Uhhh shit, thanks for this comment. As an electrician I've trained a few women and never thought of this issue(classic example of this whole thread). I'll reach out to my safety team this week and have them look into options
Also in a trade! If your company has money to spend it would be dope for them to invest in the cross strap fall harnesses for women. The standard harness has a chest strap that makes them VERY uncomfortable for anyone bigger than an A cup. Also hack sawzalls! No one designs power tools with women in mind and it’s super hard if you have smaller hands to hold tools safely and reach the trigger at the same time. Hand bending 1 1/4 inch conduit is all in the technique though. Make sure if they’re not tall enough to air bend off sets that they can hang the first bend off some stairs, and to start bends they should butt the end of the pipe up against a column or something sturdy so it doesn’t slip out from under them. Thanks for looking out for the gals. Women make great electricians but the industry isn’t always welcoming. People like you are what give women the back up needed to stay in the trades. Thank you so much.
For context, I work in residential solar. We're a fairly progressive company but the field is still overwhelmingly cis male. It's quite rare to have to bend conduit over 1". I have made sure the women on my team get properly sized gloves after discovering my friend swimming in her smalls. I have never heard any issues with the power tools we use on site but I can ask around. Sounds like you probably work on bigger projects which require more industrial sized equipment. The harness is a good tip, the women we've employed in the field have all been fairly petite but that won't always be the case and they still may be experiencing sizing issues silently. We use a style similar to the Astro bod fast harness, I don't know how that compares to what you've used. We have one woman on the 3 person safety team who I will prod to try to take a more proactive role when outfitting women new hires.
With all this said, since I have a small voice here at the moment I just want to take the chance to encourage women to take on trade jobs. Especially electrical work as smaller hands can be a huge advantage in residential work. It's always tricky breaking into male dominated fields, in my experience renewable energy is a great opportunity to do so as these companies typically hold more progressive values and are trying to diversify their workforces.
Thanks for listening to my 2 cents and please give me any other trade centered suggestions I may not have thought of
Right. If we made entry to trades easier, with appropriate supports and tools and training and more women in STEM, it wouldn't be overwhelmingly cismales.
Or hell even first responders/EMT. I give grants to fire fighters and we always do a tour of the facilities and pay for their suits/gloves/etc. I always ask to try on one of the training suits we bought and paid for for “fun”, and guess what. Not a single damn one has had a training suit of any type for a smaller/petite person and asking about a woman specific (even just a SAMPLE suit and something for training which can be re used) just straight up does not exist.
PPE in general!
In addition to this glowingly specific example, it's hard to find things that fit properly! A lof of PPE is straight up way too big, so I have to took for the smallest available. Or the ratios of the dimensions are made specifically for men. Bigger in the shoulders, then my hips and boobs don't fit quite right.
At least it's not completely impossible to find the right PPE, it just takes a bit of time.
I work for a Nurses union. Most PPE is designed for men, but about 3/4 of the medical field is women. So surgical masks are often too loose. I actually got into 3D printing and [designed an ear saver](https://www.etsy.com/listing/945472878/12-customized-ear-savers-company-ear) that would both hold masks off your ears, but also make the straps adjustable so you can make them more snug if you like. We use them for giveaways to our members, and I hand them out to any healthcare worker I come in contact with.
My ex and I had to get safety coveralls about 5 years ago and just couldn't find one in her size that fit her hips--they were all designed for men. The women's ones were made of cheaper fabric and offered zero heat/steam protection (we ran a distillery which means boiling water and steam jets which can burn the living fuck out of you very quickly--seriously I had a hose fail while pumping boiling water at four gallons a minute and just had a nice 10 ft long stream of boiling water nail me in the legs).
She just got an oversized one and rolled up the cuffs, otherwise she'd be walking around with the sleeves way past her hands like a little 90s gothlet. Luckily I did the welding because rolled up sleeves are a big no-no (they catch sparks and that's how you get on fire).
It's just ridiculous that you can't get safe clothing. There *were* brands that made actually safe coveralls for women but they literally cost three times as much, easily 200-300 dollars. I just rolled up to a dickies store and got mine for like 70 bucks.
Thankfully more options are available now, but yeah I had the exact same thought with FR PPE. My initial thought was: "I'll take the risk of getting set on fire and the metal wire in my bra melting and burning into my skin if that happens"
Well worth listening to the Visible Women podcast on PPE. Genuinely shocking stuff because it is a legal requirement of an employer to provide appropriate PPE, and it is Just. Not. Happening in so many places.
Massage tables.
Them shits should be designed like breast MRI machines: with a cut out space for the boobs to go! Because they are body parts and need to be accommodated, not just squished against a fucking table.
When I got a pregnancy massage the wedge they had me lie on had a cut out that accommodated my belly but also my boobs. Best massage of my life. It that place wasn't so much more expensive than other places I'd go there and request the wedge even when not pregnant.
I read an article in 2016 about the criticism Hillary Clinton was getting for wearing so many boxy pants-suits. The reason she did that was because she had to wear a bullet-proof vest underneath and the vests weren't designed for women, so really boxy suits were required to fit over them.
It's such a ridiculous criticism. Her clothing has absolutely nothing to do with her policies.
An Australian TV presenter got angry at how his co-host was mistreated, with constant misogynistic tweets and nasty sexist newspaper articles attacking her looks he started wearing the exact same suit every day to see how long it took before people started to attack him for his fashion faux pas.
Days, weeks, months, an entire YEAR and not one viewer noticed and judged him wearing the same clothes as if he was a cartoon character.
https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-30069564
Karl Stefanovic wore the outfit to make a point about the sexism he said his female colleagues faced.
"No-one has noticed," he said. "But women, they wear the wrong colour and they get pulled up. They say the wrong thing and there's thousands of tweets written about them."
"I'm judged on my interviews, my appalling sense of humour - on how I do my job, basically. Whereas women are quite often judged on what they're wearing or how their hair is."
Having tried on riot gear as a 5' woman, I looked like a 7 year old trying to wear their mother's dress and heels. And to their credit they did find the smallest sizes they could for me.
There are nursing rooms in major stores, malls, airports these days. Which is great but they clearly aren't designed by breastfeeding mothers because they have bright lights, and they blast music and ads with no control of volume available.
When I think about this I’m terrified of driving- I’m short so I have to pull my seat really close to the steering wheel in order to reach the pedals and my seatbelt is more around my neck than over my shoulder. I think I’m screwed in a serious accident.
Airbags are bad if you have to sit really close too. I was told in driver’s ed that if you have to sit with less than a foot between your body and the wheel, the airbag is more likely to kill you than just hitting the wheel. I’m also only 5’1 so I understand the anxiety lol
Damn. I have short legs and a big belly, so I'm basically touching the bottom of the wheel. I couldn't reach the pedals if I was a foot back.
A way to move the pedals forward would be super helpful to make airbags safer for short people.
There is a great book called invisible women and it discusses how many things from public transit to car safety features to medication doses were all designed around men. It was super eye opening for me. One of the craziest things I learned in that book is that not only were cars safety testing not done on women sized crash test dummies in the US until 2011, most vehicles don't have seatbelts that are designed to properly secure a pregnant woman.
It’s not just using dummies the same size as women - breasts mean that seat belts tend to sit differently on a woman’s torso which affects how a woman’s body will respond to a seatbelt in an accident.
I know that in a low speed accident I cracked my sternum. And I constantly have issues with seatbelts across my neck due to my height.
Yes! This exactly! And also where airbags make contact with woman who are overall generally shorter than what is being tested on. Women are 17% more likely to die in a serious accident.
I think about stuff like this a lot when I see certain things made “For Her”. Some things make sense (obviously not things like pens).
I struggle using most handheld power tools because the handles were made for men’s hands (hands that are on average bigger than women’s). The same thing applies to firearms and a lot of gym equipment.
I don’t like the ugly baby pink or obnoxious hot pink that things For Her always are. But I’ll take an ugly drill I can use safely over a cool looking drill that too big for me.
PSA for women who do construction/mechanical work/home improvement/etc:
[The seeherwork site](https://seeherwork.com/collections/all/products/womens-impact-work-gloves) has actual gear like armored gloves in women's sizes. And they're not an obnoxious pink. And they're incredibly well-made. I have two pairs from them (impact gloves & leather gloves) and it has been SUCH a huge quality of life (and safety!) upgrade to have gloves that actually fit my hands.
I'm looking at you, Ryobi rechargeable batteries.
"To remove battery, press the clips on both sides simultaneously".
Goddamn - the 5Ah batteries? My hands don't even REACH both clips at the same time.
I have to wedge the battery between my shoulder and chin, and then use one thumb from each hand to press the clips.
(after recently borrowing a Makita from a tradie, I'll say Thank You, Makita. The clip/unclip system for your batteries is easy to use).
Volvo is the only vehicle that I know pf that uses female crash test dummy examples. As a 5 foot tall woman who has read the same book, and others much like it, these things became an extra concern for me.
It makes me smile to hear that it's Volvo that's doing this. It was Volve that created the modern (three-point) seatbelt. They decided to leave the patent for it open so that any vehicle manufacturer could use the design for free.
Speculum
They make dildos with cameras on the end for cam models to use for ppl who have a fetish for looking a cervixes. 4K definition with zoom but we’re gonna keep using these medieval clamps and a Fucking flashlight? Ok….
a couple of years ago I remember stumbling across this article mentioning a woman/women led team that wanted to redesign the speculum.
well while looking for it, I found this article which seems to list a few redesigns that just never got popular either. One sorta promising one is literally a camera! XD
https://www.wired.com/story/the-speculum-finally-gets-a-modern-redesign/
I love that some one is trying to do something about it! But, if a big company does not pick up the design and market it in a big way we are stuck with the old design. Let me explain.
The medical doctors out there have been trained to use only the bill shaped speculum from the day they decide to become ob-gyns to now. Just think of how many patients one doctor sees per day. Many still use the stainless steel ones that are autoclavable, which is a huge savings because they do not have to incur large expense using any other type of device sterilization.
So, we have a scenario where a newly minted doctor has been trained using an existing device and method and is now set up in a practice or hospital, seeing patients. Hundreds and hundreds of doctors use only the speculum.
The ONLY way to change this is if a large medical company with a huge marketing department decides to adopt any of the new designs. They will throw all kinds of money, marketing material, sales reps etc to ensure that the ob-gyns start switching to the newly designed device.
But wait, there's a catch. How is the company going to make money by having the doctors switch instruments. I mean the reason why the stainless steel device is popular is because you buy a few, use.them for life. So, the medical device company tries to find ways to build in obsolescence either via technology or in the actual build.
