Women Not Included: Redesigning Everyday Consumer Products for Women's Bodies

Overview

The podcast investigates how everyday consumer products are often designed around male bodies and assumptions, leading to higher costs and poorer fit for women. It highlights the pink tax, usability gaps, and the social and economic impact of design bias.

• Pink tax and price discrimination across products marketed to women
• Footwear and clothing design rooted in male anatomy and shrinkage of sizes
• Tested menstrual products and how labeling can misrepresent absorption and safety
• Optimistic movements toward better sports bras, menstrual cups, and inclusive design

Key Insights

• Design bias affects comfort, performance, and injury risk
• Women’s leadership and voices in product development matter
• There are tangible, positive steps toward more inclusive consumer goods

Introduction

The podcast, part of the Women Not Included series on the BBC World Service Discovery channel, explores how the everyday items that run our lives have historically been designed with a male-centric view. The host, Ella Hubber, along with science and health journalist Katie Silver, discusses how this leads to unnecessary costs and suboptimal performance for women in areas from clothing to personal care products. The conversation frames a broader issue of gender bias in design and testing, and it sets up tangible case studies to explore how to move toward more inclusive product development.

Pink Tax and Design Bias

The discussion opens with the pink tax, a phenomenon where products marketed toward women cost more than their male counterparts. New York City data shows a broad price premium across hundreds of items, prompting questions about whether higher costs reflect real material differences or consumer targeting. The hosts argue that individuals cannot opt out of these decisions, which are embedded in corporate strategy and marketing, rather than consumer choice.

Running Shoes and Foot Anatomy

The show moves to footwear, where running shoes marketed as women’s often replicate the male last scaled down, with only cosmetic changes. Katie Silver explains that women typically have a wider forefoot, narrower heels, and different arch characteristics, which can influence comfort, stability, and injury risk. The conversation emphasizes that design should account for diurnal and individual variation rather than assuming a one-size-fits-all approach to foot shape.

Sports Bras as a Case Study

The program then highlights sports bras, noting that most research relies on treadmill testing and fails to capture real-world movements such as cutting and jumping. Chris Napier of the Simon Fraser University Run Lab discusses how to measure breast mechanics in three dimensions during sport-specific actions, aiming to move sports bras from mere garments to essential equipment for injury prevention and performance.

Menstrual Products: Testing and Regulation

A key segment centers on tampons, pads, menstrual cups, and period underwear. Dr Bethany Samuelson Banau explains that standard absorbency tests use saline rather than menstrual blood, which can lead to inaccurate assessments of product performance. Her team measured absorption using expired blood products across multiple product types, showing substantial variation in absorption and underscoring the need for standardized testing and clearer consumer warnings about heavy menstrual bleeding indicators.

Packaging and Product Warnings

The podcast advocates for more general packaging warnings and consumer-facing information that links product performance to real-world outcomes like bleeding patterns, pregnancy, and health conditions. The USA’s regulatory landscape is contrasted with other regions where menstrual products are treated as consumer goods, affecting tax, testing, and pricing dynamics.

The Role of Leadership and Voice

Beyond testing, the conversation emphasizes the underrepresentation of women in product design and leadership roles. Citing Harvard Business Review and primary research, the hosts argue that bringing women into leadership and design spaces is essential to understanding consumer needs and delivering better, safer, and more comfortable products.

Positive Change: Research and Innovation

The latter part of the show features optimistic examples. Christopher Napier discusses advances in three-dimensional sports equipment design and the growing emphasis on ergonomics that account for women’s bodies and life stages. The episode also highlights the menstrual cup as a positive example of longstanding technology gaining traction, with innovations that improve safety and reduce waste. The host closes with a call for continued investment in women-led research and inclusive design processes.

Conclusion

The podcast argues that everyday products should be designed with women’s bodies and experiences from the outset, not retrofitted later. It leaves listeners with a sense of both urgency and optimism about better sports wear, more accurate product testing, and a consumer environment that supports equality and health.