Women’s body armor: A comprehensive review of design, performance, and ergonomics

Abstract

This paper highlights a comprehensive review of the design, performance, and ergonomics of women’s body armor. Body armor is an essential part of defending people in high-risk areas, such as law enforcement officers, military personnel, and security employees. Traditional body armor, however, has typically been designed with male users in mind, ignoring the anatomical and physiological variations between men and women. This review intends to draw attention to the problems with women’s body armor and offer information on new developments made to solve these problems. It addresses several topics, including anatomical and physiological differences, challenges and limitations of traditional female body armor, materials used for female body armor, design considerations for female body armor, performance evaluation, and future directions and recommendations.