Latest / Arroe Collins Like It's Live / Man Made How We Designed A World That Leaves Women Out From Karen Korellis Reuther
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Oh, there's a reason why we created aro dot net
- 0:03Speaker 1: a R r OE dot net because I'm a podcast listener.
- 0:06Speaker 1: I know what it's like to be in the front
- 0:08Speaker 1: seat of your car or at work and all of
- 0:09Speaker 1: a sudden, that really cool podcast you've been digging for
- 0:12Speaker 1: the past couple of days. You're going, eh, I figured
- 0:16Speaker 1: it out. I'm bored. I don't know where to go now. Well,
- 0:19Speaker 1: instead of jumping all over these other platforms searching for
- 0:22Speaker 1: something that's going to entertain you, just stay on arow
- 0:25Speaker 1: dot net because there are twenty different podcasts to choose
- 0:29Speaker 1: from a R R o e dot net. Enjoy your exploration, Karen,
- 0:34Speaker 1: I got to tell you something as a guy, you know,
- 0:36Speaker 1: and one of the things that I love about this
- 0:38Speaker 1: book is that it's so real and it's got to
- 0:40Speaker 1: be a part of our everyday conversation. Because you're so
- 0:42Speaker 1: right about this is that the world was designed with
- 0:45Speaker 1: women out of mind. And that upsets me. And I
- 0:48Speaker 1: think it's because I'm a radio broadcaster and I feel
- 0:50Speaker 1: like that there should be more women in this industry
- 0:52Speaker 1: as well as there should be more decision makers in Washington.
- 0:55Speaker 2: D C.
- 0:55Speaker 1: There's got to be a shift here and it's going
- 0:57Speaker 1: to take people like yourself to open up that door
- 0:59Speaker 1: to say it's okay to walk through. You may rough
- 1:02Speaker 1: it up a bit, but let's do this.
- 1:05Speaker 2: Absolutely. Thank you so much for that. I appreciate that. Yes,
- 1:09Speaker 2: in our built world, the products we wear, the products
- 1:12Speaker 2: we use, the environments we surround ourselves with. As a designer,
- 1:17Speaker 2: I know we can build things better.
- 1:19Speaker 1: And in order to do that, though, it's going to
- 1:21Speaker 1: take more conversation than that, because I mean, there's got
- 1:24Speaker 1: to be an activation somewhere along the line. What are
- 1:27Speaker 1: you doing now that you've released this where people because
- 1:30Speaker 1: they're gonna be searching, they're gonna be going to chat GPT,
- 1:33Speaker 1: they're gonna be going to Gemini, and it's like, okay,
- 1:35Speaker 1: we got to have the right answers for them.
- 1:38Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, you know, I think that we have designed
- 1:42Speaker 2: you know, Oh, it's so hard to just simplify, but
- 1:45Speaker 2: we've been designing to a male standard forever, right since
- 1:49Speaker 2: the mid eighteen hundreds when they started to measure human
- 1:52Speaker 2: beings to create what was considered normal, and that guide
- 1:56Speaker 2: sort of spreading far and wide has become sort of fact,
- 2:01Speaker 2: even though we know that that's not the case, So
- 2:05Speaker 2: I would say that as people start to get active
- 2:09Speaker 2: and understand the space, you know, notice where the built
- 2:12Speaker 2: world is not fitting, call attention to it. I think
- 2:15Speaker 2: as women, we have become so accustomed to living in
- 2:19Speaker 2: a world that's not designed for us that we ourselves
- 2:24Speaker 2: don't know that it can be better, or we're hesitant
- 2:27Speaker 2: to bring it up for fear of, you know, appearing
- 2:31Speaker 2: to be complaining about something, especially if if you're one
- 2:35Speaker 2: of only right. Like you said, in the business, there
- 2:38Speaker 2: are still so few of us that you oftentimes don't
- 2:41Speaker 2: want to draw attention to your differences, where I like
- 2:45Speaker 2: to say that your difference does not equal deficiency.