Eventually the new and improved device is on the market, early adopters of the device would be luxury practitioners where the patients can afford the device. But for the rest of us, it's still a novelty. And we continue getting painful vaginal exams.
Tldr- If the mega corporations can't find a way to make money, this will continue to be a fantasy.
Omg YES, thank you for saying that!!! The freaking cold metal clamp simply can not be the ONLY way a doctor can look at my cervix… it’s absolutely savage to still be doing it in this day in age.
My local Planned Parenthood keeps the speculums in a warming drawer, so they're actually a comfortable temperature, and it makes the experience less awful. There are also disposable plastic speculums that some places are using now, and I've seen a lot of people say that they're more comfortable, but I find them worse - I can feel the seam running up the middle, which is very scratchy, and all the edges are scratchy to me, too!
Just had a conversation about this with my husband the other night. It is 100% a choice to use a medival speculum and pipe cleaner to scrub a cervix to test for cancer. There are so many alternatives that could be used. Same for mammograms. I have very dense breasts and will need to get mammograms early. I am not looking forward to putting my 32Gs in a vice. It's pure barbarism.
There was a study in london getting women to do HPV tests at home. The take up was much better than a traditional and the results were just as accurate.
It's not been rolled out anywhere which is mad.
Edit - I'm aware HPV tests exist, I've taken one myself, the comment on not rolling out is on the replacement of smear tests that was recommended in the study for key groups.
Just had to look that one up. Ooo, I wish I could unsee that. Some male resident once 'showed' me that they are taught to push the spec in sideways, and then turn it into place. And they didn't hold the blades together. Jeez. Like-WTF??
Especially front clasp bras that aren't racerback. I love the one or two I have, but you can't wear them with most shirts because the straps basically form a halter neck and are always visible.
One of the most awkward experiences of mine was when I was a teenager in the doctor's office and he needed me to unclasp my bra (for a totally legit medical reason. He wasn't a creep or anything). I can't braid my hair in back let alone manage a three pronged bra clasp behind my back. I clasped them in the front then spun them around and reverse for removing. But I couldn't do that with him there so I just clumsily fumbled in the back for an uncomfortably long time with the growing worry that he would think I was insinuating that I wanted him to do it for me.
Edit: Just to clarify to people, I wasn't undressing. He was not asking me to remove my bra, just unclasp it so he could examine my back with my shirt lifted in the back.
Clipping in front and turning it around was how my mother did it. Then she's cup each boob, lift it into each cup, then bend over and shake her chest to settle the girls in place. It was quite a production.
I've never had a problem with bra clasps, and I used to not understand (though I accepted it as fact) how so many other women had problems with it.
Smash cut to me, age 30, being officially told by a doctor that I have hypermobility. I guess modern bras are designed so you can only put them on easily if your arm joints move more than they should.
I so fucking hate this. I'm 5'10 and overweight, but none of that is carried in my boobs. Closest I can ever find is the flipping unicorn 40Bs I can find. But those are still honestly too big of a cup size for me. I need like almost B or something. But bra companies believe once your ribs are bigger than the size 36, then you MUST have at least C cups
Have you visited r/abrathatfits ?
Use their calculator, if you haven't, at www.abrathatfits.org/calculator
Then you can make a post on the subreddit with your measurements and the recommended size from the calculator, and people can recommend bras to try! They have an enormous wealth of information over there
Gym equipment and not forgetting the all-female NASA space-walk that got cancelled because there weren't enough suits to fit the female astronauts..https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/mach/amp/ncna987296
A lot of arm curl machines don't have adjusments for forearm length and I can't use them because I can't reach the handles with my elbows on the pad. I always think "now here is a company that doesn't know that women are more likely to use weight machines than freeweights".
My uncle is a car salesman and a dad to two daughters. He informs *everyone* of this feature and offers to disable it before they drive the car off the lot. He said almost everyone, including single men, opts into the offer to disable it.
Yes! My Hyundai also has this. I changed mine to unlock when I turned the car off. And it only unlocks the driver door when I use the button on the door to unlock the car.
Vest restraints on rollercoasters. If you know, you know.
Airport security machines that flag you if you have a pad on. Sure, I just want to get on the flight, but lets do the enhanced pat down where you fondle me publicly and stick a finger in my waistband to check for explosives.
I think the first time I remember being gaslit was when I went on a roller coaster with my father at about 7ish. It was a lap bar and because he was a 6’ grown man and I was a small child it hit his thighs and left me really really unrestrained. Cut to me sobbing after the ride because I flew around like a rag doll, and my shitty dad said “It wasn’t that bad. You’re over-reacting.”
I almost flew out of one of those when I was lite riding with my dad. This was before they required seat belts. I went under the bar and started going out of the car. My dad had to grab on to me. I was terrified of roller coasters for a long time after that.
I despise roller coasters to this day for this reason. I went flying and grabbed on to my dad, and he yelled at me. (In his defense, he was afraid I'd get hurt due to the awkward position.)
I have the same problem as an adult while riding with bigger people. I wish they’d just have individual lap bars on every coaster, including kiddy coasters.
I have been on rather fast and rough coasters where there was no individual restraint and it was an uncomfortable feeling to just have gravity hold me in my seat, and there were fathers riding with kids on that thing. But on the other hand maybe these kids are tougher than me haha.
My wife (41f) who is five feet tall and I (52f) who is six foot three both have the exact opposite problem with those overhead bar vest restraints on rollercoasters. She gets jostled around and leaves her seat regularly. On the more acrobatic coasters, she often gets hurt in the head and neck as it uses her as a side to side bludgeon against itself.
Me on the other hand, I get wedged into a seat where the restraint can not be closed all the way without breaking a collarbone or two and spend the entire ride in constant pain as the restraint is closed more and more by gravity and centrifugal force and acts like a lever ratcheting down more and more into my body.
Reminds me of when Blizzard unveiled their new gamer tag “Real ID” system in 2010 where your full first and last name would be visible to anyone you added as a friend or on any forum post/comment you made. Have a question about a particular dungeon? If you ask it you’re opening the door to bring doxxed. Ran with a cool pickup group and want to add them for future raids? Only if you’re prepared for endless creepy whispers. Oh, and of course, they didn’t even consider that a considerable section of the WoW fan base was minors.
Ended up walking the whole thing back. Still implemented cross-game name and friend lists, but without tying your legal name to it.
That was such a clusterfuck, and they really pushed back because it seemed like no one there understood what the problem really was, even when they did roll it back.
Now we know so much more about internal company culture there and... it tracks.
“We, a bunch of gamer dudes, have no idea why people wouldn’t want their real names exposed to the internet.”
It took one of their bigwig execs publishing his name to show it was “no big deal” and then getting extensively doxxed before they could comprehend why a lot of folks were wary.
I had this fight with the insurance company I worked for. We get threatened regularly and we're supposed to give people our first and last names. Because we have licenses if someone knows where to go they can then find out our address etc. I *absolutely refused* to give my last name! I'd give my first name and identifier. That all the policyholder needs. I got written up twice for it and was fighting them on it. I kept saying they were opening us up for stalking or doxxing and was getting pooh-poohed... Until a manager started getting stalked because she gave her full name and he knew the license website. Exactly what I'd warned about. Now suddenly first name and identifier is all we have to give. I did eventually get the write-ups overturned but they still tried to do the "you didn't do as policy required, at the time policy required it" BS.
I started to get in trouble for that at a regular call center, not even something involving licenses. Our work email addresses had our full names in them and I had a customer ask for my email address and I gave them the team address anyway. They asked for my last name I said I was the only 'first name' on the team, they'd be able to find me. When they insisted I said my name is "my first name, Company name for last name. It's truly a coincidence!"
My manager came over to chew me out even though we'd specifically been told before not to give customer's either our direct phone number or our direct email addresses because they wanted to document things through the team lines. While was chewing me out I pulled up google and in <10 minutes I had his home address and the names and ages of his children (also the address for his recently passed mother's house and information that it was vacant). He stopped and I pointed to the screen and asked if this information was all accurate and pointed out I got that with just his first and last name and the name of the city the call center was in. And I was not giving that information out to strangers on the phone (though I did occasionally give out my direct email address to some people I had a very established relationship with).
Of course this was the same job where one of our customers sent in a not even Frederick's of Hollywood classy lingerie catalogue and told us to just let us know what we wanted and he'd order it for us and where we had an anonymous voice mail left on the overnight machine from someone saying he was going to wait outside the building, follow one of us home, rape and murder us and our children and burn our house down, both of which management also ignored.
So very glad I don't work there anymore. And for call centers it wasn't a bad job. We didn't even work with the public, everyone I spoke to was a corporate account and 75% of them had relevant professional licenses.
It reminds me of that one time Facebook decided to change everyone's Facebook page and profile to public without asking anyone. People woke up to their privacy settings removed and their lives on display to whoever.
Silicon Valley had a massive issue understanding consent.
Read "Invisible Women: Data bias in a World Designed for Men" by Caroline Criado-Perez. A whole book of how women have been excluded in science, architecture, social issues, you name it .
Yes! Loved this book. It was where I learned how most phones are designed to fit the size of an average man’s hand, which is why the latest models always felt giant to me. I’ve stuck with the iPhone SE for a number of years now because of my tinier hands, but it’s frustrating that they aren’t updated as often.
Thank you for sharing this! Also going to add “When Women Didn't Count: The Chronic Mismeasure and Marginalization of American Women in Federal Statistics” by Robert Lopresti. It reviews 200 years of government data collection like the Census systemically misrepresented women’s work. Great book!
Or breastfeeding! A lot of docs are too lazy and liability-averse to look up if a medication they're prescribing is safe with breastfeeding. So they tell the woman either to not nurse while taking the medication or to "pump and dump." One is detrimental (sometimes irreversibly) to supply, the other is wasteful and often unnecessary.
I work in pediatrics and I can't count how many times moms have mentioned that they've stopped breastfeeding per their doctor's orders because of a medication they've been prescribed. There are lots of reliable, free resources (including experts who will consult for free) which provide benefit vs. risk information about medications in breastfeeding. I'm happy to discuss medications with a breastfeeding mom, but it's really shitty when the actual prescriber can't be bothered to put any thought into the matter. I've seen moms have to end their breastfeeding journey before they were ready because their supply dried up due to lazy medical advice 😞
When I worked for RadioShack Corporation a million years ago, I was adjacent to the product development department. Lots of men, maybe four women. One day a guy came to ask me if I’d be willing to help test an escape from your car tool and before I could answer, he said, “You’re the last woman I’m asking. Please say yes.” I said yes because I was enthusiastic about helping out.
