Author
Amelie Withers
Amelie submitted one of the shortlisted entries in the Politika Policy Competition 2025. She is currently studying in college in the South East.
Opinions
Programmes
Opinions
Programmes
Author
Amelie Withers
Amelie submitted one of the shortlisted entries in the Politika Policy Competition 2025. She is currently studying in college in the South East.
We like to think of Britain as a country that runs on evidence. But what if that evidence only told us half the story?
From healthcare to transport to AI, women’s lives are consistently missing from the numbers that shape our public policy. Caroline Criado Perez calls this the gender data gap, the absence of information about women’s bodies, lives, and needs in the data that drives decision-making. Put simply, our systems are built around a “default male.” And when women aren’t counted, women don’t count.
The consequences are shocking. Women are 50% more likely to be misdiagnosed after a heart attack because medical training is based on male symptoms. Car safety standards use crash test dummies based on men, leaving women 47% more likely to be seriously injured in accidents. Even public toilets reflect the gap, with women waiting up to 2.3 times longer. These aren’t inconveniences, they are life-threatening design flaws.
Now AI risks making things worse. If we train algorithms on biased data, we cement those biases into society forever. For example, some hiring algorithms are downgrading CVs that mention ‘women’, and digital health tools are overlooking female symptoms. Without change, the gender data gap won’t just persist, it will become permanent.
So, what’s the solution? I propose a Gender Data Reform Act. This is legislation that would finally bring women into the evidence base.
First, make sex-disaggregated data the default. Every public body, from the NHS to the Department for Transport, should be required to record outcomes for women and men separately.
Second, launch a National Data Review. An independent Office for Data Fairness, housed within the Office for National Statistics, would check through existing datasets, and identify where women are missing. This would check all areas from endometriosis and menopause research, to the “invisible economy” of unpaid care work, three-quarters of which is still done by women.
Third, fund what we don’t yet know. A £100 million Gender Data Innovation Fund could support universities, councils, and start-ups to create new datasets. Such as, AI tools trained on women’s health data to shorten diagnosis times, or city plans shaped by mapping women’s safety concerns at night.
Fourth, any AI used in public services, whether in healthcare, welfare, or policing, should have to publish its accuracy rates by gender, race, disability, and age on a public Bias Ledger. Systems that fail fairness checks should be paused until fixed.
Finally, create a right to data fairness so people can challenge decisions made with biased or incomplete data. An independent Digital Ombudsman would handle these appeals and make sure the system is fair for everyone.
The UK’s statisticians and digital experts are among the best in the world, but without a framework for data equality their work will always be incomplete. Legislating for fairness will save lives, improve efficiency, and build trust in the systems that govern us.
Half the data means half the country is invisible. This Act makes women visible at last.