Design/testing gender bias that endangers women

I heard a while ago that only men are used in drug trials because women’s fluculating hormones affect results.

Is that true? I know a woman who took part in drug trials.

When women queue up to work down the coal mines... they will get my support.
Have you been down a pit, johno?
Children worked down them as well.

I have noticed that seat- belts are positioned to fit people of probably 5' 9" or more, which would exclude most women. It always annoys me that the seat belts seem too high to be comfortable.

I have seen crash scenarios using child dummies - so why not women?

My daughter was telling me that women are less likely to survive a cardiac arrest in part because CPR is taught on dummies that have a male anatomy. People can be unsure what to do when trying to resuscitate someone with breasts so new models are being introduced so show how to work around the female anatomy.

I heard a while ago that only men are used in drug trials because women’s fluculating hormones affect results. This means that drugs can affect women differently from when taken by men.
This interested me because I have always found Paracetamol ineffective. I sat and wept when offered 1 Paracetamol in hospital in agony.

On a 21st century note, the designers of the Fitbit didn't include walking while pushing a baby buggy. When pushing the baby round town, your Fitbit does not acknowledge you are exercising!

Johnho in aus,women drive the open cut mine trucks, the company prefers them as they drive more carefully & treat the expensive vehicles better sorry but women are better at many things than some men

I was going to say that about seat belts, too, HillyN.

A colleague of mine also complained that the buttons were difficult to work with nails. (I wouldn't know, I've never had nails). That was back in the 90s - it's all touch screen these days, so that may no longer be an issue.

I would, however, take issue with Razzy's comment "Only men drove originally." As with computer programming, it was not a specifically man-thing at the start, till the men realised that it gave them a buzz and they took over and started tinkering.

One of the first ever trips by car was driven by a woman:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertha_Benz

I will never forget going into John Lewis to buy a washing machine knowing exactly what I wanted:- a machine with a quick wash and a high spin speed. The older salesman who had clearly never washed a sock in his life lectured and hectored me about how the scientists and technologists knew better and had engineered machines that performed to perfection in the laboratory and that I should just pay my money and do what the machines ( and the men) told me.

Needless to say, I walked out with my cash and found a machine where I could override every control and set it all myself.

Reader, I did not deck the mansplainer, though I was sorely tempted.

I always hold the seatbelt away from me.

Am I the only woman who finds seatbelts painful on long journeys? I find myself holding it away from my chest after an hour or so. Then I start getting pain in the joint at the base of my thumb from the tension of the strap.

Lovely, interesting post. I'm glad that today's children have a better chance of following their own instincts and interests regardless of gender.

We do still have a lot of hangover from the times when words like doctor, homeowner, actor, president, artist were describing a man's profession. And nurse, primary teacher and ballet dancer were female. Despite knowing better, I admit that sometimes I react to words like CEO, musician or diplomat with the immediate assumption that they refer to a man.

Well done Razzy. My granddaughter is 7 and hates all things pink...doesn’t play with dolls...thinks barbie is dross...wears trousers (no dresses) to school, and just picked out a new pair of school shoes( boys).Plays football ...and her team has just won their league. She wears her hair in a plait or ponytail ...loves her mum painting her nails ( including toes). She is what she is...oh and she will soon be joining the cub-scouts...and none of us would have her any different.

Razzy - you are right about toys. But even not so long ago, the earliest ads for Technic Lego featured a little girl in dungarees and messy plaits, proudly showing off what she'd made. No hint of pink, no sexism, just a great product. Now, Lego make Lego Friends in pastel colours, featuring beauty salons and pets. They have two magazines - one called Friends (all pink, glittery and with unicorns) and the other one is Lego City, seemingly aimed at boys. Obviously either sex can look at either mag, but the stereotyping
bias is there, sadly.

This is a really interesting post! I have never thought about this before.
Something needs to be done about this male bias, and sharpish!

WeeMadArthur the mirror in the Ladies in our local social club is fixed so high up that no-one under 5’6” can even see the top of their heads. Despite months of complaints the male committee still haven’t remedied the problem.

I read that clinical trials and drug testing is done mainly on men (possibly because fewer female volunteers) but the different physiology between men and women should be taken into account as regards dosage.

Recently there was a list of women who had made outstanding contributions to scientific research and discoveries but their male colleagues got the recognition - Nobel prizes, honours in this country - and the women were overlooked and went unmentioned. Happily some of these women are now receiving recognition but sadly some have died.

Sexist dinosaurs still exist. Women were forbidden to work down mines by various reform acts as the victorians were concerned that men and women were getting up to all sorts of shenanigans underground as they had to strip to the waist in the unpleasant conditions. Men wanted higher wages which they could get without women working. I’m not sure which mine Johno is queueing up at today. Perhaps he will inform us.

How long did you work down the mines Johno?

There's a book that's just come out about this, containing years of research on how nearly all of the safety testing is done with males in mind, particularly manual labour safety equipment. Definitely no sexist intent as was done at a time when men fulfilled these roles and women did not, but it does need to be updated, as women are now also in these jobs.

Oh Dillyduck surely it should have been feet hard on the clutch and brake?

Johno. Oh Johno why? Are you waiting for us to say "When men have babies?" I think we have seen that women have walked across the "male only" line in the physical jobs! Firefighters, Police, Ambulance, The Armed forces. They go into the front line now and work beside the men.

However, you can never change the effect of Nature's design (or whatever you attribute it to). The male body is different in very many ways from the female body. That is what we are talking about. Nothing else. The effect of a car crash on a female body is different from that of a male.

IMO

Johno
When women queue up to work down the coal mines... they will get my support.

Would you like to expand on that, Johno?
As it stands, it just comes across as an outdated (by over a century), sexist, ignorant comment, which perhaps isn't what you intended.
Different views are perfectly acceptable when backed up by logical, informed reasoning, but I'm afraid your comment sadly lacks anything of the sort.

Johno - in times gone by, coal mines were worked by teams of Father, Wife and 2 children. The man hacked out the coal, women gathered it up and children hauled it to the shaft. Small women and children were much used in narrow or low workings, which a big man could not scramble into. Only the Father was paid (by tonnage of coal) directly, it was up to him if he gave his wife/children anything.

Same sort of thing during the World Wars, when women undertook the heavy work previously reserved for men, but were paid much less. When the men came back from war the women were sent home, or the men forced them out, frightened that they would be expected to work for the same wages as the women.

First day in new "refurbished" workplace. After walking round the inside of the building for a while looking for the facilities, I bumped into two other female colleagues who were also puzzled. Why? The designers had forgotten to include female toilets.