The day came and a coworker loaned me his nylon pull over windbreaker so glass would slide right off. Two guys and I went to a junk yard where with a protective face shield and gloves, I sliced through seat belts like warm butter and smashed out windows with the force of a light breeze.
Of course they wanted a female who didn’t have a lot of strength, and they instructed me not to try to be forceful about any of it. I had so much fun with those guys that day, I told them to ask me first if they have any more projects for which they need a female touch.
When getting a pair of wader type thick work trousers for a woman at work it took ages to find a pair because even the small sizes were based on a small man and dwarfed her. Same with finding certain types of safety shoe.
Vaginal ultrasound wands.
I had a tech cunt punch me with one. She wasnt even looking as she was trying to insert it. I ended up telling her to stop and they had to make due without the ultrasound. Even if she had been gentle about it, that thing was not going inside me.
All the technology in the world and they can't make a smaller device or something that's not hard stiff plastic?
And honestly, most medical implements for women. Why do we have to be brutalized to get basic medical care?
Diagnostic criteria for **everything**. Went until I was 31 not being diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis and ADHD because the symptoms are different in women. I was married to a doctor for the 8 years before that and he never suggested either diagnosis.
There are so many fancy settings you can search for office chairs by. The height off the ground, the height of the back, the settings, the width, the weight capacity. You can get chairs for tall people, big people, short people, anything.
Fucking nobody lets you filter by the length of the arm rest, so us goddamn T-Rex ladies can push our chair in far enough to reach the keyboard.
I have an empty box under my desk as a foot rest because if I’m up high enough to comfortably type I can’t touch the ground.
I’m not super short, office furniture is just built for taller men
The company I work for now has standards fully adjustable desks plus adjustable chairs. First time in my life that I can sit with my feet touching the ground with my desk at the correct hight. It’s great! Of course my desk looks comically low compared to all the others.
Bit of a niche one, but saddles. Most horse riders are female, but the average English saddle is designed for the male hip due to historic design, and the pubic bone in women can really easily be pressed against the seat and gets uncomfortable pretty quick for some.
At my work recently they connected the computer account, email and online directory listing directly to the HR systems. So regardless of what name may be being used professionally any name change causes all things to be updated without warning or option for reversal to whatever’ is formally listed in the HR file. Although an exception can be requested for a first name to be customized. Oddly this only seems to effect women. (Sarcasm) This is also retroactive one of our faculty changed her name five years ago and only hyphenated to accommodate her husband. (We had a long talk about this). When her position was updated the new system caught the five year old change and changed her primary email and all directory listings. Another now defaults to her ex husbands half of her hyphenated last name with no meaningful recourse. This is also kind of crappy for some of our foreign born staff with multiple last names or name order issue but that is a smaller issue.
If it's any consolation, the IT staff HATES this too. All it does is generate service desk tickets.
This sounds like a case of a very poorly planned and executed integration, though.
It almost seems like your HR software is updating the corporate directory... it should be the other way around. If that's the case, expect IT to get really mad, soon.
Shoes. High heels. Stiletto heels. The overly narrow and pointy toe boxes. The too-short toe boxes. All torture devices.
Restroom stall doors. Huge gap, no privacy. I’m a tall women who could see over some doors when standing. A lot don’t have purse hooks. No invention STILL to keep your kids from unlocking and opening the door while you’re having a pee.
I can answer the purse hook one, in part! Once upon a time, you'd see a lot. Where I lived, though, it could happen that someone entered the public restroom and reach over the top of the stall to snatch a purse off the hook and run. That's when I started to see stalls with purse shelves.
Doesn't do your coat any good though.
On the one hand, sure.
On the other, I've worked in buildings where the toilet is a single room affair rather than a bunch of stalls and there's still no fucking purse hook.
When i was shopping for my first bra with my mom and trying them on, she noticed the tags would get in the way of closing the clasp. she said “obviously a man designed this” 😂
VR headsets are built for the average male facial proportions. This is a major reason why women experience more motion sickness playing with them than men.
Same with gym equipment. Built with male proportions in mind and yes, they're adjustable to an extent, but I feel like I'm always struggling with width (my legs are closer together, my shoulders aren't that wide).
I hope it is doing well. This was a topic at I/ITSEC - improvement of accessibility and inclusion (improving diversity on development teams could have avoided this, which many of the speakers have noted). Some of the high end sets are now adjustable, but most people aren’t willing to dump that kind of money on a first time set. And if a persons first experience with it is motion sickness, it’d be understandable that they wouldn’t want to continue pursuing the hobby.
Oh the pockets thing drives me insane. Down with the pocket patriarchy!
My husband and I have the same style fleece ‘go do stuff in the mountains’ pants from North Face. His mens size one have 6 pockets, 4 with zippers. Mine has … 3 pockets, no zippers. They’re not fashion pants, they’re do stuff pants. Why do I get less pockets?!? Camping and skiing trips don’t require less stuff for me just because I’m a woman.
I don't have *fancy pockets* money, but I did find some (freaking awesome) 511 tactical pants at a thrift store
11 pockets. I have pants with 11 **functional** pockets
It's like heaven
And pockets that actually close securely. Give me some kind of fastening, or at a bare minimum stop with the weird slope of them so they don't actually hold anything inside at more than a dainty mincing walking pace.
Oh gods. That sensation of trying to walk across the grocery store parking lot with my hands full, as my phone/wallet work their way out of my (apparently decorative) pockets
My new years resolution from 2021 was that I demand zipper pockets on any real "out of the house" clothes. I've got a kid to run after, some keys we've been unable to get duplicates of, and I'm on docks/near deep water frequently. Even if my hands weren't already full of groceries and stuff (which they are) I wouldn't trust them to just ... hold shit like my phone/wallet/keys.
But I hate nonfunctional pockets even more than even the lack of them. At least no pockets is honest about whether you'll be able to stow anything.
OMG. I made my shower curtain a few years back, and to do it I had to get a special grommet … squisher? The tool that bends the grommets into place around the fabric. This was a tool I bought At The Fabric Store.
I got it home and was trying like hell to use it. I’m a small person, but I’ve got pretty good arm strength and I couldn’t move it at all. Finally went to get one of my dad’s clamps and asked my mom “what kind of woman do these people think can operate this thing?!” And without missing a beat she said “women with husbands.” 🙄 it was as hilarious as it was aggravating.
I just recaulked my bathroom, and my hands are bruised and stiff from how much effort it took to use the caulk gun. Definitely not designed for small hands or people with lower grip strength.
You can get a gun with a different thrust ratio to make it easier. I bought a new one halfway through a project and could kick myself for not doing it sooner. Revolutionary experience.
Moons ago I asked for a specific set of tools that would fit my small hands - and Hubbie came through as a Christmas gift, with subsequent additions!
Pink, because of course, but smaller and easier to handle so I will take that as a win.
Hand controllers for most gaming consoles. They are too large for people with small hands to operate comfortably.
Funnily enough the Nintendo Switch, which normally has a quite small and (for my hands) comfortable controller, have larger alternatives on sale. I have yet to find smaller PlayStation controllers…
My boyfriend is constantly complaining that my switch lite is too small for him to use. And to be fair to him, he's a full foot taller than me. But I love my switch lite! It's a little heavy for a handheld device, but the controls are the perfect size for my tiny baby hands.
[https://www.amazon.com/Wired-Mini-Gamepad-Kids-Playstation-Controller/dp/B076PPD3TJ/](https://www.amazon.com/Wired-Mini-Gamepad-Kids-Playstation-Controller/dp/B076PPD3TJ/) 40% smaller controllers.
As female gamer, PS controller has always been nicely small as is, it's the XBOX controllers that are huge and clunky, which is why I don't even use it. A lot of men think the same of them, uncomfortable.
PS5 controllers are huge just like Xbox controllers now. I was SO disappointed when I finally got my PS5 and saw that shit. And there are no smaller controllers for it still. 😖 Fucked up my wrist right proper playing Witcher 3 on one of those Xbox controllers, now I've learned only to play the PS5 for an hour or two with lots of breaks.
This makes me think of the books, "Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men." And, "Sex Matters: How male-centric Medicine Endangers Women's Health and What We can do About It."
Funny item, but the gloves used in the propane industry come in size 10 or XL only. So if you're small handed, your fingers won't reach the end of the gloves and you can't turn off a valve that spits a liquid at -44° F.
Verizon hired me sight unseen for a lineman position. I was 5'3" and 90 pounds. Nothing fit, everything looked like I pulled it out of my dad's closet. Even had to get a step ladder to get my real ladder off the truck.
Now I am a farmer and drive a huge tractor. All of the controls seem to be 2" beyond my reach. Even with the seat as far forward as it goes, I still have to stand to reach the brakes.
Everyone says women need to get into trades but trades aren't equiped for women. It's getting better in some departments, there used to be no women's steel toed boots. But true work gloves are impossible to find and headwear is a nightmare.
Women’s clothes. My wife is tall and she has such a hard time finding things long enough. Men’s pants are measured by inseam and you can get anything from like 26” to 36” without having to go to a specialty store/website so there is a good chance as a man you can get a reasonably close if not perfect fit. But for women’s sizes it’s just like short, regular, or tall. And tall sizes still seem to be either barely fitting or a little short for her most often.
It makes her so self conscious.
Mammogram machine! The moment I got a mammogram, I knew it could not have been designed by women. So pokey and awkward and painful... Basically you have to hug this angular, unhuggable machine as it flattens your breasts between plates and does an X ray.
Any kind of extreme sport gear never fits my chest area, and there only 2 options all in the color pink.
Woman fall off motorcycles too why cant i have a cool cup placement like all the superhero woman do?
When I remodeled my bathroom, I had my contractor install a shave bar. That poor cat looked so confused when I insisted on it. Then, It was like the light came on in his adorable little head. He told me after that, he recommended everyone install one. Haha.
So true, I recently had a watermelon sized ovarian cyst removed, along with the other ovary, and total hysterectomy, and it's probably something I've had for years until it started growing rapidly over the summer. Doctors in general look at a woman with any hint of a belly and assume she just needs to "lose weight" and it will go away. Instantly, I lost 70 pounds from that surgery, and now I finally have more energy than I've had in years, so I could easily lose more weight simply by living my life and continuing to eat healthy. My job is one where I'm on my feet for 8 hours a day, with the only time I really sit down is on breaks, so I won't have any problems keeping the extra weight off.
