Man-Made: How We Designed a World That Leaves Women Out, and How We Can Make It Right

Summary

An industrial designer and former Global Creative Director at Nike delivers a sharp critique of the consequences of a world built by and for men, and offers an optimistic look at how we might build a better world for us all.

Women and men inhabit the same world, yet it does not suit them both equally.

Women are 73% more likely to be injured in a car crash than men. In the military, women suffer pelvic fractures at a much higher rate than their male counterparts. In construction, 90% of women are unable to find proper fitting safety gear.

These outcomes are not a coincidence—they are a result of products where the female population is an afterthought at best. Automobile crash test dummies used for safety tests are designed based on male anatomy, as is firefighting gear and personal protective equipment. Using a “shrink it and pink it” strategy, sneakers for women are scaled down versions originally designed for a man’s foot, and colored a stereotypical feminine color – like pink. In the design of products and places, the female body is often invisible and ignored. The result is a world less hospitable and more dangerous for women.

It doesn’t have to be this way. A designer for over 40 years at some of the world’s top corporations, including Reebok and Nike, Karen Korellis Reuther has witnessed the way women continue to be excluded from critical product design decisions. But Man-Made, isn’t a patriarchal lament; it is a rousing call to action drawn from research-backed insights, market analyses, and expertise from leading designers, executives, and economists.

From the simply insulting and uncomfortable to the dangerous and deadly, the effects of exclusively man-made designs are wide-ranging. Rethinking and expanding product design and architecture, Reuther contends, will not only create a world that better fits women, but a world that better fits everyone.