Designing for Well-being: How to Move Past Gender Bias in Everyday Life

The Invisible Standard

When we think of the average person for whom most products and services are designed, a very specific image emerges: a middle-aged, white male weighing around 70 kilos. This "default male" has long been the invisible standard guiding design across fields such as urban planning, medicine, technology, and industrial tools. And this standard excludes at least half of the population – women.

This gender bias in design is not usually intentional, but it stems from a lack of data and awareness about how different people – especially women – interact with the world. Feminist scholars, including Simone de Beauvoir, have long critiqued the concept of “otherness” that places women outside the norm. In practical terms, this bias can render essential tools, services, and spaces less safe or even inaccessible to women.

Everyday Risks – When Design Fails Women

Take the automotive industry, for example. For decades, car safety testing used crash test dummies based on an average male body (177 cm, 76 kg), ignoring the anatomical and physiological differences of women. It was not until 2011 that the EU began requiring the inclusion of female dummies – and only in the passenger seat. Even today, most female dummies are simply scaled-down versions of male ones, not accounting for differences like bone density or body mass distribution. This contributes to a startling reality: women are 47 % more likely to suffer serious injuries in car accidents.

In law enforcement and defense, "unisex" bulletproof vests often fail to fit women’s bodies properly, compromising both comfort and safety. Smart vests designed to transmit information through chest vibrations often assume a flat torso, rendering them ineffective for many female users.

Manual labor tools are another area where gender bias persists. Cement bags, bricks, and agricultural machinery are generally designed to fit the grip and strength of an average man, despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of women around the world use these tools daily. Rather than redesign the tools, the implicit expectation is for women to adapt. This notion rarely applies in reverse. Yet, some changes have already occurred. Household tools like mops and brooms have been adjusted to accommodate a broader range of users, including taller men. This shift shows that inclusive design is both possible and beneficial.

Data, Technology, and the Future of Inclusive Design

In healthcare, the gender gap can be deadly. Women are twice as likely to die from a heart attack, partly because symptoms present differently and because most research and treatments have historically been based on male physiology. Cardiovascular disease remains one of the leading causes of death among women, yet it continues to be underdiagnosed and mismanaged.

And what about AI and digital technologies? If the data behind algorithms is biased, the output will be too. In 2018, Amazon had to shut down a hiring algorithm that systematically favored male applicants – a bias rooted in historical data dominated by male candidates. Facial recognition systems often struggle to identify women, especially those of African descent, due to underrepresentation in training datasets. And voice recognition tools still recognize male voices more accurately than female ones.

These examples highlight a critical truth: technology and design are not neutral. They reflect the biases of their creators and the data they rely on. But they also offer a unique opportunity: if developed consciously, with gender perspectives integrated from the start, they can help us build a more inclusive and equitable world.

Universities, research institutions, and innovation networks like EUniWell have a crucial role to play in identifying, addressing, and ultimately correcting these gender gaps. It is not just about inclusion, it is about designing a world that truly works for everyone.

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