When you next fasten your seatbelt on a flight or in your car, consider this startling fact: the safety systems designed to protect you were likely tested exclusively on dummies representing the average male body. This longstanding practice in both aviation and automotive industries is leaving women at significantly higher risk of injury during accidents.
The Male-Centric History of Crash Testing
Crash test dummies, technically known as "anthropomorphic test devices", originated in military research in 1949 before being adopted by car manufacturers in the mid-1960s. The most commonly used dummy today remains the Hybrid III "average" man, standing 175cm tall and weighing 78kg, first created in 1976.
This male-centric approach has become so embedded in safety regulations that US certification standards explicitly require using this male dummy for testing. Even more concerning, until just three years ago, the only so-called "female" dummies used in automotive safety tests were merely scaled-down versions of male dummies with plastic breasts added.
How Women Face Greater Injury Risks
The consequences of this testing gap are severe and measurable. In car crashes, women are more likely to sustain serious injuries, even at lower impact speeds. This isn't due to fragility but fundamental design flaws.
"Women sit further forward than men when driving, even if they are the same height," explains aviation safety researcher Natasha Heap. "We have different limb proportions than men." Despite this biological reality, women are often labelled "out of position drivers" in crash investigations when the real problem is vehicle design based solely on male anatomy.
Some protection systems tested exclusively on male dummies have been shown to increase injury severity in women while reducing injuries in men. The fundamental issue is that women aren't simply smaller men - they have different body proportions, muscle mass distribution, and physiological characteristics that affect how forces impact their bodies during collisions.
Aviation's Complete Oversight of Female Safety
The situation in aviation is even more concerning. All aircraft certification testing - including seat design, seat belt effectiveness, and emergency brace positions - uses only average male dummies like the Hybrid III modified for aviation.
Major aircraft manufacturers Boeing and Airbus have their planes certified by the Federal Aviation Administration and European Union Aviation Safety Agency respectively, with both agencies harmonising standards through international agreements. These standards, set by global engineering association SAE International, contain no requirement to use female dummies in safety testing.
Despite clear evidence from automotive research showing women experience different injury patterns, there is no publicly accessible research examining how this male-centric testing affects female airline passengers and crew safety.
The Path Toward Inclusive Safety Standards
A significant breakthrough came three years ago when Swedish engineer Astrid Linder and her team unveiled the first dummy built to accurately represent an average woman - 162cm tall and 62kg. However, using this more biologically accurate female dummy remains optional for both car and plane testing.
Research from the United Kingdom confirms that men possess 8% greater skeletal mass and different body mass distribution than women. Female bodies typically have smaller height and shoulder width but larger hip circumference, and female sex hormones lead to more lax ligaments affecting joint stability.
As Heap concludes, "One design does not fit all when it comes to safety." The urgent need for inclusive testing standards that account for physiological differences between sexes has never been clearer - both on our roads and in our skies.