- 2:48Speaker 1: See I see this every day at my other essential job,
- 2:51Speaker 1: and it's with the protective equipment. And man, I'll tell
- 2:54Speaker 1: you what more. People tell me to back it down,
- 2:56Speaker 1: and I can't because when it comes to protective equipment,
- 3:00Speaker 1: and I know in my own heart, and it might
- 3:02Speaker 1: be the martial artist coming out in me, when I
- 3:04Speaker 1: know that a woman who does not have the right
- 3:06Speaker 1: protective equipment is going into a situation, it'say, no, do
- 3:09Speaker 1: not do that. Let me do what I need to
- 3:12Speaker 1: do with Let me put the stuff on and use
- 3:14Speaker 1: the equipment because it's not fit for you. And then
- 3:16Speaker 1: they're going, oh, you male, chauvinistic pig you and I
- 3:19Speaker 1: swear to God, I'm not.
- 3:22Speaker 2: Well. You know, we want to get women into those trades, right.
- 3:25Speaker 2: My parents started a roofing company in northwest Indiana when
- 3:28Speaker 2: I was a kid. You know, roofing is a tough business,
- 3:32Speaker 2: and you know, we have we have a lot of
- 3:35Speaker 2: need for skilled trades people and women should be able
- 3:39Speaker 2: to fill a lot of these roles. But keeping them
- 3:42Speaker 2: safe on the job is job one. So whether it's
- 3:47Speaker 2: a pair of gloves that's designed to the anatomy of
- 3:50Speaker 2: her fingers, or overalls that fit, or the ability to
- 3:55Speaker 2: wear a safety harness that protects her, I want women
- 4:00Speaker 2: in those fields to be able to unapologetically ask for
- 4:05Speaker 2: that equipment. It does exist. It may not be operating
- 4:10Speaker 2: on the profit model that we're used to right supply
- 4:12Speaker 2: and demand, But my argument in the book is we
- 4:15Speaker 2: need to demand and supply well see.
- 4:18Speaker 1: And I think that also goes down to what we're
- 4:20Speaker 1: wearing for clothes too, because everybody's dressed up in their
- 4:22Speaker 1: clown costumes for the business. And the thing is, though,
- 4:25Speaker 1: is that if it is preventing you from making moves.
- 4:28Speaker 1: Then we've got to get rid of the product. But
- 4:30Speaker 1: they won't. And I see it every day with the
- 4:32Speaker 1: women because they complain about it. It's like I can't
- 4:34Speaker 1: move right, and I'm thinking that this has got to
- 4:38Speaker 1: make a big change and growing and growing forward.
- 4:42Speaker 2: Well, and we want women in those roles, right, we
- 4:45Speaker 2: want that, we want their perspective in those jobs. And
- 4:49Speaker 2: so to make to make it unavailable as for me
- 4:52Speaker 2: as a designer, to have certain professions be unavailable because
- 4:57Speaker 2: the equipment doesn't fit, right, I know we can do better.
- 5:01Speaker 1: This is a shocker and it should be an eye
- 5:03Speaker 1: opener for listeners as well as readers. Women are seventy
- 5:06Speaker 1: three percent more likely to be injured in a car accident.
- 5:10Speaker 1: And of course the guys are going, how how is
- 5:12Speaker 1: that even possible?
- 5:15Speaker 2: Well, it is possible, absolutely, because we're not and seventeen
- 5:20Speaker 2: percent more likely to die as the result of a
- 5:22Speaker 2: car crash. So our crash test dummies that we use
- 5:27Speaker 2: to receive the en CAP five stars safety rating does
- 5:32Speaker 2: not include an accurate biopidelic That means a designed crash
- 5:39Speaker 2: test dummy based on a female physique. We do not
- 5:43Speaker 2: use those crash test dummies to test. We have a
- 5:49Speaker 2: version that we say is a Shrinket and Pinkett version.
- 5:52Speaker 2: It's a male model that's been scaled down, and they
- 5:55Speaker 2: use that to test for safety. But erro, they do
- 6:00Speaker 2: not use it behind the driver's seat. So the only
- 6:03Speaker 2: thing that's being tested behind the wheel, sorry, behind the wheel,
- 6:07Speaker 2: is a mail crash test dummy. And so that's why,
- 6:11Speaker 2: you know, I get into my car and my safety
- 6:14Speaker 2: belt just nerves me right because it's cutting me at
- 6:18Speaker 2: my neck right, it's sitting in an area that's very
- 6:22Speaker 2: uncomfortable for me. My husband doesn't have to deal with that.
