You’ll likely be well versed in the gender pay gap. But how much do you know about the gender data gap?

Even if it’s an unfamiliar term, it’s likely that you’ve dealt with its effects if you’ve ever, say, reached for an extra layer when the office air conditioning gets a bit too chilly, or had to jump on a stool to reach something on a top shelf.

Those are small consequences of the gender data gap, which activist and writer Caroline Criado Perez defines as a “female-shaped ‘absent presence’”. In a nutshell, it describes the way in which most data is based on men’s experiences. As a result, important decisions that are based on that data – such as defining the ideal temperature for an office building, or choosing how high to place the tallest shelf in a room – don’t account for women’s needs.

And the gender data gap has some huge effects, far beyond having to shiver through a day at work.

Why everyone’s talking about this new feminist book on the ‘gender data gap’