As a runner and a parent, this might annoy me. However, is it really a sign of (concious or unconscious) sexism? Don’t men run with prams in the US?
On the other hand it would be a big surprise for me if the people that designed the Fitbit's period tracking feature did not include or at least consulted women.
Something else that surprised me is the bit about crash test dummies. I found it difficult to believe that no female dummies existed. A quick search showed that in fact dummies modelling females exist since the 70s. However it seems they were derived from the male dummies. It seems it really took many more years to design a female dummy from the ground up (although I found articles from at least 2006 about it).
https://www.gras.dk/products/head-torso-simulators-kemar/pro...
That's a great idea that's new to me, and I'm thankful to the author for pointing it out, and I'll suggest we add it. (In the Netherlands where it's flat, parents pedal their kids around in a Bakfiets. [2])
The program's content was mostly designed by a woman [3], so I don't think omitting pram jogging was a sexist decision on her part -- it's more that you can't think of everything, or keep up with every new trend that's happening (and if you try, the menus are way too long so the user interface is difficult to use).
I agree with the article that it's outrageously patronizing and sexist for Fitbit to tell women how soon they must get over their periods!
[1] https://turnaroundhealth.com/
[2] https://www.fresheconomicthinking.com/2010/06/bakfiets-is-au...
Maybe they just can’t track it.
I do agree, though, that this is more generally something indicating that diversity in teams working on software all kinds of people use is important. I think a father could just as well have helped out here, because I can’t imagine that you wouldn’t immediately think of pushing the pram as an activity you want to track if you were a parent heavily involved with your child. It’s obvious, really.
I don't have much experience with activity trackers though. Do they also have option for if you're carrying a backpack or not, and other similar minor consequential details?
Walking is usually on a finished, somewhat flat surface. Hiking - even in flat areas - generally have obstacles and uneven surfaces. Tree roots, branches with thorns, and so on. It isn't uncommon to do a bit of a climb either. If I'm in a good enough area, I might personally be crossing a stream on rocks. I'm guessing this has different output in the device: Steps taken hiking might not equal that on a walk, for instance, but may (in general) burn more calories.
I don’t know this for certain. I’ve never tried to use the hiking algorithm on my walking path to compare them.
So one would need to make sexist assumptions about activities (only females push prams) to interpret a sexist intent on the side of the coders (I don't like females, so no pushing pram activity!)? But isn't that kind of a circular logic requiring sexism itself to work?
What about pushing a shopping cart? Carrying your groceries up to the 6th floor, where are the activities for that? Are they missing because of all the coders never shopping themselves?
Imho this has much more to do with the threshold of "what constitutes a track-worthy activity?", there are probably hundreds, if not thousands, of rather mundane activities that could be added for tracking, because if you up the resolution enough even breathing is burning calories.
I certainly see a lot more women running with prams than men on the trail near me. The majority of childcare is still overwhelmingly handled by women.
> However, is it really a sign of (concious or unconscious) sexism?
This is exactly the sort of thing you'd expect to see in a sexist culture where women are either deterred from entering certain careers/sectors or forced to leave. If you don't have a lot of women around, you probably won't notice as many things that disproportionately affect women.
I think I see more solo men than solo women with pushchairs, though I've not paid that much attention so I might be noticing the men more due to them standing out to me because they breach some subconscious expectation/bias. Or maybe I notice more due to jealousy: one of the regulars is usually a minute or two faster than my best even with the pushchair!
(context for reference: I'm in the UK, and a middle-aged, single, happily childless, male)
Never attribute something to maliciousness when laziness can explain the phenomenon equally well.
You don't want to put too many irrelevant things in the menu or list of activities you can log, goal you can pursue, or questions you must answer.
The system can filter out some things that don't apply to you, like only suggesting pram jogging if you have small kids, but then it has to ask if you have small kids to know that, and it might leave out people who help take care of other people's kids. So should it also ask about those personal details? Should it ask for your home's geolocation so it can check if you live on a steep street, before suggesting you pedal your kids around in a Bakfiets, so it doesn't accidentally give you advice that leads to a heart attack?
So you have to balance what you put in with how much the system needs to know about you, and how many irrelevant questions and suggestions it's going to throw at you.