- 6:25Speaker 2: I know that airbag has been you know, set to
- 6:28Speaker 2: a male a male standard, and that it's going to
- 6:32Speaker 2: hit me different when it's deployed. I'm driving a bigger
- 6:35Speaker 2: vehicle where I need to pull myself up closer to
- 6:40Speaker 2: the wheel and sit higher, which puts me in what
- 6:43Speaker 2: the car industry likes to call an out of position driver.
- 6:47Speaker 2: But how can fifty percent of the population more women
- 6:50Speaker 2: getting their driver's license now than men, How can a
- 6:55Speaker 2: woman be considered an out of position driver?
- 6:58Speaker 1: See and oh my god, and correct me if I'm
- 7:01Speaker 1: really wrong here, But I'm dealing with this even today,
- 7:04Speaker 1: where it's a man's world and not a woman's world.
- 7:06Speaker 1: And the reason and this goes all the way down
- 7:08Speaker 1: to what we're dealing with this morning, this real id
- 7:11Speaker 1: that we're supposed to have. The guy can walk in
- 7:13Speaker 1: there with all the right information, you know, you've got
- 7:15Speaker 1: his birth certificate and stuff like that, but the woman
- 7:17Speaker 1: has to prove everything, her whole entire process of birth
- 7:20Speaker 1: to where she is, every name changed. I'm going, well,
- 7:23Speaker 1: that's just unfair. I mean this is more than just
- 7:26Speaker 1: the workplace, this is everywhere we go. It is just unfair.
- 7:32Speaker 2: Well, you know, difference doesn't equal deficiency, right, We're different
- 7:36Speaker 2: and we're smart enough to realize in this dy and age,
- 7:39Speaker 2: with technology available to us, that we can make things
- 7:44Speaker 2: designed for our differences versus some artificial average.
- 7:49Speaker 1: What have you learned from doing this project, because I mean,
- 7:52Speaker 1: you got almighty. You have done some serious research here
- 7:55Speaker 1: and it's got to scare you as well.
- 8:00Speaker 2: Well it scares me. But I'm also really optimistic because
- 8:03Speaker 2: I think there's a role for everyone y in making
- 8:07Speaker 2: it better and that you know, not just as a
- 8:09Speaker 2: designer or the students that I teach, but if I'm,
- 8:13Speaker 2: if I'm a consumer, I can understand that by raising
- 8:17Speaker 2: this issue, that women men can become activists in this space.
- 8:21Speaker 2: When something doesn't fit, we can call attention to it.
- 8:25Speaker 2: We can call attention to the many products and places
- 8:29Speaker 2: now that are starting to surface that aren't designed not
- 8:33Speaker 2: just for women but also for men. Right, that it
- 8:35Speaker 2: can be profitable to design for both. That that makes
- 8:40Speaker 2: me very excited. I think as a consumer we can
- 8:43Speaker 2: speak our agency to spend and to buy and to
- 8:47Speaker 2: use what fits us properly. I think as designers we
- 8:51Speaker 2: can invent better. We can invent better, We can ask
- 8:56Speaker 2: for better design briefs. We can innovate based on all
- 9:00Speaker 2: the new technologies and prove that we do not have
- 9:03Speaker 2: to design for some artificial average, right. We can design
- 9:07Speaker 2: for differences versus artificial averages. And lastly, you know, if
- 9:13Speaker 2: I'm if I'm somebody in the C suite and I'm
- 9:16Speaker 2: looking to make investments, I say, bank on women right.
- 9:21Speaker 2: Every example a bank on women. Right. We may have
- 9:25Speaker 2: to reimagine what profitability looks like, but it's still going
- 9:30Speaker 2: to be profitable and half the planet is going to
- 9:32Speaker 2: be better off.
- 9:34Speaker 1: Please do not move. We're actually really just getting started
- 9:37Speaker 1: with Karen correll Us Reuter. We've got more coming up next.
