H > Recent Status Updates

It occurred to me only much later that I had been sentenced as well, to a mixture of chronic fear, silence, and shame a shame that never made sense to me, but that I would one day learn I shared with almost all rape victims. Why do we feel this shame? What do we do with it?

Afterword p2

4 themes
Invisibility of female body when designing (medical, tech, infrastructure)

Visibility-male sexual violence against females not because of sex but gender (imposed social meanings)

Unpaid care work

Excuses for not collecting data on/including women. Too difficult, hormonal; messy travel patterns, high voices.

Increase their representation. Women don’t forget women exist as often as men do.

Afterword part 1

1997 daina (a professor in maths) solved the hyperbolic geometry physical representation problem

Hyperbolic is the geometric opposite of a sphere. On a sphere everything curves in and is closed. In hyperbolic space curves away from itself every point (ruffle lettuce leaves, cancer cells)

She combined her ‘feminine’ crotchet skills with ‘masculine’ maths and created the standard model used.

Chapter 16

During and Following conflict, rise in domestic violence and rape.
Women health requirements not catered to.
Excluding gender effects also excludes women from analysis (nurses, vector for spread infection)

Gender = can’t get to safety
tsunamis, no swimming lessons for girls , asia socialised for male travel companion

Shelters need sex segregated toilets.

Women flee from male sex/violence (not war)

Clare castillejo (2016) (referenced p. 277, 295) specialist in governance and rights in fragile states

Women aren’t necessarily better negotiators, but what they negotiate for plays a part.

They focus on important overlooked issues e.g. inclusivity accessibility and importance of local and informal spheres.

Chapter 15

Many rebuild projects failed to include / actively exclude women.

India/srilanka 2001/4 Rebuilt homes with no kitchen. Refugee camps forget cooking fuel.

African american women displaced 2005, rehabitable homes demolished. “Bricks” Similar to favelas in providing social infrastructure and informal support networks, were all lost.

Including women in peace talks increases agreement lasting longer...

Chapter 14 (part 2)

Female politicians not operating on level playing field

Women excluded from decision making (private informal male spaces).
Females interrupted, patronised.
Silenced through intimidation.
Sexual harassment/violence.
This makes less likely to stand and leave sooner

Men interrupt more, females penalised for similar behaviour.

Shift from majority to unanimous decisions to compensate F minority

Chapter 14 (part 1)
Women in political seats influence investment in education, infrastructure related to womens needs

Norm violation for women to be (too) ambitious. Women misrepresented (consumerist, irrational) and under.

Democracy biased against women (warmth vs authority)

Steps
1. increase female representation or full electoral reform
2. Dont prevent them doing the job - currently are ....

Chapter 13

In rwanda children from female headed households (FHH) were healthier than children from MHH even if MHH had higher income

Uk marriage allowance bolsters main income (male) + inventive to work fewer paid hours (female)

Taxes no longer redistribute resource but keep status quo (lower taxes for higher earners, more loopholes for super rich to evade tax)

VAT added gender insensitive, to tampons not iPhone

Chapter 13

In rwanda children from female headed households (FHH) were healthier than children from MHH even if MHH had higher income

Uk marriage allowance bolsters main income (male) + inventive to work fewer paid hours (female)

Taxes no longer redistribute resource but keep status quo (lower taxes for higher earners, more loopholes for super rich to evade tax)

VAT added gender insensitive, to tampons not iPhone

Chapter 12

If economics has a religion, GDP is its God.

GDP is subjective designed to suit war economy requirements. Unpaid work is not included (women work longer hours overall)

Public service cuts (social care etc.) simply offset costs in an unmeasured place. Investing 2% of gdp in care services over construction will create 0.99x jobs for men but 4x for women

Unpaid work is built into the system (reversible)

Chapter 11 (p2)

Weak contractions lead to giving oxytocin (only works 50% of tthe unsuccessful women go through an emergency C-section.

Research (2016) shows caused by acid in blood in the uterus. Oxytocin not effective on acidic PH blood.

test to give bicarbonate soda an hour before oxytocin resulted in 67% oxytocin, 84% of the bicarb vaginal birth

Application for further funding further research denied.

Chapter 11 (p.1)

Females experience pain differently and produce different immune responses

Heart attack undiagnosed (mechanics differ)

Females mask autism due to “socialisation” present as disorganised, scattered, introverted

Viagra was tested as heart disease medication but the all male participants reported erections...

Male dominated funding panels halts/prevents research into drugs for female health

Chapter 10
Diagnoses take longer.
Gaps in education about sex differences
Heart, lung (female smokers higher risk lung cancer)
3x likely Autoimmune (theory: super immune system to protect newborn)
1960s thalidomide prescribed morning sickness, testing affect animal fetus development, 10k children born with related disabilities

Females not included in animal studies on F prevalent diseases

So many other issues

End of part 3 design.

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.

Chapter 9

Wearable tech too big
Maps not showing safest+fastest route

M. Exercise machines (weight and calorie burn rate)

Mic clips expect pockets

Motion sickness
Male Vr headset (Motion Parallax), female rely on “shape from shading” over MP

M/f body swaying, females sway changes across menustral cycle-> sickness

M. Crash test dummies -> F. higher risk injury

Seatbelts not suited to breasts / pregnancy

Chapter 8

Getting pregnant is not issue,
Its that these babies keep on dying

I read somewhere that miscarriages are babies self terminate when they know there will be a problem

It hollows me out to know that these babies would rather kill themselves than be born to me.

The 6th chapter narrated by the mute girl, where she is sabotaged by her co-workers followed by the brutal revenge

Chapter 8
1 size for piano puts females (smaller handspan) at disadvantage and leads to higher rate of RSI.

Phone screens too large, difficult to use 1 handed. Photos from turkey protest 2013 (with tear gas) were unusable.

Voice recognition trained on male biased datasets, can’t use software effectively “ask a man to set it up”.

Datasets under+mis-representing females.

Translation software S/he -> He

Chapter 7

Mechanising farm work.
Machinery and related educational programmes/materials not designed for females.

Most females make up the poorer, smaller scale, non-land owning farmers.

Implementation of clean stoves by governments have failed because women are not consulted

But a team did consult and designed a tool to cut wood to small size,promote airflow,reducing fumes with their existing traditional stoves

Chapter 6

Gig economy has rules which allow managers to circumvent maternity pay for females. By reducing hours beforehand so they don’t meet threshold.

Gender blind algorithms create short notice work schedules which make provisioning childcare for females difficult.

Higher risk of violent physical and sexual assault (goes largely unreported or ignored)

Many things designed for caucasian white male

Office temp (for 70kg male, too cold for female), size of tools

Heavy office doors, glass floors

Women experience more injuries at work (weight)

Female training in care work non-existent

Cancers from chemical EDC (cleaning and nail salon), women have thinner skin

Ppe, army and police equipment designed for male bodies compromising safety features for female.

Chapter 4
Double blind hiring systems lead to increase of female (and 60% from under represented backgrounds) passing application


Female teachers expected to be warm and accessible (but then rated bad they are not authoritative or professional). Males just have to be accessible

Males overestimate their intelligence (women estimate accurately) so perhaps more males applying for promotion

Finished book 2
The first men on the moon