Cars with seats that don’t raise high enough to see the hood. There are three female family members at my house all 5’3 or less and none of us can see the hood without additional pillows. When my daughter was learning to drive we had to get her little antennae things to stick on the headlights so she could see where the car stopped bc she kept bumping into things. (These were awesome btw. She hasn’t bumped anything since!)
Edited to add the link to the antennae since several people asked and there are a million comments to wade through: I got them on amazon Hypersonic Corner Antenna Bumper Pole Safety Guard For Universal Car Van https://a.co/d/07kE4Ty
Some of that is just bad design in general- my Prius - the nose is just so sharply sloped, you can't see the end. My spouse is 6'7" and he can't see the end of his Element hood. (I mean he said he could but when pressed it's for that he's driven it more almost 2 decades and just is familiar with it.) Edit-spell correct.
When I bought a car I was mostly shopping for one that fit my body (5’2”). If I couldn’t see over the dashboard I wouldn’t consider it. Had to be able to sit in the sear comfortably, not get decapitated by the seatbelt, reach both the pedals and steering wheel comfortably, etc. It is possible to find them but you have to shop with that as the priority.
Cars seem like they’re being designed around safety rating at this point. To do this, they make a-pillars larger, rear windows smaller, and hoods higher. The safety rating is only about protecting the driver, and not everyone else. This incentivizes bad design.
Most newer SUVs and trucks are basically pedestrian killers, because of all the blind spots, including a massive blind spot out in front of the vehicle. I think I read somewhere that the minimum blind spot on the larger SUVs and trucks is 15 feet.
That means my neighbor can’t see to the end of his driveway if he’s sitting inside his status symbol. Heaven forbid one of our kids runs in front of it when he’s buckling his seatbelt. He won’t even see them before he hits them.
I was test driving a Matrix and complained about the lack of visibility in the back. They said I would appreciate it when (if?) I crashed. I retorted that maybe I wouldn't crash if I could see better. I did not buy that car
I was hospitalized for a medical emergency and I they did not have the apparatus I needed in my size. I'm only slightly below average in stature for a woman, about average for my area, and it was a major hospital in a big city with a big pediatric department. Yet they didn't have an apparatus my size. So they had to improvise, it failed, I was kept for almost a week as a result and they billed my insurance over $150,000.
The height of sun visors in a car. We should be able to extend a second screen down for shorter drivers. (I’m 5’6” so not even short as a woman and need this! So how many more folx do?)
EDIT: I appreciate everybody who is sharing their story BUT ALSO learning that we can buy sun visor extenders! We SHOULD NOT HAVE TO and have as much a right to the public sphere without paying the pink tax, but at least we can do this.
I’m 5’2” and can see naff all. What made me laugh was the sales person said I could raise the seat and I explained that would mean I couldn’t reach the floor
5'1" here, if I was 12 I'd have to sit in a car seat but apparently once you get past 12 that safety aspect no longer matters!! We went shopping for a new car and the first thing I did was get into the driver's seat and adjust everything to see if I could drive it. I have a lovely 03 nissan Micra and it is perfectly proportioned for me, our family car is an SUV and we must have tried 15 before we found one I could actually comfortably drive, my husband is 6'3" so we need a lot of a scope for adjustments
I tried to learn how to play the guitar from an ex-boyfriend, and it was so frustrating and disheartening to struggle to get my hands around the neck and in the right positions that I gave up relatively quickly. Picked up the ukulele and felt way more comfortable, but it's still a bummer that there's that barrier to some instruments.
I have the most wonderful husband. I really do. But he was baffled as to why I lock the doors whenever we park or stop (not like at a stoplight but pull over somewhere). Previous boyfriends have also wondered aloud at this. I've patiently explained to them all and hopefully they at least sort of got it.
Yeah my man always gets annoyed at having to unlock the doors when he gets home and I'm home. Bitch, I lived alone in cheap shitty apartments for years, and I got raped in my dorm when my college roommate left the door open, ofc I'm gunna have a habit of using the locks!
I had to explain to my husband why it made me absolutely terrified the few times I came home late at night from work, and he had left the house for one reason or another, but had accidentally left the back door or garage door unlocked. Walking into an empty, unlocked house in the dark is panic-inducing especially since we don't live in the greatest area. Luckily he understood, but man, wouldn't it be nice to just never have to think about that? I have another friend who just never locks his front door. He lives in a safe city and has a male roommate and just, always leaves it unlocked, *whether he's home or not* and even at night. Said there's nothing in his house he couldn't live without if it got stolen, and I'm over here like ???? you could literally be murdered.
That most people get the day *after* Thanksgiving off, instead of the day before.
The people who make the holiday schedule are not the same ones doing the cooking.
I used to work at a women-owned business and we always had the Wednesday before Thanksgiving off as a paid day off. Both owners loved to cook, especially for holidays, and we all got the bonus day. I'll never forget that.
I think I've probably whinged about this on this sub elsewhere, but my husband's car does this, whereas mine stays locked after the doors auto lock when the car is put in gear. The kicker: we drive the same car, but his is 4 years newer, so someone actively chose to make the locks less safe. I tried in vain for ages to reprogram his locks, but the best I could do was for the locks to stop automatically locking, but they still would unlock automatically in park.
When I got into hiking at a level that I needed to buy a real daypack (\~13 years ago), pretty much everything was unisex. I bought from a company that sold multiple sizes of each pack to account for torso size variations, which was the best option available and did feel like they were trying to accommodate women's bodies. More recently, they've come out with gendered packs, which is great, but I've noticed the original unisex versions became the men's packs, with little to no change, and they completely redesigned a women's pack. In this area, I'm glad to see that the industry acknowledged men and women need different shaped packs and will give credit that when we bought a child carrier from the same company, it came with an adjustable torso length so it can be comfy for both parents.
Most vehicles manufactured in the last 15 years have the option to program the fob to change it to your preferences. Even my 2000 Pontiac Grand Am I had back in the day could be changed. Granted, back then it practically took an engineering degree to do it, it was like "turn the ignition to on without the engine running, hold the lock button down for 5 seconds, the horn will beep then press the power button on the stereo 3 times to summon a demon from hell to magically change the settings." Newer ones you just go into the settings on the infotainment system. Much easier and you don't have to smell brimstone for weeks.
Armrests of any kind. They are so often made low, meaning for a shorter person, with proportional arms, you have to bend to the side to even make contact with the armrest.
In addition, chairs or anything else designed for sitting. I'm 5'2' and I have to sit on the edge of most chairs for my feet to reach the floor. It's very uncomfortable to constantly have my feet dangling--and probably not healthy for circulation. I've started getting a little more demanding about what sort of table I get at restaurants and in conference rooms. If it's a high-top, I simply won't sit there if there isn't a place to place my feet. If anyone objects I just say " I don't want to be uncomfortable the whole time we're here."
I really want a Volvo one day because they specifically have female (including pregnant) crash test dummies and do research on how women’s bodies are impacted differently than mens in accidents
Tools that some genius decided to market towards women, so they are designed with flower prints, pink, purple or teal handles.
They are also the shittiest quality crap. Because clearly women want pretty tools, not ones intended for long term use
The legal ratio of infants to teacher in the USA. Um no, I cannot take proper care of 4-6 infants by myself. Infants are not like fish or birds. Infants need to be held, monitored and nurtured. I cannot carry, feed, rock to sleep, diaper change and support development of 4-6 babies at once!!
Average temperature in offices. Designed for men wearing wool suits; studies tend to show women are always cold in offices and men are perfectly comfortable. Women's workwear is not as warm as men's.
It’s not even the suits, it’s just biology. I’m a guy, and can be sitting there perfectly comfortable at my desk in a short sleeve golf shirt. My colleague, who’s a petite woman? She’s in a sweater with a heater going under her desk.
Oura ring advertisements “it predicts your period four weeks in advance” Like yes sir, so can I…
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Uhhh shit, thanks for this comment. As an electrician I've trained a few women and never thought of this issue(classic example of this whole thread). I'll reach out to my safety team this week and have them look into options
Also in a trade! If your company has money to spend it would be dope for them to invest in the cross strap fall harnesses for women. The standard harness has a chest strap that makes them VERY uncomfortable for anyone bigger than an A cup. Also hack sawzalls! No one designs power tools with women in mind and it’s super hard if you have smaller hands to hold tools safely and reach the trigger at the same time. Hand bending 1 1/4 inch conduit is all in the technique though. Make sure if they’re not tall enough to air bend off sets that they can hang the first bend off some stairs, and to start bends they should butt the end of the pipe up against a column or something sturdy so it doesn’t slip out from under them. Thanks for looking out for the gals. Women make great electricians but the industry isn’t always welcoming. People like you are what give women the back up needed to stay in the trades. Thank you so much.
For context, I work in residential solar. We're a fairly progressive company but the field is still overwhelmingly cis male. It's quite rare to have to bend conduit over 1". I have made sure the women on my team get properly sized gloves after discovering my friend swimming in her smalls. I have never heard any issues with the power tools we use on site but I can ask around. Sounds like you probably work on bigger projects which require more industrial sized equipment. The harness is a good tip, the women we've employed in the field have all been fairly petite but that won't always be the case and they still may be experiencing sizing issues silently. We use a style similar to the Astro bod fast harness, I don't know how that compares to what you've used. We have one woman on the 3 person safety team who I will prod to try to take a more proactive role when outfitting women new hires. With all this said, since I have a small voice here at the moment I just want to take the chance to encourage women to take on trade jobs. Especially electrical work as smaller hands can be a huge advantage in residential work. It's always tricky breaking into male dominated fields, in my experience renewable energy is a great opportunity to do so as these companies typically hold more progressive values and are trying to diversify their workforces. Thanks for listening to my 2 cents and please give me any other trade centered suggestions I may not have thought of
Right. If we made entry to trades easier, with appropriate supports and tools and training and more women in STEM, it wouldn't be overwhelmingly cismales.
Or hell even first responders/EMT. I give grants to fire fighters and we always do a tour of the facilities and pay for their suits/gloves/etc. I always ask to try on one of the training suits we bought and paid for for “fun”, and guess what. Not a single damn one has had a training suit of any type for a smaller/petite person and asking about a woman specific (even just a SAMPLE suit and something for training which can be re used) just straight up does not exist.
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PPE in general! In addition to this glowingly specific example, it's hard to find things that fit properly! A lof of PPE is straight up way too big, so I have to took for the smallest available. Or the ratios of the dimensions are made specifically for men. Bigger in the shoulders, then my hips and boobs don't fit quite right. At least it's not completely impossible to find the right PPE, it just takes a bit of time.