- 9:42Speaker 1: The name of the book Man Made, How we designed
- 9:45Speaker 1: a world that leaves women out and how we can
- 9:47Speaker 1: make it right. We are back with Karen correll Us Reuter.
- 9:51Speaker 1: Do you ever sit back when we talk about these changes,
- 9:54Speaker 1: because I mean, first of all, you inspire me by
- 9:56Speaker 1: this book because I live it so therefore and to
- 9:58Speaker 1: see somebody even talking about it it is just so inspiring.
- 10:01Speaker 1: But of course I have to think about, oh, what
- 10:03Speaker 1: about mister wonderful on Shark Tank, because you know what
- 10:05Speaker 1: he's going to say, how much is changed going to cost?
- 10:07Speaker 1: What are we going to do? And yet you could
- 10:09Speaker 1: walk into a radio station studio and see that that's
- 10:13Speaker 1: a man driven world only because the earphones don't fit
- 10:16Speaker 1: and the chairs that women have to sit in are
- 10:17Speaker 1: very uncomfortable. I mean, it goes as far as that
- 10:20Speaker 1: it is everywhere, and you're giving us the opportunity to
- 10:24Speaker 1: see it. It's always been there, but we've been blind
- 10:27Speaker 1: to it.
- 10:30Speaker 2: Well, we've been blind to it, and when we haven't
- 10:32Speaker 2: been blind to it, we've talked ourselves out of it
- 10:35Speaker 2: for the very reason that you just meant the cost.
- 10:39Speaker 2: So I said, yeah, it does oftentimes in the business
- 10:43Speaker 2: world go back to go back to the cost. But
- 10:48Speaker 2: what we have to understand is that all business and
- 10:51Speaker 2: you know, I'm not I'm not saying I can speak
- 10:55Speaker 2: to the profit and laws statements of companies, but all
- 10:58Speaker 2: businesses are looking in the rear view mirror, right, how
- 11:02Speaker 2: did we perform last quarter? How did we perform last year?
- 11:06Speaker 2: All of that is based on the status quo. And
- 11:10Speaker 2: the status quo is mail. So if that's the only
- 11:13Speaker 2: thing we use success to measure success is profitability, and
- 11:18Speaker 2: compared to years before, we'll never be able to make
- 11:22Speaker 2: the changes. We'll never be able to make the investment
- 11:24Speaker 2: in the technologies or to create a separate product line
- 11:29Speaker 2: that fits women's bodies. So I say we have to
- 11:32Speaker 2: challenge the status quo. And my argument is we need
- 11:36Speaker 2: to end normal. There is no normal, there is no average.
- 11:41Speaker 1: Oh my god, there's your brand new merch right there.
- 11:43Speaker 1: You could sell that we need to in normal. Oh
- 11:46Speaker 1: my god, you could market that. Oh there's something to
- 11:49Speaker 1: be said right there.
- 11:51Speaker 2: Well, I like that if ending normal can help keep
- 11:55Speaker 2: women more safe and get them into roles and that
- 12:00Speaker 2: have not been designed for them by simply giving them
- 12:03Speaker 2: the equipment and the respect they need. Sign me up.
- 12:07Speaker 1: You know, there's one thing here that this is a
- 12:09Speaker 1: dose of reality that we all deal with on a
- 12:11Speaker 1: daily basis. And this goes all the way back to
- 12:13Speaker 1: my martial arts training as well, and that is when
- 12:16Speaker 1: it comes to CPR training, it's not a woman, is it?
- 12:19Speaker 1: Isn't it a guy?
- 12:21Speaker 2: I think my research uncovered that only five percent of
- 12:26Speaker 2: mannequins used in CDPR training are representative of the female anatomy.
- 12:33Speaker 1: And that's scary only because I can still hear my
- 12:36Speaker 1: martial art master tell me. He says, what you think
- 12:38Speaker 1: that in the real world that the guys are just
- 12:40Speaker 1: going to take care of the guys, You know, you
- 12:41Speaker 1: got to take care of the women as well. And
- 12:43Speaker 1: he was the one that opened up my eyes on
- 12:44Speaker 1: learning how to do CPR for women. And you just
- 12:48Speaker 1: didn't think that it was going to be different. But
- 12:50Speaker 1: when it's really physically happening, it can be a very
- 12:53Speaker 1: uncomfortable position for guys because you're touching somebody you.
