Why- WHY- aren't women involved in the design of the items they use???

[rosepoet]

I'm barely 5ft 3"...so why do fridgefreezers have the fridge at the top? So that the top shelves are hard to reach? Why do induction cookers have 'touch controls' - guaranteed to turn off/malfunction, when you...you know, COOK with them and the pan boils over, or you have wet fingers? Why are kitchen cabinets designed for giants? Why do they sell soup stored on the top shelves in super markets- turning into soup bombs! Why? Because they haven't bothered to consult women, that's why! If you know of any brands of fridge freezers with the fridge on the bottom, please let me know...!

@WindsweptEgret tall people take longer to get fat.

I'm not sure the toilet thing is anything more than attempting to squeeze as many toilets as possible in the smalllest available space, in the most economical way.

In many loos the sanitary bin could be accommodated better if the loo was simply placed slightly asymmetrically in the cubicle, with the loo roll on the same side as the bin.

The favourite current design is the round washing capsule pod container. The screw lid requires a massive hand to open it, but the big hand then cant get into the resulting opening.

Easily solved by using powder - better for the environment , safer for your kids and better for your machine.

I have no problem, at 5'4 with quite short arms, reaching the top rack of our 6' tall freezer. The veg drawer at the bottom is closer to the ground than anything has a right to be, though.

What about Welsh people? Their a bunch of short arses? Won’t someone think of them?

I’m tall so nothing in the op bothers me.

The only thing that annoys me in the manufacturing business is those ruddy kids you get on bleach bottles where you have to squeeze before twisting to undo! I can never open them.

Or child proof medicine bottles, those lids are impossible!

They’re ^

Lids not kids!

I don't know why cars don't all have adjustable seat belts,

Both of our cars do. They just don't go low enough. I doubt it would have cost much more to build them with a greater range.

Cara aren't generally as bad now as they were 30 or 40 years ago though.

I imagine most objects are designed with the average person in mind as opposed to anything else . Some things are a pain for very tall people too . Most cars don’t accommodate my very tall husband and neither do kitchen worktops , sinks , toilets , showers etc . If women wanted to do these jobs they’d find a way to do them .

In many loos the sanitary bin could be accommodated better if the loo was simply placed slightly asymmetrically in the cubicle, with the loo roll on the same side as the bin

Fair point.

Its not enough to say it IS a gender thing due to woman being shorter.. If you look at different countries it also becomes a factor. So for example as a Scandinavian woman of average height for a Scandinavian this is not a issue for me (I am 5.7) if you look at tables this shows the " middle" range average height of women as 166 cm (5.4) so that is already 1 inch taller than OP... then we are looking at half of the women being taller than this and on average ALL men being taller still. So suggesting that we are redesigning everything for 1/4 of the population?

Having said that I DO think there should be some redesigning. I just think it should have the ability to go up and down easier. Like other tall people have said they get backache from stuff being too short so wouldnt it be wonderful if we could make easy adjustable items that would work for everyone? short or tall.. male or female?

I'm 155cm and struggle with various things: reaching some car pedals, car boots, reaching for tickets/buzzers in drive through car parks (I get the car close but sometimes have to stop engine and get out), supermarket shelves, air con machine at work (only one frigging female at 5ft 11 can reach and we end up having to ask her or the 6ft male)

NRTFT but have we mentioned pockets in clothes?

Moon cups are a great idea until you walk out of your cubicle looking like you've murdered someone. Not meant to use disabled cubicle which actually has a sink. Would be better to have equipped cubicles with all the required bits.

At 5'2, I felt wonderfully average in China!
I say I'm averagely short, because for a woman, I am in the normal range of shortness. An averagely short man of about 5'7 wouldn't face some of these problems.

I find it painful to drive DH's (large) car for more than 40 minutes. I have to crank the seat right up to see out of the windscreen, but I then can't rest my heel on the ground for the accelerator. I'm then having my quad muscle taking all the weight of my leg, and that's a limited time that I can tolerate it. Also the seat is quite bulky which with a muscular calf, locks my leg at a very uncomfortable angle with little range of motion.

I also often find that to fully depress the pedals, my knees bump the dashboard/ steering column. The seatbelts pull on me because they are anchored so far behind me. Handbrakes are behind me.

Driver's airbags concern me. Are they actually safe for a short (woman) driver as there's not much gap for it to deploy, plus momentum is thrusting you into it before it's fully opened.
When pregnant, I was terrified of the thought of an airbag exploding directly at my unborn baby when my bump was already pressed up against the steering wheel.
We know airbags and RF car seats are a dangerous combination and can deactivate the passenger bag accordingly. I wonder if there is a case for making it optional for the driver.

