The Deadly Data Gender Gap

All data tells a story. And like all stories, its power and purpose depend on the protagonist and their point of view.

If ‘history’, as Churchill famously said, ‘is written by the victors’, who and what and which data is telling our modern (and our historical) data story? Data’s narrative, like history, is as much dependent on what has been omitted, as it is dependent on what has been committed, to record. And our data story begins with the consistent omission of women.

Data is everywhere and influences almost everything we do, often without our recognizing its influence. When it comes to data about people, unfortunately most of the data we are using tells only half the story because most of the data isn’t gender balanced, if it even includes women at all. What more could we learn, how much more could we earn, how much better could we serve, how much more of a contribution could we make if we knew the whole story? Or more startling still, how much harm could we prevent?

This is an urgent story because lives are at stake. As is our efficiency and productivity. Great opportunity and creativity — drivers of innovation — have been and continue to be lost.

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