- 12:56Speaker 2: Do not know absolutely and by standard hesitancy is one
- 13:01Speaker 2: of the reasons why fourteen percent fewer women received by
- 13:04Speaker 2: standard CPR. But it's mostly a hesitancy because they have
- 13:08Speaker 2: not been trained on a female body, so they're afraid
- 13:12Speaker 2: they might be doing something wrong. There are good Samaritan laws,
- 13:16Speaker 2: though I would really like to say that, like, no
- 13:18Speaker 2: one should feel hesitant to help anybody as a good Samaritan?
- 13:23Speaker 1: Am I being selfish here when I say this? Reminds
- 13:26Speaker 1: me so much of back in the nineteen seventies when
- 13:28Speaker 1: I was a lefty and there were no left handed scissors,
- 13:31Speaker 1: and my father goes, well, then you've got to be
- 13:33Speaker 1: a righty and so therefore that's I spent my entire
- 13:35Speaker 1: childhood trying to be a right handed person, and I stayed.
- 13:39Speaker 1: And I feel like that that's what's happening here. We
- 13:41Speaker 1: are forcing women to go into a man made world
- 13:44Speaker 1: and they have to stay there until, you know, just
- 13:47Speaker 1: get used to it, just do it well.
- 13:50Speaker 2: Yeah. And I use that example also in the book Arrow.
- 13:53Speaker 2: It is a lot like being a lefty forced to
- 13:56Speaker 2: use right handed products. You know, the only different diferences
- 14:00Speaker 2: that we've become so used to it that we've become
- 14:03Speaker 2: immune to it. So when something is tough, you know,
- 14:07Speaker 2: if you're using equipment on a construction site. Oftentimes something
- 14:11Speaker 2: is designed for the grip strength of a man and
- 14:15Speaker 2: to be operated with one hand, when a woman needs
- 14:19Speaker 2: both hands to operate that. So I know as a
- 14:23Speaker 2: designer that we can design that piece of equipment so
- 14:26Speaker 2: that she can use it with one hand as well,
- 14:29Speaker 2: and he'll probably be happier too.
- 14:32Speaker 1: So in the process of growing forward, because you know
- 14:34Speaker 1: how businesses are, we've all been in those conference meetings
- 14:37Speaker 1: and stuff like that and they're talking about safety and
- 14:39Speaker 1: they're going, Okay, we're going to make it a good
- 14:41Speaker 1: company so that new people can come in, and then
- 14:44Speaker 1: somebody always has to bring up so whose department is
- 14:48Speaker 1: this coming out of? And it's like, oh my god,
- 14:50Speaker 1: you had to break it down to that. Do you
- 14:52Speaker 1: find yourself arguing when you go to these conference meetings?
- 14:57Speaker 2: You know, I find myse self sometimes disengaging a bit
- 15:04Speaker 2: because I have had have had those conversations, and I
- 15:10Speaker 2: would say that if I was back there, right, if
- 15:14Speaker 2: I was back in a C suite again, I wouldn't
- 15:17Speaker 2: let myself disengage. I would hold on right. I would
- 15:21Speaker 2: white knuckle these conversations because these conversations are so important,
- 15:26Speaker 2: whether it's arguing over procurement right supply and demand volume discounts.
- 15:32Speaker 2: Whether it's arguing for something that really needs a policy change,
- 15:36Speaker 2: like the CPR mannequins you brought up for me, shouldn't
- 15:40Speaker 2: it be? Isn't this the role where policy can help
- 15:43Speaker 2: to say, if you are providing CPR certification, people need
- 15:48Speaker 2: to be trained on male, female and children full stop.
- 15:54Speaker 2: And then also just around power and leadership. You know
- 15:57Speaker 2: the rooms that we're sitting in when we do make
- 16:00Speaker 2: it through the labyrinth and we do end up in
- 16:02Speaker 2: the C suite, they are still so few women in
- 16:06Speaker 2: those rooms, and I just say, we need to look around,
- 16:09Speaker 2: we need to bring more women in. It's about gender
- 16:12Speaker 2: diversity in design and design for gender diversity. So I say,
- 16:17Speaker 2: you know, we have to hang in there, right, We
- 16:20Speaker 2: have to make this argument and hopefully there are enough
- 16:24Speaker 2: facts in the book and so many other people will
- 16:27Speaker 2: bring examples to light that we can start to use
- 16:32Speaker 2: real facts to say this is why we need to
- 16:36Speaker 2: make a change.
