Diversity Data Analysis Across Four Major Industries
Take a deep dive into our Python-driven data analysis and visualization to examine diversity trends across four different industries vital to society today.
Research Question
Have diversity statistics, which includes data on gender, race and ethnicity, improved over the past 10 years across high tech, higher education, legal and government/leadership industries?
High Tech
Apple, Google and Facebook
Legal System
American Bar Association
Higher Education
Texas Christian University, University of Georgia, and University of Southern California
Congress
The 79th American Congress to the current 117th Congress
Abstract
This research report examines diversity statistics across several professional industries, spanning from 1945 to 2021. By examining important diversity statistics, specifically looking at gender and race, we clarify which industry's diversity statistics are improving and at what rate. The time period studied varies on industry and what data was publicly available.
After extensive research on diversity statistics across industries, we found that many companies, especially in the high tech and higher education industries, are not required to release diversity data publicly. After collecting data we could find, we compiled it into several excel spreadsheets, separating the data based on industry, specific companies within each industry, and gender and race statistics within those companies. After organizing the data in excel, we imported the individual excel documents into IPython Notebook, also known as Jupyter Notebook, and created code to analyze our data through line graphs.
Our two major research strategies are as follows: (1) extracting diversity data from archives, company reports, and federal agencies; (2) analyzing and visualizing data in python. This report promotes diversity and inclusion initiatives and highlights the lack of diversity in so many U.S.-based industries and professional fields. After many recent social movements calling for diversity, we felt that our project serves as a relevant step towards social change. As female data researchers, we hope that diversity rates continue to increase across all industries.