Why the world is still not built for women | Virginia Santy

Summary

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TED Talks Daily: "Why the World is Still Not Built for Women"

Speaker: Virginia Santy
Date: March 27, 2026
Host: Elise Hu
Event: TEDxMileHigh, Denver (2022)

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Episode Overview

This episode features design researcher Virginia Santy’s powerful TEDx talk delving into how our environments—workplaces, cities, and systems—are fundamentally designed for men, often neglecting the needs and lived experiences of women. By uncovering both the subtle and overt challenges created by this imbalance, Santy issues a rallying call to reimagine our built world through the lens of women’s experiences—arguing that doing so would improve society for all.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Everyday Discomfort of Women (03:49–06:10)

• Environmental Design Bias: Santy invites listeners to reflect on physical comfort—temperature, seating, safety—and notes these questions are rarely posed to men because "for the most part, we don't have to. Our environments are built for men and how they experience the world." (Virginia Santy, 03:58)
• Women’s Adaptation: She observes that women are conditioned to "accept our own discomfort, to accept the environments or systems around us as normal and natural," often without realizing how ill-fitting those systems can be. (Virginia Santy, 04:24)

Quote:
“The truth is, the world wasn’t built for women. In fact, in nearly every way, it’s been quite literally built for men.”
– Virginia Santy, 04:53

2. Historic and Systemic Exclusion (05:00–07:30)

• Male as Default: From da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man to the "Modular man" concept and mid-20th-century design, male bodies have been the reference for standard measurements—and, subsequently, for built environments.
• Ongoing Exclusion: Concrete examples include the late inclusion of female crash-test dummies (just 20 years ago) and women in medical trials (since 1991). Women—and especially women of color, women with disabilities, and those with intersectional identities—are “not seen, not measured, not valued.” (Virginia Santy, 05:30–06:50)

Quote:
“It’s like we have only recently realized women aren’t men.”
– Virginia Santy, 06:53

3. Reimagining Office Spaces for Women (07:31–11:04)

• Santy’s Project: Out of frustration with standard offices (“tired of freezing,” “defeated by the woeful tales… of moms who had to breast-pump in bathroom stalls”), Santy envisioned and designed a workspace built around women’s stated needs.

• Design Innovations:

  • Parking spaces: Wider to accommodate car seats and strollers.
  • Doors: Reduced force needed to open.
  • Childcare: Onsite facilities to acknowledge caregiving realities.
  • Professional Development: Socially oriented based on women's preferences.

• Social and Psychological Impact: These changes fostered community, ambition, and collaboration among women—“a place where women felt valued and could therefore be themselves.” (Virginia Santy, 10:18)

Quote:
“We built a place where women could unabashedly discover that other scarlet letter, capital A word... ambition.”
– Virginia Santy, 09:46

4. The Economic Case for Inclusivity (11:05–12:20)

• Workforce Disparity: Santy notes women's workforce participation in the US is stagnating, and suggests redesigning workplaces is a key way to close the gap.
• Economic Impact:
  • If women participated in the workforce at equal rates to men, US GDP could rise by 5% (∼$1 trillion).
  • Globally, women with greater financial security invest more robustly in families and communities.

Quote:
"Building places of work where women feel comfortable and valued is one way to address this.”
– Virginia Santy, 11:15

5. Rethinking Cities: The Macro-Level (12:21–16:20)

• City Planning Oversight: 94% of US cities have city plans, but only 2% mention women specifically.

• Care Work’s Centrality: Women do 37% more daily caregiving/household work than men; the typical caregiver for elderly family members is a full-time-working 49-year-old woman.

• Gaps in Urban Design:

  • Childcare is scarce in city centers.
  • Public transit is family-unfriendly: tough with strollers, doesn’t facilitate multitasking or frequent short trips necessary for care work.

• Re-imagined Scenario: Santy paints a picture of a "mythical" but achievable city where transit, childcare, flexible banking, healthcare, and work converge to support working mothers.

Quote:
"If we really thought about women’s experiences, simply recognizing the centrality of care work in women’s lives would mean a much different city than what we’re used to.”
– Virginia Santy, 15:05

6. The Call to Action: Value Women (16:21–16:55)

• Simple but Radical Solution: The key is to value women—to see them not as deficient but as distinct, and to design our systems, spaces, and cities accordingly.
• Not Just Adjustments: Santy urges, “We can build places, cities, systems that are not derivatives of or adjustments to what works for men, but the product of inspired thought and creativity.” (Virginia Santy, 16:38)

Quote:
"Recognize women’s experiences are different than men’s, but that those differences are not deficiencies."
– Virginia Santy, 16:36

