It is an ever ongoing endeavor to make human lives not only easier, but also safer through technology. This is especially true for the automotive industry, which is constantly improving its products to make driving safer, and reduce the risk of injury for its occupants. Car crashes are one of the leading causes of death and injury in many countries, and these companies make their cars safer every year to combat that problem. An integral part of making automobiles safer is automotive crash testing. These testing programs make use of dummies to simulate humans during a crash. This allows the scientists and engineers to get data that would be impossible to get from an actual human without risking their life. However most of these dummies are modeled after human males, which means that the data collected and the developments made are done according to the male population only. The resultant gender differences in design have led to women being more prone to severe injuries compared to men in comparable crashes. For example, in the event of an accident, the airbags in the car will strike a male driver in the upper chest, thus creating a cushion for the body and head. However in the same car, and the same accident, the airbag is likely to have a different outcome on a female driver, as smaller women will come in contact with the airbag chin first, which will snap their head back and possibly lead to serious neck and spinal injury. The University of Virginia’s Center for Applied Biomechanics conducted a study of actual crashes, and found thatwomen had a 47% more chance of sustaining severe injuries than their male counterparts in similar crashes. Risk for moderate injury was also 71% more, and women were 17% more likely to lose their life, according to the study. Since the 1950s, developers have been using crash test dummies. For years now, the most commonly used dummy has been one based on the 50th percentile male. This dummy is significantly taller and heavier than the average woman with male spinal columns and male muscle mass proportions. It wasn’t until 2011 that female crash test dummies began to be used for testing in the US. But, these dummies were simply scaled-down versions of the male ones, and weren’t modelled after female bodies. Female-typical characteristics like lower bone density, differences in distribution of muscle mass, and differences in vertebrae spacing were not accounted for in these “female dummies”. This has given rise to women’s safety being completely ignored when it comes to development of automobiles. It is about time that women get their due and become a point of consideration in the development of technology.
10 Jan 2022
Sophia Navagaonkar