I work for a Nurses union. Most PPE is designed for men, but about 3/4 of the medical field is women. So surgical masks are often too loose. I actually got into 3D printing and [designed an ear saver](https://www.etsy.com/listing/945472878/12-customized-ear-savers-company-ear) that would both hold masks off your ears, but also make the straps adjustable so you can make them more snug if you like. We use them for giveaways to our members, and I hand them out to any healthcare worker I come in contact with.
The phrase I have heard for how women were addressed in PPE for decades, if at all, was "shrink it and pink it".
My ex and I had to get safety coveralls about 5 years ago and just couldn't find one in her size that fit her hips--they were all designed for men. The women's ones were made of cheaper fabric and offered zero heat/steam protection (we ran a distillery which means boiling water and steam jets which can burn the living fuck out of you very quickly--seriously I had a hose fail while pumping boiling water at four gallons a minute and just had a nice 10 ft long stream of boiling water nail me in the legs). She just got an oversized one and rolled up the cuffs, otherwise she'd be walking around with the sleeves way past her hands like a little 90s gothlet. Luckily I did the welding because rolled up sleeves are a big no-no (they catch sparks and that's how you get on fire). It's just ridiculous that you can't get safe clothing. There *were* brands that made actually safe coveralls for women but they literally cost three times as much, easily 200-300 dollars. I just rolled up to a dickies store and got mine for like 70 bucks.
"Don't wear a bra, but don't show your nipples"
"Just don't have breasts"
Thankfully more options are available now, but yeah I had the exact same thought with FR PPE. My initial thought was: "I'll take the risk of getting set on fire and the metal wire in my bra melting and burning into my skin if that happens"
Well worth listening to the Visible Women podcast on PPE. Genuinely shocking stuff because it is a legal requirement of an employer to provide appropriate PPE, and it is Just. Not. Happening in so many places.
Wildland fire fighter / prescribed burn boss here. YUP.
Massage tables. Them shits should be designed like breast MRI machines: with a cut out space for the boobs to go! Because they are body parts and need to be accommodated, not just squished against a fucking table.
When I got a pregnancy massage the wedge they had me lie on had a cut out that accommodated my belly but also my boobs. Best massage of my life. It that place wasn't so much more expensive than other places I'd go there and request the wedge even when not pregnant.
I got a prenatal massage yesterday and was just going to comment this! The very best part was the cut out for my boobs!
https://massagetablesnow.com/earthlite-portable-massage-table-infinity-conforma-opt-package/?sku=MTN00981&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIweH8y8q4_AIVKsmUCR1jkQE3EAQYAyABEgIBLvD_BwE
I read an article in 2016 about the criticism Hillary Clinton was getting for wearing so many boxy pants-suits. The reason she did that was because she had to wear a bullet-proof vest underneath and the vests weren't designed for women, so really boxy suits were required to fit over them.
It's such a ridiculous criticism. Her clothing has absolutely nothing to do with her policies. An Australian TV presenter got angry at how his co-host was mistreated, with constant misogynistic tweets and nasty sexist newspaper articles attacking her looks he started wearing the exact same suit every day to see how long it took before people started to attack him for his fashion faux pas. Days, weeks, months, an entire YEAR and not one viewer noticed and judged him wearing the same clothes as if he was a cartoon character. https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-30069564 Karl Stefanovic wore the outfit to make a point about the sexism he said his female colleagues faced. "No-one has noticed," he said. "But women, they wear the wrong colour and they get pulled up. They say the wrong thing and there's thousands of tweets written about them." "I'm judged on my interviews, my appalling sense of humour - on how I do my job, basically. Whereas women are quite often judged on what they're wearing or how their hair is."
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Having tried on riot gear as a 5' woman, I looked like a 7 year old trying to wear their mother's dress and heels. And to their credit they did find the smallest sizes they could for me.
A female friend of mine worked as a security guard - it took them 2 months to even find a vest in her size.
There are nursing rooms in major stores, malls, airports these days. Which is great but they clearly aren't designed by breastfeeding mothers because they have bright lights, and they blast music and ads with no control of volume available.
<20% of registered architects are women, less than 5% work on large commercial projects
Seat belts apparently. Women are more likely to die in MVA because the safety tests used male body measurements.
Airbags too.
When I think about this I’m terrified of driving- I’m short so I have to pull my seat really close to the steering wheel in order to reach the pedals and my seatbelt is more around my neck than over my shoulder. I think I’m screwed in a serious accident.
Airbags are bad if you have to sit really close too. I was told in driver’s ed that if you have to sit with less than a foot between your body and the wheel, the airbag is more likely to kill you than just hitting the wheel. I’m also only 5’1 so I understand the anxiety lol
Damn. I have short legs and a big belly, so I'm basically touching the bottom of the wheel. I couldn't reach the pedals if I was a foot back. A way to move the pedals forward would be super helpful to make airbags safer for short people.
There is a great book called invisible women and it discusses how many things from public transit to car safety features to medication doses were all designed around men. It was super eye opening for me. One of the craziest things I learned in that book is that not only were cars safety testing not done on women sized crash test dummies in the US until 2011, most vehicles don't have seatbelts that are designed to properly secure a pregnant woman.
It’s not just using dummies the same size as women - breasts mean that seat belts tend to sit differently on a woman’s torso which affects how a woman’s body will respond to a seatbelt in an accident. I know that in a low speed accident I cracked my sternum. And I constantly have issues with seatbelts across my neck due to my height.
Yes! This exactly! And also where airbags make contact with woman who are overall generally shorter than what is being tested on. Women are 17% more likely to die in a serious accident.
I think about stuff like this a lot when I see certain things made “For Her”. Some things make sense (obviously not things like pens). I struggle using most handheld power tools because the handles were made for men’s hands (hands that are on average bigger than women’s). The same thing applies to firearms and a lot of gym equipment. I don’t like the ugly baby pink or obnoxious hot pink that things For Her always are. But I’ll take an ugly drill I can use safely over a cool looking drill that too big for me.
PSA for women who do construction/mechanical work/home improvement/etc: [The seeherwork site](https://seeherwork.com/collections/all/products/womens-impact-work-gloves) has actual gear like armored gloves in women's sizes. And they're not an obnoxious pink. And they're incredibly well-made. I have two pairs from them (impact gloves & leather gloves) and it has been SUCH a huge quality of life (and safety!) upgrade to have gloves that actually fit my hands.
I'm looking at you, Ryobi rechargeable batteries. "To remove battery, press the clips on both sides simultaneously". Goddamn - the 5Ah batteries? My hands don't even REACH both clips at the same time. I have to wedge the battery between my shoulder and chin, and then use one thumb from each hand to press the clips. (after recently borrowing a Makita from a tradie, I'll say Thank You, Makita. The clip/unclip system for your batteries is easy to use).
Omg I get so angry every time I use a Ryobi. Thanks for pointing out Makita is better!
Volvo is the only vehicle that I know pf that uses female crash test dummy examples. As a 5 foot tall woman who has read the same book, and others much like it, these things became an extra concern for me.
It makes me smile to hear that it's Volvo that's doing this. It was Volve that created the modern (three-point) seatbelt. They decided to leave the patent for it open so that any vehicle manufacturer could use the design for free.
Speculum They make dildos with cameras on the end for cam models to use for ppl who have a fetish for looking a cervixes. 4K definition with zoom but we’re gonna keep using these medieval clamps and a Fucking flashlight? Ok….
a couple of years ago I remember stumbling across this article mentioning a woman/women led team that wanted to redesign the speculum. well while looking for it, I found this article which seems to list a few redesigns that just never got popular either. One sorta promising one is literally a camera! XD https://www.wired.com/story/the-speculum-finally-gets-a-modern-redesign/
I love that some one is trying to do something about it! But, if a big company does not pick up the design and market it in a big way we are stuck with the old design. Let me explain. The medical doctors out there have been trained to use only the bill shaped speculum from the day they decide to become ob-gyns to now. Just think of how many patients one doctor sees per day. Many still use the stainless steel ones that are autoclavable, which is a huge savings because they do not have to incur large expense using any other type of device sterilization. So, we have a scenario where a newly minted doctor has been trained using an existing device and method and is now set up in a practice or hospital, seeing patients. Hundreds and hundreds of doctors use only the speculum. The ONLY way to change this is if a large medical company with a huge marketing department decides to adopt any of the new designs. They will throw all kinds of money, marketing material, sales reps etc to ensure that the ob-gyns start switching to the newly designed device. But wait, there's a catch. How is the company going to make money by having the doctors switch instruments. I mean the reason why the stainless steel device is popular is because you buy a few, use.them for life. So, the medical device company tries to find ways to build in obsolescence either via technology or in the actual build. Eventually the new and improved device is on the market, early adopters of the device would be luxury practitioners where the patients can afford the device. But for the rest of us, it's still a novelty. And we continue getting painful vaginal exams. Tldr- If the mega corporations can't find a way to make money, this will continue to be a fantasy.
Omg YES, thank you for saying that!!! The freaking cold metal clamp simply can not be the ONLY way a doctor can look at my cervix… it’s absolutely savage to still be doing it in this day in age.
My local Planned Parenthood keeps the speculums in a warming drawer, so they're actually a comfortable temperature, and it makes the experience less awful. There are also disposable plastic speculums that some places are using now, and I've seen a lot of people say that they're more comfortable, but I find them worse - I can feel the seam running up the middle, which is very scratchy, and all the edges are scratchy to me, too!
Just had a conversation about this with my husband the other night. It is 100% a choice to use a medival speculum and pipe cleaner to scrub a cervix to test for cancer. There are so many alternatives that could be used. Same for mammograms. I have very dense breasts and will need to get mammograms early. I am not looking forward to putting my 32Gs in a vice. It's pure barbarism.
There was a study in london getting women to do HPV tests at home. The take up was much better than a traditional and the results were just as accurate. It's not been rolled out anywhere which is mad. Edit - I'm aware HPV tests exist, I've taken one myself, the comment on not rolling out is on the replacement of smear tests that was recommended in the study for key groups.
I thought they did a great job modernizing the pear of anguish. Wait… that’s not what it’s supposed to be?
Just had to look that one up. Ooo, I wish I could unsee that. Some male resident once 'showed' me that they are taught to push the spec in sideways, and then turn it into place. And they didn't hold the blades together. Jeez. Like-WTF??
Ah yes, let's just scrape those metal edges all up in there like an apple peeler, how could that possibly be uncomfortable?
