Caroline Criado Perez

Groundbreaking non-fiction works addressing gender inequality and systemic data gaps have transformed contemporary public policy, urban planning, and economic design. Feminist writer, journalist, and campaigner Caroline Criado Perez has emerged as a leading voice in evidence-based activism by translating complex empirical research into clear social critique. Her best-selling investigation, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, brought widespread global attention to how male-default data collection harms women in everyday life.

Career & Background

Born in 1984, Criado Perez studied English language and literature at the University of Oxford before studying behavioral and feminist economics at the London School of Economics. She established her profile through national public campaigns in the United Kingdom aimed at increasing female representation in media and civic life. She founded The Women's Room project to boost female expert participation in journalism, successfully campaigned for Jane Austen's inclusion on the British ten-pound banknote, and spearheaded the effort to erect the first statue of a woman in Parliament Square. Her activist efforts against online harassment also led major social media platforms to reform their abuse reporting systems.

Criado Perez's campaigning and investigative writing have earned extensive international recognition. She was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2015 Queen's Birthday Honours and was awarded the Liberty Human Rights Campaigner of the Year award. Her global impact on gender equity was further recognized with Finland's Hän Honour in 2020 and the inaugural Unwin Award in 2025. She also holds honorary doctorates from the University of Lincoln, the University of Westminster, and The Open University.

Writing Style & Themes

Criado Perez's writing combines rigorous analytical research with accessible prose, translating economic data, medical studies, and policy reports into clear real-world narratives. Drawing on her academic background in literature and economics, her work investigates structural biases in tech algorithms, workplace safety regulations, healthcare clinical trials, and municipal services. A recurring theme across her work is how treating the male body and experience as the universal baseline creates systemic blind spots that endanger women's health, safety, and economic security.

Major Works

• Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men — Published in 2019, this landmark bestseller documents how gender data gaps impact women's daily lives across medical research, workplace safety, product engineering, and public policy. The book sold over one million copies, was translated into more than 30 languages, and won the 2019 Royal Society Science Book Prize, the 2019 Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award, and the 2019 Books Are My Bag Readers Choice Award.
• Do It Like a Woman — Published in 2015, Criado Perez's debut book profiles pioneering women from around the world who broke barriers, challenged patriarchal structures, and established achievements across diverse professional and social fields.