Empathy on the Edge and the Plight of Invisible Women

Over the long weekend, I listened to Invisible Women by the podcast 99% Invisible and read an article by IDEO titled Empathy on the Edge. While the Invisible Women episode aimed to address the lack of representation women have within data and the problems this creates for the entire female population, the piece Empathy on the Edge was written as a testament to the company’s success in empathy-based research, design, and implementation. It is clear that both the article as well as the podcast are related through their emphasis on the importance of getting to deeply know your client or audience, the latter simply discusses a particular group who has been systematically ignored in this process. 

I was particularly captivated by the Invisible Women podcast. Even as a female, I had no idea how often women were either ignored or forgotten in the design process of so many things and the danger this causes. I share a deep sense of disbelief and anger surrounding the lack of empathy for 49.5% of the world’s population with Caroline Criado-Perez, the author of Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men and the interviewee in this podcast episode.The instance of the crash dummies Caroline brought up really blew my mind. The fact that the data used to create motor vehicle safety regulations are only based on male body characteristics is unacceptable and potentially deadly for women who drive. While this is a known design flaw that affects a substantial part of the population, the car and safety industries have been reluctant and slow to include new testing procedures and equipment which would introduce women into the data pool. These men view this situation as a, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” situation because the flaws in the system do not affect their gender. But the truth is the system is severely broken. The consequences of this lack of representation are nearly invisible and hard to track so the dominantly male communities in charge choose to ignore them out of ease. The article, on the other hand, expresses IDEO’s desire to cultivate and propagate empathy in all types of design and business, from small ventures all the way up to massive, multinational corporations. The main idea that I pulled from the writing was that while creating an environment of empathy can be an arduous endeavor, there are innumerable positive effects for individuals as well as companies once the transition to more human-centered conditions takes place. 

In the Empathy on the Edge article, the author says, “It can be difficult to empathize with people whose culture and values are fundamentally different [than your own].” Putting this statement into the context of women’s non-representation in fundamental data brought up in Invisible Women, it seems to me that since men do not understand a woman’s point of view or experiences, it is easier for them to ignore the gender altogether during the design process. The consensus then becomes that women will learn to adapt after the fact. Women do indeed have the resilience and strength to adapt to the world created around them (which females have been doing for millennia), but that doesn’t make these design and planning choices acceptable or ethical. Empathy through human-centered design is an integral part of making innovation and creativity common-place. In order to achieve a future like this, however, women must be represented equally in these endeavors in order to create spaces, products, and designs which are truly inclusive and enduring.

Source: Invisible Women by 99% Invisible Podcast/Caroline Criado Perez and Empathy on the Edge by IDEO