatbelt usage, this disparity remains.
Driving Position Differences:
Women, generally shorter, tend to sit closer to the dashboard and pedals, placing them at greater risk in crashes. Standard car designs ignore these anatomical differences.
Crash-Test Dummy Issue:
Initially, crash-test dummies represented a 50th-percentile male (1.77 m tall, 76 kg).
It wasn't until 2011 that the US introduced a female dummy in regulatory tests, yet these remain inadequate ("scaled-down males," not genuinely anthropometrically correct females).
The "female dummy" typically represents only the 5th percentile of females and is often only tested in passenger seats.
Examples and Quotes:
Astrid Linder's research indicates most global regulatory tests still prioritize male-sized dummies.
EU tests require five collision tests, none mandate an anthropometrically correct female dummy.
A 2011 Toyota Sienna saw its crash safety rating drop when female dummy tests revealed higher risk for women passengers.
"Designers may believe they are making products for everyone, but in reality, they are mainly making them for men."
Special Case – Pregnant Women:
Car crashes are the leading cause of foetal death from maternal trauma.
Standard seatbelts don't fit third-trimester pregnant women correctly (62% wear belts improperly).
1996 Dummy: a pregnant crash-test dummy was created but remains non-mandatory and rarely used.
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🎮 Gender Bias in Virtual Reality (VR)
Key Points:
Physical and Usability Issues:
VR headsets often too large, causing discomfort and exclusion for women.
VR-induced motion sickness disproportionately affects women due to fundamental differences in depth perception and sensory processing.
Safety and Harassment:
Jordan Belamire experienced virtual sexual assault in VR game "QuiVr."
Developers initially overlooked the possibility of virtual harassment.
Explanatory Theories:
Danah Boyd's Research:
Women rely more heavily on "shape-from-shading" rather than "motion parallax" for depth perception, yet VR prioritizes male-favored visual cues.
Professor Thomas Stoffregen's Theory:
Motion sickness arises because VR destabilizes body control mechanisms. Women experience more motion sickness because of subtle sex differences in body sway patterns, which also vary with menstrual cycles.
