Slippery, Snowy Sidewalks Are Sexist: Let Me Explain Why

Whenever it snows, I think of Caroline Criado Perez’s brilliant book “Invisible Women,” and over the last couple of weeks it’s been snowing a lot in New York City, where I live.

The first chapter in “Invisible Women” is titled “Can Snow-Clearing Be Sexist?” and because you’re reading The Persistent, you probably won’t be surprised to learn that yes, like most things, it can.

Criado Perez writes about a snow-clearing schedule in the Swedish town of Karlskoga. Karlskoga gets its fair share of snow every year. And as is common in other snow-prone cities around the world, when it snows, the major traffic arteries are plowed first. Only later are the secondary, local streets, pedestrian walkways and bicycle paths cleared.

You might think this makes perfect sense, and in many ways it does: Main roads need to be passable for urban areas to function—for commerce and business to operate, and for people to get to work. Only, as Criado Perez notes, there’s more to this than meets the eye.

Men, she explains in her book, overwhelmingly travel to work by car or bus. Women, by contrast, are much more likely to work from home. They are also far more likely to be doing the bulk of the childcare and eldercare than their male spouses. What that means in practice is that while men are in the majority using the well-maintained main roads, it’s women who are primarily slipping and sliding on the small local streets as they get their children to school or bring food to their aging parents. It’s women, writes Criado Perez, who are likely to make more small journeys throughout the day; they’re more likely to run errands on footpaths and smaller roads. And it’s women, she writes, who are more likely to suffer slips and falls and injuries as a result.

And that is how even a seemingly innocuous snow-clearing schedule can be sexist.

I reflected on this as my own daughter and I clambered over snowy mounds obstructing New York City’s curbs yesterday morning. And I thought about it some more as—on my way to pick up my daughter from school—I helped a woman with a double stroller navigate a particularly perilous and icy corner.

No doubt, you won’t be surprised to learn that in Manhattan where I live, the bigger roads and avenues are cleared first and the smaller cross streets come later. Well of course they do, it all makes logical sense. It’s just that it’s mostly women who pay the price.  

Have you been navigating snow as I have? And do snow-clearing schedules strike you as sexist? We’d love to hear your thoughts! Follow us on Bluesky or Instagram.