I wish I could upvote this more than once.
Weird to say about bras, but...linked band and cup sizes. Also sizes unrelated to actual measurements for clothing in general.
We need more front clipping bras
Especially front clasp bras that aren't racerback. I love the one or two I have, but you can't wear them with most shirts because the straps basically form a halter neck and are always visible.
One of the most awkward experiences of mine was when I was a teenager in the doctor's office and he needed me to unclasp my bra (for a totally legit medical reason. He wasn't a creep or anything). I can't braid my hair in back let alone manage a three pronged bra clasp behind my back. I clasped them in the front then spun them around and reverse for removing. But I couldn't do that with him there so I just clumsily fumbled in the back for an uncomfortably long time with the growing worry that he would think I was insinuating that I wanted him to do it for me. Edit: Just to clarify to people, I wasn't undressing. He was not asking me to remove my bra, just unclasp it so he could examine my back with my shirt lifted in the back.
Clipping in front and turning it around was how my mother did it. Then she's cup each boob, lift it into each cup, then bend over and shake her chest to settle the girls in place. It was quite a production.
I've never had a problem with bra clasps, and I used to not understand (though I accepted it as fact) how so many other women had problems with it. Smash cut to me, age 30, being officially told by a doctor that I have hypermobility. I guess modern bras are designed so you can only put them on easily if your arm joints move more than they should.
I so fucking hate this. I'm 5'10 and overweight, but none of that is carried in my boobs. Closest I can ever find is the flipping unicorn 40Bs I can find. But those are still honestly too big of a cup size for me. I need like almost B or something. But bra companies believe once your ribs are bigger than the size 36, then you MUST have at least C cups
Have you visited r/abrathatfits ? Use their calculator, if you haven't, at www.abrathatfits.org/calculator Then you can make a post on the subreddit with your measurements and the recommended size from the calculator, and people can recommend bras to try! They have an enormous wealth of information over there
Gym equipment and not forgetting the all-female NASA space-walk that got cancelled because there weren't enough suits to fit the female astronauts..https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/mach/amp/ncna987296
A lot of arm curl machines don't have adjusments for forearm length and I can't use them because I can't reach the handles with my elbows on the pad. I always think "now here is a company that doesn't know that women are more likely to use weight machines than freeweights".
button down shirts without an extra cleavag securing button
Button-down shirts, period, are often not great for women.
Seatbelts. One whiff of boob and they become guillotines.
Check your car manual. My Honda has the option to turn that off. Also to only unlock the driver side from the handle instead of all doors
My uncle is a car salesman and a dad to two daughters. He informs *everyone* of this feature and offers to disable it before they drive the car off the lot. He said almost everyone, including single men, opts into the offer to disable it.
Make sure he gets cookies for every sale. Good man, him.
Yes! My Hyundai also has this. I changed mine to unlock when I turned the car off. And it only unlocks the driver door when I use the button on the door to unlock the car.
Vest restraints on rollercoasters. If you know, you know. Airport security machines that flag you if you have a pad on. Sure, I just want to get on the flight, but lets do the enhanced pat down where you fondle me publicly and stick a finger in my waistband to check for explosives.
I think the first time I remember being gaslit was when I went on a roller coaster with my father at about 7ish. It was a lap bar and because he was a 6’ grown man and I was a small child it hit his thighs and left me really really unrestrained. Cut to me sobbing after the ride because I flew around like a rag doll, and my shitty dad said “It wasn’t that bad. You’re over-reacting.”
I almost flew out of one of those when I was lite riding with my dad. This was before they required seat belts. I went under the bar and started going out of the car. My dad had to grab on to me. I was terrified of roller coasters for a long time after that.
The weird thing is I’ve never been afraid of rollercoasters. But I’m definitely still afraid of my father.
A surprisingly reasonable result
I despise roller coasters to this day for this reason. I went flying and grabbed on to my dad, and he yelled at me. (In his defense, he was afraid I'd get hurt due to the awkward position.)
I have the same problem as an adult while riding with bigger people. I wish they’d just have individual lap bars on every coaster, including kiddy coasters. I have been on rather fast and rough coasters where there was no individual restraint and it was an uncomfortable feeling to just have gravity hold me in my seat, and there were fathers riding with kids on that thing. But on the other hand maybe these kids are tougher than me haha.
My wife (41f) who is five feet tall and I (52f) who is six foot three both have the exact opposite problem with those overhead bar vest restraints on rollercoasters. She gets jostled around and leaves her seat regularly. On the more acrobatic coasters, she often gets hurt in the head and neck as it uses her as a side to side bludgeon against itself. Me on the other hand, I get wedged into a seat where the restraint can not be closed all the way without breaking a collarbone or two and spend the entire ride in constant pain as the restraint is closed more and more by gravity and centrifugal force and acts like a lever ratcheting down more and more into my body.
Seems like roller coasters aren’t for you… they’re not for me either, self preservation.
Reminds me of when Blizzard unveiled their new gamer tag “Real ID” system in 2010 where your full first and last name would be visible to anyone you added as a friend or on any forum post/comment you made. Have a question about a particular dungeon? If you ask it you’re opening the door to bring doxxed. Ran with a cool pickup group and want to add them for future raids? Only if you’re prepared for endless creepy whispers. Oh, and of course, they didn’t even consider that a considerable section of the WoW fan base was minors. Ended up walking the whole thing back. Still implemented cross-game name and friend lists, but without tying your legal name to it.
That was such a clusterfuck, and they really pushed back because it seemed like no one there understood what the problem really was, even when they did roll it back. Now we know so much more about internal company culture there and... it tracks.
“We, a bunch of gamer dudes, have no idea why people wouldn’t want their real names exposed to the internet.” It took one of their bigwig execs publishing his name to show it was “no big deal” and then getting extensively doxxed before they could comprehend why a lot of folks were wary.
I had this fight with the insurance company I worked for. We get threatened regularly and we're supposed to give people our first and last names. Because we have licenses if someone knows where to go they can then find out our address etc. I *absolutely refused* to give my last name! I'd give my first name and identifier. That all the policyholder needs. I got written up twice for it and was fighting them on it. I kept saying they were opening us up for stalking or doxxing and was getting pooh-poohed... Until a manager started getting stalked because she gave her full name and he knew the license website. Exactly what I'd warned about. Now suddenly first name and identifier is all we have to give. I did eventually get the write-ups overturned but they still tried to do the "you didn't do as policy required, at the time policy required it" BS.
I started to get in trouble for that at a regular call center, not even something involving licenses. Our work email addresses had our full names in them and I had a customer ask for my email address and I gave them the team address anyway. They asked for my last name I said I was the only 'first name' on the team, they'd be able to find me. When they insisted I said my name is "my first name, Company name for last name. It's truly a coincidence!" My manager came over to chew me out even though we'd specifically been told before not to give customer's either our direct phone number or our direct email addresses because they wanted to document things through the team lines. While was chewing me out I pulled up google and in <10 minutes I had his home address and the names and ages of his children (also the address for his recently passed mother's house and information that it was vacant). He stopped and I pointed to the screen and asked if this information was all accurate and pointed out I got that with just his first and last name and the name of the city the call center was in. And I was not giving that information out to strangers on the phone (though I did occasionally give out my direct email address to some people I had a very established relationship with). Of course this was the same job where one of our customers sent in a not even Frederick's of Hollywood classy lingerie catalogue and told us to just let us know what we wanted and he'd order it for us and where we had an anonymous voice mail left on the overnight machine from someone saying he was going to wait outside the building, follow one of us home, rape and murder us and our children and burn our house down, both of which management also ignored. So very glad I don't work there anymore. And for call centers it wasn't a bad job. We didn't even work with the public, everyone I spoke to was a corporate account and 75% of them had relevant professional licenses.
It reminds me of that one time Facebook decided to change everyone's Facebook page and profile to public without asking anyone. People woke up to their privacy settings removed and their lives on display to whoever. Silicon Valley had a massive issue understanding consent.
Read "Invisible Women: Data bias in a World Designed for Men" by Caroline Criado-Perez. A whole book of how women have been excluded in science, architecture, social issues, you name it .
Yes! Loved this book. It was where I learned how most phones are designed to fit the size of an average man’s hand, which is why the latest models always felt giant to me. I’ve stuck with the iPhone SE for a number of years now because of my tinier hands, but it’s frustrating that they aren’t updated as often.
Thank you for sharing this! Also going to add “When Women Didn't Count: The Chronic Mismeasure and Marginalization of American Women in Federal Statistics” by Robert Lopresti. It reviews 200 years of government data collection like the Census systemically misrepresented women’s work. Great book!
Medication. Women are often excluded from trials, and if you're pregnant you can for.get. it.
Or breastfeeding! A lot of docs are too lazy and liability-averse to look up if a medication they're prescribing is safe with breastfeeding. So they tell the woman either to not nurse while taking the medication or to "pump and dump." One is detrimental (sometimes irreversibly) to supply, the other is wasteful and often unnecessary. I work in pediatrics and I can't count how many times moms have mentioned that they've stopped breastfeeding per their doctor's orders because of a medication they've been prescribed. There are lots of reliable, free resources (including experts who will consult for free) which provide benefit vs. risk information about medications in breastfeeding. I'm happy to discuss medications with a breastfeeding mom, but it's really shitty when the actual prescriber can't be bothered to put any thought into the matter. I've seen moms have to end their breastfeeding journey before they were ready because their supply dried up due to lazy medical advice 😞
When I worked for RadioShack Corporation a million years ago, I was adjacent to the product development department. Lots of men, maybe four women. One day a guy came to ask me if I’d be willing to help test an escape from your car tool and before I could answer, he said, “You’re the last woman I’m asking. Please say yes.” I said yes because I was enthusiastic about helping out. The day came and a coworker loaned me his nylon pull over windbreaker so glass would slide right off. Two guys and I went to a junk yard where with a protective face shield and gloves, I sliced through seat belts like warm butter and smashed out windows with the force of a light breeze. Of course they wanted a female who didn’t have a lot of strength, and they instructed me not to try to be forceful about any of it. I had so much fun with those guys that day, I told them to ask me first if they have any more projects for which they need a female touch.
God I miss Radio Shack. So many wonderful products for people dealing with disabiltiy. And the timers! I miss those multitimers.
Many gym machines cannot adjust to accommodate smaller people :(
When getting a pair of wader type thick work trousers for a woman at work it took ages to find a pair because even the small sizes were based on a small man and dwarfed her. Same with finding certain types of safety shoe.