I am pleased to report that I have found a lovely large 7 seater tourer that is comfortable for my little legs, but from the experience of DH (6') chosing his cars for his comfort, and trawling around showrooms looking for a large car for me, I can safely say that large cars are predominantly designed for the comfort of average to tall men/ tall women.

And petrol pumps... I frequently have to queue for ages for the popular side because too often the pump hose is too heavy to lug around the back end of the car with my bodyweight while using both hands to squeeze the handle with my finger tips because they are levered for gallumphing man hands.
I honestly don't queue on the long, correct side for the fun of it!

Yes to putting the car in neutral with the handbrake on, undoing the seatbelt and half climbing out of the window to get the bloody carpark ticket!
Then quickly readjusting yourself, gear and handbrake to pull off in time for the barrier!

What is it with gigantuan sofas that mean the last 5 inches of your leg and foot wraggle off into mid air? Even worse, gigantuan sofas with "stylish" loose back cushions that just eat unsuspecting small people, discretely enveloping you like a boa constrictor.

Airplane seats and old theatre seats on the other hand, ergonomic bliss! Just the right thigh length, no sticking out behind the knee causing leg dangle.

My bugbear is stuff that is difficult to clean, eg. washer dispenser drawer slot - so many holes, fiddly and inaccessible bits that they inevitably eventually grow black mould; likewise fiddly grooves in fridge and freezer that are hard to clean except with a cotton bud or something - and many others.
Don't know whether the designers are male or female but it seems they give little thought to ease of cleaning.

There wouldn't be uproar at stuff designed for women if it was made not pink and marketed in a crap patronising "for the ickle ladies" way, like those biros for women.

My bugbear is my scooter. Can't fold it for love nor money, I don't have enough strength in my hands. DH doesn't get it at all, and he's by no means a tall man.

Please don’t pretend this isn’t a problem. Check out Caroline Criado Perez who has done a lot of research on this issue and written a whole book on it. Practically everything is tested against the typical male body.

Incidentally - has anyone found a car that is good for women? (I.e. size and height and placement of seat to dashboard and all of those things). I’m 5’1-5’2 with long-ish legs so a short toro and I just don’t sit right in the driving seat which I think massively contributes to how unsafe I feel.

Because we are different heights, those who struggle to bend want eye level fridges because they use them more than the freezer. In the supermarket the items are in popularity/premium order with cheaper options close to the ground or up high

I'm female and don't recognise any of these issues myself, if anything I wish my work top was a couple of inches taller! I suggest a side by side fridge freezer!

@Cookit I found range rovers are best for me-a woman. Women aren’t short by definition. Only a minority of women are inconvenienced by things being too big. If anything I would say things being too small is an issue for more people. I am average heigh (5’10). I can’t fit in a lot of cars because my leg gets wedged between the floor and the steering wheel. A lot of showers don’t actually go above my head. Most counter tops, tables etc aren’t tall enough. There is rarely enough leg room on public transport and I end up wedged. This really really isn’t a women’s issue. It’s a short person issue. It’s fairly inevitable that people with unusual bodies will struggle with things designed for average people.

It’s not just a short person thing. I’m 5’10 but the seatbelt still runs my neck. No idea how but it does! I’m planning on making myself a little seatbelt sleeve thing when I get the chance to pad it a little.

Voice controlled things annoy me - wasn’t it the case that they were designed by an entirely male team and therefore didn’t recognise women’s higher pitched voices as human?! And the period tracking function on my phone - or lack there of. I can put the data into the phone but it won’t do anything with it like show my average cycle length. I’d have to download another app for that, taking up space on my phone and apparently, based on my App Store searches, unavoidably pink, floral, twee, and obsessed with my chances of conception. I just want to know roughly when to have my oldest pants ready.

Anyone else got a pm from this poster? Not sure why they think it’s worthy of a personal message...

Just spotted it’s actually the op.

rosepoet if you’ve got something to say, keep it on the board. No need for the pathetic personal message.

has anyone found a car that is good for women?

I've got a Golf estate which I find fine - it does help that it has all-round parking sensors.
I rarely raise the seat in a car though, and have it as far back as is compatible with fully depressing the pedals.

DHs Volvo v40 is comfortable enough but the visibility rear and side is crap.

Cars used to be worse, as I said - designed for average western men whereas now there is some awareness of the variety of shapes and sizes of people. Not to mention power steering!