Invisible Women is an incredibly well researched book and important starting point to conversations about data gaps and gender bias. There's a lot of material covered and for the majority of the time it doesn't feel too dense, although lots of facts and figures get thrown around. The book offers a lot and I think has some really important conversations.

The impressive aspect about the book is its global attitude. Perez has not confined her study to simply the UK or the US, although they feature heavily. She touches on the impact of the Olympics on women in Brazil, housing structures in Vienna, snow clearing in Sweden, examines political representation globally and more. It's an incredibly extensive research project. It's also a stark read and you begin to realise how far away from a post-feminist society we truly are.

However, I think there's a caveat that cannot be ignored. The book at times falls flat in its intersectionality. There is a distinct lack of nuance for consideration surround trans and non-binary individuals and only limited analysis of the impacts of race. There was even less consideration surrounding women with disabilities. I know the author has been accused of being trans-exclusionary and whilst I haven't seen direct statements from her expressing this. The work is very cis-women focused.

When the book focuses on gender assigned categories related to transport usage, political representation etc, the gender categories that Perez discusses work to an extent that they cover those in the trans community that self identify as m/f, however, this still ignores non-binary individuals. Although I imagine there is a significant lack of data (even more so for non-binary individuals than women), I think it would have been better to caveat this in her work. The biggest problem however, was the lack of nuance in the approach to discussions surrounding the body. The female body that was discussed in reference to biology was clearly that of a cis-gendered woman, and whilst physical differences will almost certainly manifest due to hormones, genetic structures etc between bodies.

Trans individuals are also likely to be subject to these significant data gaps and likely to experience problems in medical treatment.
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From the perspective of a white cis-woman, I felt like the primary target audience of this book. I think it raises a lot of concerning questions about significant data gaps and male bias in our patriarchal world. It made me ask a lot of questions about social situations, medical situations and global structures. However, I cannot ignore lack of intersectionality in the book.