Carla Mendes

“A man I briefly dated tried to win arguments with me by telling me I was blinded by ideology. I couldn’t see the world objectively, he said, or rationally, because I was a feminist and I saw everything through feminist eyes. When I pointed out that this was true for him too (he identified as a libertarian) he demurred. No. That was just objective, common sense – de Beauvoir’s ‘absolute truth’. For him, the way he saw the world was universal, while feminism – seeing the world from a female perspective – was niche. Ideological.”
― Caroline Criado-Pérez, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men

“Urban planning that fails to account for women's risk of being sexually assaulted is a clear violation of women's equal right to public spaces...”
― Caroline Criado-Pérez, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men

“When planners fail to account for gender, public spaces become male spaces by default.”
― Caroline Criado-Pérez, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men

“Women have always worked. They have worked unpaid, underpaid, underappreciated, and invisibly, but they have always worked. But the modern workplace does not work for women. From its location, to its hours, to its regulatory standards, it has been designed around the lives of men and it is no longer fit for purpose. The world of work needs a wholesale redesign--of its regulations, of its equipment, of its culture--and this redesign must be led by data on female bodies and female lives. We have to start recognising that the work women do is not an added extra, a bonus that we could do without: women's work, paid and unpaid, is the backbone of our society and our economy. It's about time we started valuing it.”
― Caroline Criado-Pérez, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men