Stephen Tashi said:
The standard height for kitchen counters in the USA is 36" inches. (A standard criticized by the article:
https://qz.com/509501/why-kitchens-arent-designed-for-real-women/ ).
The article tries reeeealy hard to find sexism, but doesn't. It isn't exactly wrong, just logically empty.
Making things standardized isn't inherrently sexist and she's simultaneously criticizing the height being too tall (splitting the difference between men and women's sizes) and the fact that women still do most kitchen work. Pick one!
Standardization makes products cheaper and more compatible and makes it easier to sell houses where you don't know the size of the people who are going to inhabit them (and in modern times, people don't live in one house forever). That's a good thing, not a bad thing.
Another good question is why people want to have kitchen counters instead of the more versatile option of standalone furniture with counter tops ? In the USA, built-in kitchen counters are the de-facto standard in homes.
It's probably because many of the components (sink, range/oven, fridge) are required by their utility connections or size to be built-in/permanent and just about everything else is both designed around those built-in devices and too heavy to easily move anyway. It isn't like your living room, where if you feel like flipping your couch and end table, you easily can.
In offices, adjustable height workstations are rapidly becoming the standard, but that would be difficult in kitchens (and labs, which are what I design and have similar equipment/constraints). I could envision a benchtop with an adjustable height of, say, 30-40", but that would take away storage space for the mechanism below and be extremely expensive.
[edit]
Do other countries have a similar standard?
Google tells me 90cm, which is a little over 35".