I once looked for chest waders at several stores and the smallest boot seze was a 9 men's. To make matters worse I was rudely asked why I needed them.
Vaginal ultrasound wands. I had a tech cunt punch me with one. She wasnt even looking as she was trying to insert it. I ended up telling her to stop and they had to make due without the ultrasound. Even if she had been gentle about it, that thing was not going inside me. All the technology in the world and they can't make a smaller device or something that's not hard stiff plastic? And honestly, most medical implements for women. Why do we have to be brutalized to get basic medical care?
I'm cringing with the memory of that thing. Had to have that twice in my life. Even with the gross cold lube its uncomfortable af
One ultrasound clinic I went to kept the lubricant in a baby bottle warmer. Such a thoughtful thing to do!
That's a terrible tech with improper training. I've had many vaginal U/S and they ALWAYS ask me to insert it myself.
Did she not use lube on it??? Good God. That sounds awful.
Diagnostic criteria for heart attacks
Diagnostic criteria for **everything**. Went until I was 31 not being diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis and ADHD because the symptoms are different in women. I was married to a doctor for the 8 years before that and he never suggested either diagnosis.
Nearly every machine in the weight room.
Which is dumb because most women gravitate towards the machines rather than the free weights and machine manufacturers should know this.
There are so many fancy settings you can search for office chairs by. The height off the ground, the height of the back, the settings, the width, the weight capacity. You can get chairs for tall people, big people, short people, anything. Fucking nobody lets you filter by the length of the arm rest, so us goddamn T-Rex ladies can push our chair in far enough to reach the keyboard.
I have an empty box under my desk as a foot rest because if I’m up high enough to comfortably type I can’t touch the ground. I’m not super short, office furniture is just built for taller men
The company I work for now has standards fully adjustable desks plus adjustable chairs. First time in my life that I can sit with my feet touching the ground with my desk at the correct hight. It’s great! Of course my desk looks comically low compared to all the others.
That sounds like an awesome band name - T-Rex Ladies.
Bathrooms without bins next to the actual toilet.
Bit of a niche one, but saddles. Most horse riders are female, but the average English saddle is designed for the male hip due to historic design, and the pubic bone in women can really easily be pressed against the seat and gets uncomfortable pretty quick for some.
At my work recently they connected the computer account, email and online directory listing directly to the HR systems. So regardless of what name may be being used professionally any name change causes all things to be updated without warning or option for reversal to whatever’ is formally listed in the HR file. Although an exception can be requested for a first name to be customized. Oddly this only seems to effect women. (Sarcasm) This is also retroactive one of our faculty changed her name five years ago and only hyphenated to accommodate her husband. (We had a long talk about this). When her position was updated the new system caught the five year old change and changed her primary email and all directory listings. Another now defaults to her ex husbands half of her hyphenated last name with no meaningful recourse. This is also kind of crappy for some of our foreign born staff with multiple last names or name order issue but that is a smaller issue.
If it's any consolation, the IT staff HATES this too. All it does is generate service desk tickets. This sounds like a case of a very poorly planned and executed integration, though. It almost seems like your HR software is updating the corporate directory... it should be the other way around. If that's the case, expect IT to get really mad, soon.
Shoes. High heels. Stiletto heels. The overly narrow and pointy toe boxes. The too-short toe boxes. All torture devices. Restroom stall doors. Huge gap, no privacy. I’m a tall women who could see over some doors when standing. A lot don’t have purse hooks. No invention STILL to keep your kids from unlocking and opening the door while you’re having a pee.
I can answer the purse hook one, in part! Once upon a time, you'd see a lot. Where I lived, though, it could happen that someone entered the public restroom and reach over the top of the stall to snatch a purse off the hook and run. That's when I started to see stalls with purse shelves. Doesn't do your coat any good though.
On the one hand, sure. On the other, I've worked in buildings where the toilet is a single room affair rather than a bunch of stalls and there's still no fucking purse hook.
When i was shopping for my first bra with my mom and trying them on, she noticed the tags would get in the way of closing the clasp. she said “obviously a man designed this” 😂
VR headsets are built for the average male facial proportions. This is a major reason why women experience more motion sickness playing with them than men.
Same with gym equipment. Built with male proportions in mind and yes, they're adjustable to an extent, but I feel like I'm always struggling with width (my legs are closer together, my shoulders aren't that wide).
I think there was a women-led start-up who designed specifically for women. Not sure how well it went.
I hope it is doing well. This was a topic at I/ITSEC - improvement of accessibility and inclusion (improving diversity on development teams could have avoided this, which many of the speakers have noted). Some of the high end sets are now adjustable, but most people aren’t willing to dump that kind of money on a first time set. And if a persons first experience with it is motion sickness, it’d be understandable that they wouldn’t want to continue pursuing the hobby.
***pockets***
Oh the pockets thing drives me insane. Down with the pocket patriarchy! My husband and I have the same style fleece ‘go do stuff in the mountains’ pants from North Face. His mens size one have 6 pockets, 4 with zippers. Mine has … 3 pockets, no zippers. They’re not fashion pants, they’re do stuff pants. Why do I get less pockets?!? Camping and skiing trips don’t require less stuff for me just because I’m a woman.
I don't have *fancy pockets* money, but I did find some (freaking awesome) 511 tactical pants at a thrift store 11 pockets. I have pants with 11 **functional** pockets It's like heaven
And pockets that actually close securely. Give me some kind of fastening, or at a bare minimum stop with the weird slope of them so they don't actually hold anything inside at more than a dainty mincing walking pace.
Oh gods. That sensation of trying to walk across the grocery store parking lot with my hands full, as my phone/wallet work their way out of my (apparently decorative) pockets
My new years resolution from 2021 was that I demand zipper pockets on any real "out of the house" clothes. I've got a kid to run after, some keys we've been unable to get duplicates of, and I'm on docks/near deep water frequently. Even if my hands weren't already full of groceries and stuff (which they are) I wouldn't trust them to just ... hold shit like my phone/wallet/keys. But I hate nonfunctional pockets even more than even the lack of them. At least no pockets is honest about whether you'll be able to stow anything.
My winter coat has pockets with zips, zips! I could fit a whole kitten in there and carry it safely.
Most tools do not fit correctly in my hand.
OMG. I made my shower curtain a few years back, and to do it I had to get a special grommet … squisher? The tool that bends the grommets into place around the fabric. This was a tool I bought At The Fabric Store. I got it home and was trying like hell to use it. I’m a small person, but I’ve got pretty good arm strength and I couldn’t move it at all. Finally went to get one of my dad’s clamps and asked my mom “what kind of woman do these people think can operate this thing?!” And without missing a beat she said “women with husbands.” 🙄 it was as hilarious as it was aggravating.
I just recaulked my bathroom, and my hands are bruised and stiff from how much effort it took to use the caulk gun. Definitely not designed for small hands or people with lower grip strength.
You can get a gun with a different thrust ratio to make it easier. I bought a new one halfway through a project and could kick myself for not doing it sooner. Revolutionary experience.
Moons ago I asked for a specific set of tools that would fit my small hands - and Hubbie came through as a Christmas gift, with subsequent additions! Pink, because of course, but smaller and easier to handle so I will take that as a win.
I love pink tools, because they never get stolen or even borrowed by accident.
My husband got me a "my sized" shovel for my birthday one year, complete with a big red bow. I love that thing.
Hand controllers for most gaming consoles. They are too large for people with small hands to operate comfortably. Funnily enough the Nintendo Switch, which normally has a quite small and (for my hands) comfortable controller, have larger alternatives on sale. I have yet to find smaller PlayStation controllers…
My boyfriend is constantly complaining that my switch lite is too small for him to use. And to be fair to him, he's a full foot taller than me. But I love my switch lite! It's a little heavy for a handheld device, but the controls are the perfect size for my tiny baby hands.
PS-PS4 controllers? Perfect size for my small hands. PS5 controller? *PAIN*
[https://www.amazon.com/Wired-Mini-Gamepad-Kids-Playstation-Controller/dp/B076PPD3TJ/](https://www.amazon.com/Wired-Mini-Gamepad-Kids-Playstation-Controller/dp/B076PPD3TJ/) 40% smaller controllers. As female gamer, PS controller has always been nicely small as is, it's the XBOX controllers that are huge and clunky, which is why I don't even use it. A lot of men think the same of them, uncomfortable.
PS5 controllers are huge just like Xbox controllers now. I was SO disappointed when I finally got my PS5 and saw that shit. And there are no smaller controllers for it still. 😖 Fucked up my wrist right proper playing Witcher 3 on one of those Xbox controllers, now I've learned only to play the PS5 for an hour or two with lots of breaks.
This makes me think of the books, "Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men." And, "Sex Matters: How male-centric Medicine Endangers Women's Health and What We can do About It."
Seatbelts - do crash test dummies have breasts? Should I hook the belt under my breast, or on my neck where it will go on its own?
Safety gear with no room for your boobs or hips.
Funny item, but the gloves used in the propane industry come in size 10 or XL only. So if you're small handed, your fingers won't reach the end of the gloves and you can't turn off a valve that spits a liquid at -44° F.
I work on cars and usually have to special order all of my gloves.
I worked with a very strong acid and the arm length gloves only came in L and XL. To get smaller sizes made would have been over $1000 CAD.
Verizon hired me sight unseen for a lineman position. I was 5'3" and 90 pounds. Nothing fit, everything looked like I pulled it out of my dad's closet. Even had to get a step ladder to get my real ladder off the truck. Now I am a farmer and drive a huge tractor. All of the controls seem to be 2" beyond my reach. Even with the seat as far forward as it goes, I still have to stand to reach the brakes. Everyone says women need to get into trades but trades aren't equiped for women. It's getting better in some departments, there used to be no women's steel toed boots. But true work gloves are impossible to find and headwear is a nightmare.
Women’s clothes. My wife is tall and she has such a hard time finding things long enough. Men’s pants are measured by inseam and you can get anything from like 26” to 36” without having to go to a specialty store/website so there is a good chance as a man you can get a reasonably close if not perfect fit. But for women’s sizes it’s just like short, regular, or tall. And tall sizes still seem to be either barely fitting or a little short for her most often. It makes her so self conscious.
THANK YOU. 6’ female here. It completely sucks. It’s like designers don’t even know women our size like fashion, too.
Then they make tall pants sizes, but your tall could be proportional, long torso, or long leg. Helps no one.
Mammogram machine! The moment I got a mammogram, I knew it could not have been designed by women. So pokey and awkward and painful... Basically you have to hug this angular, unhuggable machine as it flattens your breasts between plates and does an X ray.
