Designing Differently

My initial reaction to this reading is WOW. If I am going to be completely honest I never thought technological design was or could be so complex. Additionally, I never thought gender or gender biases played a role. Am I surprised that male engineers forgot to add an application for women to track their menstrual cycles?  No. That is something that males don’t think about or have to think about on a daily, weekly or month basis.

While I continued reading and I got to the Technologies, Gender, and Physical Norms section, I was shocked to read about the airbag situation. The author states, “gendering design simply to male physical norms can have life-threatening implications for women” (196). Thankfully, the United States and Europe seatbelts are now required to be tested to both male and female standards.  The same thing goes for the artificial heart as it was found that the design was mainly for men, so it fits 86% of men but only 20% of women. How does this makes sense and why is this okay? This article highlights some of the reasons women are not getting the artificial heart. 

Technologies, Gender, and Cognitive Norms discusses the “preexisting bias” between men and women to reasoning skills, memory, perception and judgment. A study that caught my attention was “June” the UV sensor bracelet that reminds you to put on sunscreen. It was targeted towards women because of the preexisting bias that women are more in need of being reminded. Although, men are more likely for overexposure since they are less likely to wear sunscreen in the first place. 

Overall, we live in a world where women used to stay home to take care of the children, cook and clean while the men went to work to draw a paycheck. The times are changing and have changed. Women can be just as or if not even more successful than males in any career. Roles are reversed and some men stay home now days. It is 2019, when are we going to be fully inclusive?