The way cars are designed in India could be putting women who drive them at risk, experts at a panel discussion at the recently-held Bengaluru Tech summit said.
“Seatbelts and airbags proved to be more deadly to women passengers than male,” said Cynthia Srinivas, Senior Engineering Manager at Intuit. The reason? Cars are primarily designed by men and are constructed to suit male physiology.
Though data released by the government points to the fact that most fatalities in road accidents in India are men, this could be attributed to risk-taking behaviour and the fact that most cars are driven by men.
However, Criado Perez, a British journalist, explains in her book ‘Invisible women: Exposing data bias in a world designed for men’ that a woman who is in a collision is 47% more likely to be seriously injured than a man and 17% more likely to die. This is attributed to the flawed design: engineers and designers take note of the male physiology as the default, which negatively affects the experience of female users.
She explains, for example, that the seatbelt in cars is designed with the average man in mind. They are made for people with the height of an average male, and the width of male shoulders. She says pregnant women, or the bust of women is not taken into account, which is the reason why many women prefer not to wear seatbelts.
Even when women do wear seatbelts, she explains, they aremore adversely affected during a crash due to the phenomenon called whiplash. During a crash, you go forward and come back with an enormous amount of force, which has the capacity to break your neck. Men are not as adversely affected as women by this phenomenon because their neck muscles are more defined. The current seat-belt design does not take this into account, experts say.
Airbags, too, have been designed based on crash data taken from a “male default” dummy during testing. Thus, smaller people, including children and women, are not adequately protected by airbags in cars. This is because where their bodies hit during a crash is completely different from that of a "default male".
The cars are also not easy to use for shorter or smaller drivers since they sit closer to the edge of the seat and it becomes difficult for them to reach the car pedals and often have to strain to see over the wheel. This brings their heads and chests closer to the steering wheel and the airbag, making their bodies more susceptible to injuries, researchers say.
However, this bad design is not just limited to the realm of private cars. Buses too are designed taking into account the average stride of a man, which makes it harder for women to enter a bus. This is because they are generally shorter, and take smaller strides.
What is the solution?
The panel at Bengaluru Tech Summit spoke of the importance of female representation at all levels, whether it be leadership or design. One of the speakers, Cynthia Srinivas, an engineering manager, especially highlighted the point of representation in design, saying that the risk of being a woman extends even when you’re within the comfort of your own car. “Women in leadership can also be more empathetic, which makes all the employees fare better in their work, not just women,” she said.