The dangers in a world built on data about men
Women all know about the toilet queue in the intermission at concerts – same-sized bathrooms for men and women does not equal efficiency. Women who have ever stood and waited in a long line for the loo while the men come and go with speed – and I think I can say that this is about, roughly, give or take, 100% of us – roll our eyes and laugh about this as we wait. But the anecdote reveals an uncomfortable truth, says Caroline Criado Perez in her book Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men. Design and services that takes the average male or the needs of the average male as the norm – as is the case with car-crash test dummies and stab-proof vests, among other things – are potentially deadly. The Guardian has excerpted a section of her book and it’s a sobering read. Recommended.
And while we are on the subject of a world designed for data about men, NASA has cancelled the first all-women spacewalk due to a spacesuit size issue.
Atakohu Middleton is an Auckland journalist with a keen interest in the way the media uses/abuses data. She happens to be married to a statistician. See all posts by Atakohu Middleton »
“Women all know about the toilet queue in the intermission at concerts – same-sized bathrooms for men and women”
The outdoor places Ive been to with very large numbers of people have portaloos, which are neither for men or women. Maybe sports stadium have a toilet imbalance but they would be built for the larger numbers of men who are patrons of these events.
6 years ago
Steve, it may be that you are being funny, or it may be that you have completely missed the point. I think it is less about the number of toilets and more about using this as an example that we can all (generally) relate to.
6 years ago
Its an anecdote, which isnt a good one- they usually lead to wrong conclusions. Theres a queue but is it because the toilets are the same in floor area but not through put capacity. Apart from the cleaners its almost certain no one ‘knows’ this, but a quick look at the building code shows they do allow more facilities for woman.
http://www.building.govt.nz/building-code-compliance/g-services-and-facilities/g1-personal-hygiene/calculator-for-toilet-pan/toilet-calculator/
I thought the information about temperatures in offices relied more on data than anecdotes
6 years ago
If you had read the article you may have also discovered that the number of toilets/urinals is different. Men’s rooms tend to have both urinals and stalls. Women’s only have stalls. The space required is different so there may be space for 8 men to use but only 5 for women.
6 years ago
The designs are different for men and women, so the claim is false. A quick check online for stadiums give this:
‘The minimum recommendation for urinals is one per 70 males. The minimum recommendation for toilets/WCs is one for 600 men, and one for 35 women (remember that women don’t use urinals).’
UK Football stadiums use a ratio of 80% men , AFL stadiums in Australia might be 65% men but Im sure they have ‘data’.
6 years ago
Sigh. It’s an anecdote. The books fleshes out the issues.
6 years ago
“But the anecdote reveals an uncomfortable truth”
Thats the worst sort of science information, confirming incorrect information.
The queues are really the peak capacity problem. This wouldnt be called ‘Stats chat’ if anecdotes were the memes, theres talkback for that.
The Nasa spacesuits doesnt seem to be a ‘designed for men’ issue either as it says
‘Spacesuits are modular, with the torso, legs and arms all sized separately and then fitted together in the best configuration for the individual astronaut.’ Its clear there is no mens or womens spacesuits.
6 years ago
This website gives a good run-down of the problem with the space suits: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/03/nasa-spacesuit-women-spacewalk/585805/
The suites are modular but the modules were designed to fit the body shape of men. For women the chest piece is a troublesome fit.
6 years ago
There seems to be a second issue mentioned. She changed her mind.
“McClain trained on Earth using both medium and large-sized spacesuit torsos. After conducting her first spacewalk on 22 March wearing a large-sized torso, she ‘realised’ that the medium fit better.”
6 years ago
But that was because the excess room at the (I presume) shoulders was causing a problem compared to being squeezed (i presume) at the bust.
A person really needs the suit to rotate well at the shoulders – if the person’s shoulder socket at the shoulder joint of the suite doesn’t match up then it reduces how far the arm can flex/extend and it’s lowers the torque that can be applied through the shoulder.
If they are doing operations on the outer hull then they need to walk across it with their arms and use tools to fix things.
6 years ago
I remember when I was very young, I found a bug in Splus (the residuals for one of the generalised models was calculated wrongly – they had used something like (x-mu)*2 instead of (x-mu)**2).
But I didn’t report the bug under my name, I changed my name to Michael because I thought people wouldn’t take me seriously if I reported the bug with a girl’s name.
Looking back I think “what a noddy” … but that choice didn’t come come about randomly, it came from messages I had internalised even if I wasn’t conscious of them.
6 years ago