Who could have known? The physical differences between women and men are significant!

[JellySaurus]

The male as default. It's something that has been discussed on here many times. We're not merely scaled-down men.

The crash dummy aimed at protecting women drivers www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-62877930

Goodness! There are significant differences in the male and female physique! Who knew?

Indeed.

Have you read Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Pérez? It is packed full of these kinds of things. From crash test dummies to AI to medicine.

Absolutely rage inducing but well worth a read.

I think this book raised my blood pressure significantly! But definitely worth a read. The (lack of) research including women and the impact of that is staggering.

This was on radio four yesterday afternoon, right after an interview with one of the SNP MSps who defied the party whip to vote against the gender reform act because he believed men and women couldn't change sex and women's rights needed protection. Genius programming from producer, perfectly illustrating his argument.

See also running shoes, most manufacturers 'shrink it and pink it' rather than make things designed for the proportions of women. Bikes as well

Women are not small men. Who knew?!

Question is: how do we campaign for this to become part of the standard safety test for all cars?

Love that they did this! Genius programming indeed.

The only way to get change is to make it cost the car manufacturers. What is needed is for a female to sue for injuries that are worse because they didn't consider females separate to males.

Our pelvis is different, who knew?

The WI raised it as a resolution a couple of years ago, I'm not sure if they took it on as a campaign though

I felt a bit emotional seeing the female Swedish engineer explaining the differences and making female versions of dummies to crash test. How the female whip lash is more severe than mens.

It is sad that this is only just coming to light.

I can't be the only woman who finds that seat belts cut across her neck rather than fitting over her shoulder in every car she gets in. And I'm not particularly short at 5 foot 4.

Oh god, yes. Every single car I need to tuck something under the seatbelt at my neck.
The ones which I can get at all comfortable are those with all bells and whistles adjustability - so I pay premium to get somewhat comparable comfort to a man.
So as a woman, I either pay in chaffing or in money.

Yep. I'm 5' 1 " and very few seat belts fit me correctly.

Also, when I'm looking to buy a car, one of the first things I do is open the boot and see if I can reach to close it. Many, I can't - even for small hatchbacks.

I'm 5'7" and still have the same problem.

Gosh, yes, this^^ !!!

Caroline Criado Perez did an episode of her Visible Women podcast about this - season 1 episode 4.

I'm 5'6" and have the same problem. I think it's breasts - the belt is trying to sit on top of a lump. It wants to move to one side or the other as it's a smaller distance. It ends up over toward the side of the buckle and that means it's across my neck. I end up hooking my thumb over the belt just before the point it goes through the buckle and holding it downwards to stop it. But that's not possible when I'm driving!

I'd probably be decapitated in an accident.

A friend has a Ford and the belt is attached to the shoulder of the seat and not the door pillar. It's the only car I've ever ridden in that hasn't felt like it was strangling me.

I've also NEVER sat in a car and had the lap belt across the top of my thighs. It's always across my stomach. I had no idea that wasn't right until I was pregnant.

Fantastic. Thanks for sharing. For some reason, it was the bit about crash test dummies that really got to me when i read Invisible Women (amongst all the many rage-inducing facts in that book) so this has out a smile on my face.

Yes, follow Caroline Criado Perez and write to your MPs (although my MP merely gave me a metaphorical pat on the head when I wrote to him, but he's notoriously dismissive). Europe has brought in new laws making it necessary for car safety to use a female crash test dummy, but the UK has chosen NOT to implement the same law. Yup, they have disregarded the safety of 51% of the population.

I've also NEVER sat in a car and had the lap belt across the top of my thighs. It's always across my stomach. I had no idea that wasn't right until I was pregnant.

It isn’t supposed to be across my stomach??? I had no idea! I’ve never had a seatbelt across my thighs before!

I've also NEVER sat in a car and had the lap belt across the top of my thighs. It's always across my stomach. I had no idea that wasn't right until I was pregnant.

Same I had to mess around with a small cushion so my stomach was more protected when pregant. Now i just have huge amount of fat protecting my organs instead.

A couple of turns of phrase in that article pissed me off.

"women represent about half of all drivers and are more prone to injury" <- makes us seem careless. Should have been are more likely to be injured.

"there is an expectation that women will one day be safer behind the wheel" <- uses a tired phrase that implies women are bad drivers. Besides, this is about all women travelling in cars.

Personally, I'm most annoyed (as regards the article and not the utterly infuriating situation) at the suggestion the dummy is said to be 149cm or 4'8", representing 5th percentile US woman in the 1970s. It should be blatantly obvious that 4'8" is neither equivalent to 149cm, nor is it the 5th percentile in height for women. That's just lazy.