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

• On gendered adaptation:
  “Women are so conditioned to accept our own discomfort, to accept the environments or systems around us as normal and natural, we often fail to realize when they don’t quite fit us, we just work around it.”
  – Virginia Santy, 04:24

• On city planning:
  “94% of US cities have city plans, yet only 2% of those plans include any mention of women.”
  – Virginia Santy, 13:16

• Vision for the future:
  “Imagine what women could do if we made things a little easier on them.”
  – Virginia Santy, 16:48

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Important Timestamps

• 03:49 – Opening challenge: Are you comfortable?
• 05:00 – How male-centric design decisions shape our world.
• 07:31 – Santy’s personal project: designing an office for women.
• 09:46 – On ambition and women supporting each other.
• 11:05 – Economic argument for gender-inclusive design.
• 12:21 – City planning and the invisibility of women.
• 14:00 – Everyday lives of working women in cities; the caregiving gap.
• 15:40 – Daydream: a city designed for caregiving and work.
• 16:21 – Final call to value and center women in design.

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Episode Tone

Engaging, direct, and inspiring. Santy’s presentation is data-driven but conversational, filled with empathy, candor, and a call to collective action. She balances critique with optimism—envisioning a future that’s possible if we recognize, measure, and prioritize women’s lived realities.

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Summary prepared for listeners seeking the substance and emotional resonance of Virginia Santy’s talk without missing key insights or memorable language.

Transcript

[Elise Hu]

You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. Design researcher Virginia Santi has a simple but surprisingly profound question. Do you feel comfortable and safe in your chair, in your car, and generally in your surroundings?

[Virginia Santi]

These questions might seem a little silly, but silly for different reasons depending on your gender identity.

[Elise Hu]

That's Virginia speaking from the TEDx stage in 2022.

[Virginia Santi]

We don't really ask these questions of men because for the most part, we don't have to. Our environments are built for men and how they experience the world. The truth is, the world wasn't built for women. In fact, in nearly every way, it's been quite literally built for men.

[Elise Hu]

From Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian man, the famous ink drawing by the scientist himself detailing the human proportions of a male figure, to the resting temperature of often too col office spaces, we've used measurements of men's bodies to design the world. In her talk, she explores how the basic structures all around us work against diverse bodies in subtle and not so subtle ways, and how designing an office for women sparked an even greater conversation. What if we build entire cities and economies for women? That's coming up right after a quick break.

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[Virginia Santi]

