From exercise apps that consider your monthly cycle, to running shoes designed according to women’s feet
The world as we know it has largely been designed for men.
This statement can be illustrated in the pharmaceutical industry, where fewer women were enrolled in drug trials, leading to overmedicated women, according to a study done by the University of California in 2020.
Even our everyday car seat belts have also been traditionally designed with men in mind, as the crash test dummies used to test the seat belts in the 1960s were based on the average man’s biometrics. A 2019 study published in the journal Traffic Injury Prevention found that women wearing seat belts are 73 per cent more likely to be injured in a front-end car crash than men.
According to the Design Council’s analysis of the design workforce in the UK in 2021, 78 per cent of the design workforce is made up of men. The study also finds that women are less likely than men to be in senior roles.
However, gone are the days when women are assumed to only lift half-pound pink dumbbells at the gym. With an increasing number of women embracing previously male-dominated industries and sports, from weightlifting to the rise in femtech, more companies are now introducing products that are designed with women in mind.
More recently, Lululemon introduced its first footwear collection, which was specifically designed for women's feet. “We intentionally started with women first because we saw an opportunity to solve for the fact that, more often than not, performance shoes are designed for men and then adapted for women,” said Sun Choe, Lululemon’s Chief Product Officer.
Here, we round up a few exercise products designed for women on the market.
Women’s Fitness App by Wild AI
Designed for women who are serious about their fitness training, Wild AI is a fitness app that helps you maximise your training by using the science of female physiology. The app offers recommendations for everything from training, recovery, and food based on the user’s menstrual cycle. For example, if you’re in the follicular phase of your cycle, the body’s immunity is higher, making it the best time to do more intensive training.
Learn more by visiting @wildaiapp on Instagram
See also: The Best Period Tracking Apps of 2022
