TED Talks Daily Why the world is still not built for women | Virginia Santy
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Mar 27, 2026 
Virginia Santy, a design researcher focused on workplaces and cities for women, explores how everyday spaces still treat men as the default. She looks at offices built around women’s needs, from temperature and childcare to collaboration and belonging. She also imagines cities shaped by care work, transit realities and family life.
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The Built World Still Assumes Men Are Default
- Virginia Santy argues the built world treats male bodies and experiences as the default, so women often absorb discomfort as normal.
- She ties cold offices, chair and car design, crash tests, and medical trials to a long pattern of not measuring women.
A Workplace Designed Around Women's Real Lives
- Santy imagined a women-centered workplace after freezing in offices and hearing stories about pumping in bathroom stalls.
- Her design added wider parking, easier doors, childcare rooms, and social learning, which increased collaboration, ambition, and support.
Designing For Women Is Also Economic Strategy
- Designing workplaces and cities for women is also economic policy because low female workforce participation suppresses growth.
- Santy connects stagnant participation, a potential $1 trillion GDP gain, and cities that ignore care work, childcare, and transit patterns.