Do you feel comfortable? Really think about your experience right now. Are you too hot or too cold? How does your butt feel sitting in this chair? Do you feel safe? These questions might seem a little silly, but silly for different reasons, depending on your gender identity. We don't really ask these questions of men because for the most part, we don't have to. Our environments are built for men and how they experience the world. For you women, these questions are different because we are so conditioned to accept our own discomfort, to accept the environments or systems around us as normal and natural. We often fail to realize when they don't quite fit us, we just just work around it. How many of you women are carrying a purse or a bag big enough to fit an extra sweater or a down comforter in case you get cold sometime today? The truth is, the world wasn't built for women. In fact, in nearly every way, it's been quite literally built for men. For from da Vinci's Vitruvian man to a concept called the Modular man From the mid 20th century, we've used men's bodies to measure what we feel is normal and appropriate in our world. And then we've used those measurements to build everything around us, from chairs to buildings and cars. Women are, for the most part, not seen, not measured, not valued. And this means the basic physical structures of our environment or the structures of our systems work against women in subtle and not so subtle ways. And this is exponentially true for women of color, women with disabilities, and women with intersectional identities. It was only 20 years ago we included female crash test dummies. It was only 1991 when we included women in medical trials. It is like we have only recently realized women aren't men. A few years ago, I started daydreaming about what it would look like to build an Office Space A Workplace for Women I was tired of freezing in sterile feeling offices. I felt defeated by the woeful tales of moms who had to breast pump in bathroom stalls or copy rooms. I was sick and tired of feeling guilt or embarrassment for having to bring my baby to work with me a few hours every once in a while to compensate for some caregiving emergency or another. So I started talking to women and asking them what worked, what didn't work in their spaces. And then I used that information to sketch out the perfect plan for a new workspace. Women told me office parking spaces are too narrow and a car seat with a kid in it is pretty bulky and inflexible. So we designed our space with ample parking and spots wide enough to open a car door all the way and take out a car seat. Women told us simply entering a building can be frustrating. Have you ever walked up to a door and had to try a few times to get it open, you really had to throw your weight behind it. That's because doors open more easily for men. Literally. It is not just a metaphor anymore. So we reduced the force required to open our doors, making it easier for women to use them. Moms told us. Juggling work and children third most difficult challenge so instead of pretending workers are 100% autonomous agents with no human connection and children simply drop from the sky and raise themselves, we planned for on site childcare rooms where moms could use our partner child care services or bring their kids to play while they worked. This all wasn't just physical. From research, we learned women are most likely to attend a professional development event with a friend. So we made all learning social. These were all great things, and the results were glorious. Women supported one another and collaborated across businesses and industries. They shared resources and recommendations, anecdotes and pep talks. We have built a place where women could unabashedly discover that other scarlet letter capital a word for which they are so often judged and criticized ambition and find not only encouragement from others, but strategies. We built a place where women felt valued and could therefore be themselves. And while I believe valuing women is the only argument we need for building places that work for them, there is also an economic Today there are more men than women in the workforce. In fact, women's workforce participation is at the same level today as it was 30 years ago, and the gap is only getting wider. Building places of work where women feel comfortable and valued is one way to address this. If women worked at the same levels as men, the US GDP would increase by 5% or $1 trillion globally. We know when women are more financially secure, they invest more and more often in their families and communities. Everything I've mentioned so far are things you can do at home in your workplaces. But we need to think big, bigger too, and design for women on a larger scale. Can we design whole cities to serve women? That's the question that inspired my work for the Downtown Denver Partnership. The first thing I learned is that women aren't really on the radar of city builders. 94% of US cities have city plans, yet only 2% of those plans include any mention of women. And if women aren't on the radar, it means their distinct experiences aren't on the radar either. Care work is a useful illustration. Women spend 37% more time per day on household chores or caregiving activities than men. And this doesn't end with children. The average caregiver for an older adult is a 49 year old woman who works full time outside the home and spends an extra 20 hours a week caring for a family member. If this is the reality for women, how can we redesign our cities to better serve them? Most city centers are child care deserts, despite a growing number of young families who live and work downtown. And women who live in metropolitan areas tend to use public transit to accomplish a range of household or caregiving responsibilities. Yet a city's public transportation system isn't really what we think of when we hear the phrase family friendly public transit is tough to navigate with a stroller. It doesn't facilitate the short, frequent trips women tend to take in care work. If we really thought about women's experiences, simply recognizing the centrality of care work in women's lives would mean a much different city than what we're used to. Imagine this scenario. A mom walks a short distance from her home to her transit stop. She and her 2 year old child socialize with other parents and kids at the stop. Because there are other parents and kids at the stop. She takes the transit to work where she goes to the on site corporate sponsored daycare facility. She gets a chance to kind of network with the VP at her office because he and his kids also use the daycare facility. Later in the afternoon she returns to the daycare center for an afternoon snack with her kid. Feeling energized by that visit, she returns to her desk, finishes up her day, picks up her kid, heads back to the transit stop. She doesn't have to worry about transportation schedules because the transit stop is a hub of services. She swings by the Walk in healthcare clinic to get her flu shot. She drops by the bank, which is open past 5pm by the way, and sets up a financial account that does not penalize her with higher interest rates simply for being a woman. She boards her transit home along with other families, feeling like she has had quality time with her kid as well as a productive and strategic day I daydream about this scenario in the same way I used to daydream about riding a flying pony when I was 8 years old, and in some ways it feels just as mythical and surreal. But it doesn't have to. To me, the Workplace Cities are inventive opportunities to question what we see as normal and natural in our world. Why do we make it so difficult on working mothers when their contributions quite literally fuel the future success of our economies? How can we do things differently? And how can we continue to iterate as gender identities and gender norms evolve? Finally, what would it take to make these changes? The answer is so simple it sometimes feels silly to say it aloud. Value women. See women as not only human and therefore worthy of our consideration, but as people who make incredible contributions to our collective success recognize women's experiences are different than men's, but that those differences are not deficiencies. This could be a sad story, but in many ways it's one of triumph. Women succeed in personal, political, cultural, economic arenas, all in spite of of systems, places not designed to serve them. Imagine what women could do if we made things a little easier on them. We can build places, cities, systems that are not derivatives of or adjustments to what works for men, but the product of inspired thought and creativity. We can design for women, measure their lived experiences, and build with those experiences in mind. And the world will be better for it. Thank you.

[Elise Hu]

That was Virginia Santi at TedX Mile High in Denver, Colorado in 2022. If you're curious about Ted's curation, find out more at ted.com curationguidelines and that's it for today. TED Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective. This talk was fact checked by the TED Research team and produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Greene, Lucy Little and Tansika Songmar Nivong. This episode was mixed by Christopher Faizy Bogan. Additional support from Emma Tobner and Daniela Balarazo. Well, I'm Elise Hu. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed. Thanks for listening.

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