- 16:37Speaker 1: This is a scary thought here, and I mean it
- 16:39Speaker 1: as a positive more than the negative that a lot
- 16:41Speaker 1: of people are gonna hear when I bring it up,
- 16:42Speaker 1: and that is is that suffering a pelvic fracture in
- 16:45Speaker 1: our US military. It's like, you know, it's like when
- 16:48Speaker 1: you see a stop sign, and it's like, how many
- 16:50Speaker 1: people have to be killed on this corner in order
- 16:52Speaker 1: to put a stop to put a stop light in?
- 16:54Speaker 1: It's to me it's the same thing when it comes
- 16:55Speaker 1: to suffering a pelvic fracture. How many people have to
- 16:58Speaker 1: be injured before or something has to happen.
- 17:03Speaker 2: Well. The example of the pelvic fractures in our women
- 17:07Speaker 2: in the military was especially saddening to me because these
- 17:13Speaker 2: are women that put their lives on the line right
- 17:17Speaker 2: for hours and you know, suffering that number of pelvic
- 17:21Speaker 2: fractures because you've been put into the wrong boots, because
- 17:25Speaker 2: you are carrying a backpack that is designed for the
- 17:29Speaker 2: male anatomy and you're being measured on a stride length
- 17:33Speaker 2: that pushes you to the limit was very upsetting because
- 17:38Speaker 2: they're all it's all fixable, right, This is all fixable,
- 17:41Speaker 2: and it does not make our female military any less
- 17:46Speaker 2: qualified to put them in a boot that fits. They
- 17:49Speaker 2: can carry the weight, but the weight needs to be
- 17:52Speaker 2: in a pack that has been designed for the fact
- 17:55Speaker 2: that she has breasts and her hip structure is different.
- 17:58Speaker 2: And the stride length is the sort of marching stride
- 18:02Speaker 2: length that is very very fixable as well. Other countries
- 18:09Speaker 2: Australia and Ireland have fixed that and found the number
- 18:12Speaker 2: of pelvic fractures for their female service women to have
- 18:17Speaker 2: gone down. I don't know if we're going in that
- 18:20Speaker 2: direction though, right so. I think we need to understand
- 18:24Speaker 2: that this is common sense in a lot of cases.
- 18:27Speaker 2: And I want women to be as comfortable as they
- 18:30Speaker 2: can be asking for what they need, and I know
- 18:33Speaker 2: that's easier said than done.
- 18:35Speaker 1: I just did a big report on iHeartRadio yesterday that
- 18:38Speaker 1: was based on where are the Rebels today? And you're
- 18:40Speaker 1: one of them, and because it really does point to
- 18:42Speaker 1: the picture of the person that is doing something that
- 18:45Speaker 1: through books, through writing, through conversations, and that's the new rebel.
- 18:49Speaker 1: It doesn't mean that you have to go stand out
- 18:50Speaker 1: in a corner and make a bunch of noise. You
- 18:52Speaker 1: are creating a wave or a trickle that's going to
- 18:54Speaker 1: become a wave that's going to become a big change
- 18:56Speaker 1: in this country. I'm so proud of you for having
- 18:59Speaker 1: that curry and just say yeah, I'll talk, I'll write
- 19:02Speaker 1: about it. Let's make it happen aar.
- 19:05Speaker 2: Thank you so much. That was the compliment of the
- 19:08Speaker 2: highest order for me. I really appreciate that.
- 19:11Speaker 1: Well, you got to come back to this show anytime
- 19:12Speaker 1: in the future because evolution happens every day and we
- 19:15Speaker 1: need you to let us know where we can go
- 19:17Speaker 1: and grow together.
- 19:20Speaker 2: I would be happy to anytime.
- 19:22Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant today?
- 19:24Speaker 2: Okay, thank you