Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men

AWS are used in internal party elections in the UK to determine a party’s nominee in the general election. By ensuring that a woman would be the candidate in the general election, AWS dramatically increased the numbers of women in Parliament when the Labor Party used them in 1997. Despite the positive impact on female representation, the UK government has not extended AWS use to local elections and will not allow them at all after 2030.

BPA is a synthetic chemical used in the production of clear, durable plastics and is found in millions of consumer products. In 2008, a federal health agency claimed that BPA could be linked to cancer, chromosomal abnormalities, and other disorders. This danger to human health could have been detected sooner if the health of the women producing these products had been studied.

The default male is the assumption that men can stand in for all human beings. Because men and women are different, the default harms women.