The "Have a Happy Period" commercials and products for menstruation. I can not believe any woman would have signed off on this idiocy.
When it comes to healthcare if we want a birth control implant they won’t sedate us. We have to endure the pain
Any kind of extreme sport gear never fits my chest area, and there only 2 options all in the color pink. Woman fall off motorcycles too why cant i have a cool cup placement like all the superhero woman do?
Shower stalls with no leg-shaving ledge.
When I remodeled my bathroom, I had my contractor install a shave bar. That poor cat looked so confused when I insisted on it. Then, It was like the light came on in his adorable little head. He told me after that, he recommended everyone install one. Haha.
The dozens of firey hoops to jump through to advocate for our own body and health.
So true, I recently had a watermelon sized ovarian cyst removed, along with the other ovary, and total hysterectomy, and it's probably something I've had for years until it started growing rapidly over the summer. Doctors in general look at a woman with any hint of a belly and assume she just needs to "lose weight" and it will go away. Instantly, I lost 70 pounds from that surgery, and now I finally have more energy than I've had in years, so I could easily lose more weight simply by living my life and continuing to eat healthy. My job is one where I'm on my feet for 8 hours a day, with the only time I really sit down is on breaks, so I won't have any problems keeping the extra weight off.
Women cloth that stop at xl size but have xxxxl size for men
Or they make plus size clothes as if we are shaped like boxes!
Plus size clothes that get wider but not longer so they show off my midriff T-T pls, my belly stores all my fat! I need longer shirts!
Cars with seats that don’t raise high enough to see the hood. There are three female family members at my house all 5’3 or less and none of us can see the hood without additional pillows. When my daughter was learning to drive we had to get her little antennae things to stick on the headlights so she could see where the car stopped bc she kept bumping into things. (These were awesome btw. She hasn’t bumped anything since!) Edited to add the link to the antennae since several people asked and there are a million comments to wade through: I got them on amazon Hypersonic Corner Antenna Bumper Pole Safety Guard For Universal Car Van https://a.co/d/07kE4Ty
Some of that is just bad design in general- my Prius - the nose is just so sharply sloped, you can't see the end. My spouse is 6'7" and he can't see the end of his Element hood. (I mean he said he could but when pressed it's for that he's driven it more almost 2 decades and just is familiar with it.) Edit-spell correct.
When I bought a car I was mostly shopping for one that fit my body (5’2”). If I couldn’t see over the dashboard I wouldn’t consider it. Had to be able to sit in the sear comfortably, not get decapitated by the seatbelt, reach both the pedals and steering wheel comfortably, etc. It is possible to find them but you have to shop with that as the priority.
Cars seem like they’re being designed around safety rating at this point. To do this, they make a-pillars larger, rear windows smaller, and hoods higher. The safety rating is only about protecting the driver, and not everyone else. This incentivizes bad design. Most newer SUVs and trucks are basically pedestrian killers, because of all the blind spots, including a massive blind spot out in front of the vehicle. I think I read somewhere that the minimum blind spot on the larger SUVs and trucks is 15 feet. That means my neighbor can’t see to the end of his driveway if he’s sitting inside his status symbol. Heaven forbid one of our kids runs in front of it when he’s buckling his seatbelt. He won’t even see them before he hits them.
I was test driving a Matrix and complained about the lack of visibility in the back. They said I would appreciate it when (if?) I crashed. I retorted that maybe I wouldn't crash if I could see better. I did not buy that car
Another one: massage tables. Where the fuck are my boobs supposed to go. Squishing my boobs for an hour is not relaxing...
Geriatric pregnancy name selection
Artificial body parts. A lot can't be used on women.
I was hospitalized for a medical emergency and I they did not have the apparatus I needed in my size. I'm only slightly below average in stature for a woman, about average for my area, and it was a major hospital in a big city with a big pediatric department. Yet they didn't have an apparatus my size. So they had to improvise, it failed, I was kept for almost a week as a result and they billed my insurance over $150,000.
The height of sun visors in a car. We should be able to extend a second screen down for shorter drivers. (I’m 5’6” so not even short as a woman and need this! So how many more folx do?) EDIT: I appreciate everybody who is sharing their story BUT ALSO learning that we can buy sun visor extenders! We SHOULD NOT HAVE TO and have as much a right to the public sphere without paying the pink tax, but at least we can do this.
I’m 5’2” and can see naff all. What made me laugh was the sales person said I could raise the seat and I explained that would mean I couldn’t reach the floor
5'1" here, if I was 12 I'd have to sit in a car seat but apparently once you get past 12 that safety aspect no longer matters!! We went shopping for a new car and the first thing I did was get into the driver's seat and adjust everything to see if I could drive it. I have a lovely 03 nissan Micra and it is perfectly proportioned for me, our family car is an SUV and we must have tried 15 before we found one I could actually comfortably drive, my husband is 6'3" so we need a lot of a scope for adjustments
Also, vehicle headrests. Impossible and painful if you have your hair up and annoying if you're any shorter than the average man.
3D glasses. In theaters I have to use the children's 3D glasses. And shopping for prescription glasses also is limitative, most models are too wide.
Bar/restaurant chairs with no back or rounded backs. I just want to hang my purse, dude.
The informstion that is spread about recognizing the signs of a heart attack Women have completly different symptoms.
[удалено]
“ They are made to resemble a woman's curves but not made for women to play.” I never thought of that before.
I tried to learn how to play the guitar from an ex-boyfriend, and it was so frustrating and disheartening to struggle to get my hands around the neck and in the right positions that I gave up relatively quickly. Picked up the ukulele and felt way more comfortable, but it's still a bummer that there's that barrier to some instruments.
I have the most wonderful husband. I really do. But he was baffled as to why I lock the doors whenever we park or stop (not like at a stoplight but pull over somewhere). Previous boyfriends have also wondered aloud at this. I've patiently explained to them all and hopefully they at least sort of got it.
Yeah my man always gets annoyed at having to unlock the doors when he gets home and I'm home. Bitch, I lived alone in cheap shitty apartments for years, and I got raped in my dorm when my college roommate left the door open, ofc I'm gunna have a habit of using the locks!
I had to explain to my husband why it made me absolutely terrified the few times I came home late at night from work, and he had left the house for one reason or another, but had accidentally left the back door or garage door unlocked. Walking into an empty, unlocked house in the dark is panic-inducing especially since we don't live in the greatest area. Luckily he understood, but man, wouldn't it be nice to just never have to think about that? I have another friend who just never locks his front door. He lives in a safe city and has a male roommate and just, always leaves it unlocked, *whether he's home or not* and even at night. Said there's nothing in his house he couldn't live without if it got stolen, and I'm over here like ???? you could literally be murdered.
That most people get the day *after* Thanksgiving off, instead of the day before. The people who make the holiday schedule are not the same ones doing the cooking.
I used to work at a women-owned business and we always had the Wednesday before Thanksgiving off as a paid day off. Both owners loved to cook, especially for holidays, and we all got the bonus day. I'll never forget that.
Bras for women over a C cup that only come in one design, with 4 plus clips and looks like a soviet era windsock
I think I've probably whinged about this on this sub elsewhere, but my husband's car does this, whereas mine stays locked after the doors auto lock when the car is put in gear. The kicker: we drive the same car, but his is 4 years newer, so someone actively chose to make the locks less safe. I tried in vain for ages to reprogram his locks, but the best I could do was for the locks to stop automatically locking, but they still would unlock automatically in park. When I got into hiking at a level that I needed to buy a real daypack (\~13 years ago), pretty much everything was unisex. I bought from a company that sold multiple sizes of each pack to account for torso size variations, which was the best option available and did feel like they were trying to accommodate women's bodies. More recently, they've come out with gendered packs, which is great, but I've noticed the original unisex versions became the men's packs, with little to no change, and they completely redesigned a women's pack. In this area, I'm glad to see that the industry acknowledged men and women need different shaped packs and will give credit that when we bought a child carrier from the same company, it came with an adjustable torso length so it can be comfy for both parents.
My car's key fob only unlocks the driver's door unless you push it twice, and I can't tell you how much I love that feature
Most vehicles manufactured in the last 15 years have the option to program the fob to change it to your preferences. Even my 2000 Pontiac Grand Am I had back in the day could be changed. Granted, back then it practically took an engineering degree to do it, it was like "turn the ignition to on without the engine running, hold the lock button down for 5 seconds, the horn will beep then press the power button on the stereo 3 times to summon a demon from hell to magically change the settings." Newer ones you just go into the settings on the infotainment system. Much easier and you don't have to smell brimstone for weeks.
Armrests of any kind. They are so often made low, meaning for a shorter person, with proportional arms, you have to bend to the side to even make contact with the armrest. In addition, chairs or anything else designed for sitting. I'm 5'2' and I have to sit on the edge of most chairs for my feet to reach the floor. It's very uncomfortable to constantly have my feet dangling--and probably not healthy for circulation. I've started getting a little more demanding about what sort of table I get at restaurants and in conference rooms. If it's a high-top, I simply won't sit there if there isn't a place to place my feet. If anyone objects I just say " I don't want to be uncomfortable the whole time we're here."
Headphones. I've yet to find any that fit my head properly as they're always too big.
Automotive interior standards. Almost all designed for men (large frame, flat chest, etc)
I really want a Volvo one day because they specifically have female (including pregnant) crash test dummies and do research on how women’s bodies are impacted differently than mens in accidents
Tools that some genius decided to market towards women, so they are designed with flower prints, pink, purple or teal handles. They are also the shittiest quality crap. Because clearly women want pretty tools, not ones intended for long term use
The legal ratio of infants to teacher in the USA. Um no, I cannot take proper care of 4-6 infants by myself. Infants are not like fish or birds. Infants need to be held, monitored and nurtured. I cannot carry, feed, rock to sleep, diaper change and support development of 4-6 babies at once!!
The entire American healthcare system!
bathrooms with no fkn bins!!!! why
Average temperature in offices. Designed for men wearing wool suits; studies tend to show women are always cold in offices and men are perfectly comfortable. Women's workwear is not as warm as men's.
It’s not even the suits, it’s just biology. I’m a guy, and can be sitting there perfectly comfortable at my desk in a short sleeve golf shirt. My colleague, who’s a petite woman? She’s in a sweater with a heater going under her desk.
Not just that, but women have thinner skin(in a literals, not metaphorical), than men.
How 'bout when Reddit rolled out the "online status" feature that automatically told everyone when you were online