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Interesting, I've never seen architecture and engineering in a combined category

That is a really good point. StatCan decided how to sub-divide it, and was using the Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) Canada 2016 unsure why those two were combined.

This Project was done with R and and ggplot. and this datatable from statscan

Surprised to see a reduction in math and computer science. My own unscientific, unsubstantiated, entirely subjective impression is that there are more young woman becoming interested in coding.

That is a very good point. I should point out that these are graduation numbers. I made an earlier post about enrollment numbers here. These numbers are more stable over a similar time period. Although I will note that the enrolment numbers are an even lower number then the graduations. Possibly indicating that potentially females are more likely to complete the degree.

I guess I'd assume looking at the raw numbers instead of man/woman ratios might tell the story that both are up, but the men increased at a larger rate.

So what are we going to do to address the gender gap?

Female, graduated with a Comp Sci degree from the U of Manitoba in 1992. There weren't many of us in the graduating class (count on one hand). Disappointed that the situation hasn't improved since then.

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It's not for lack of trying.

I think the visualization would be more readable if the labels for the field of study were all gathered on the left. It would be easier to locate a particular field, and you could make both the text and the arrows larger and more visible.

I do like how you use the arrow in your key, matching the visual in the key to the visual on the chart.

... I would like to see in the graph also how the overall composition of all graduates from all fields have shifted - this would provide something to compare these numbers to...

I wonder how much of the increase in Science and tech was due to immigration from Asia and Eastern Europe. I suspect a good percentage. I work in tech and most of the women I see actually doing the engineering, development, etc are Asian women.

No. I think it is immigration from Asia (China and India) and maybe also Eastern Europe. Most of the women I see doing coding are Asian.

The source table only breaks down the data by age and gender, making it impossible to determine if your intuition is correct. Sorry.

It's not intuition. I am a manager in big tech. I see the resumes that come in and who work in our offices and at other locations. Call it a very good sample size based on 20 years in the industry. THe number of women have increased, but they are primarily not who you think they are. It's good for Canada's economy. I think it's not the increase people were targeting. Most of these people got their bachelor's in their native country.

It is disappointing. I think more women should be in computer science. But, by the same token I am worried about the number of men going into healthcare and education. It would be nice if there was gender representation going both ways.

Thanks for the suggestions, you are probably right about the larger text, but I don't know about the gather on the left thing, I tried it in earlier versions, and it was sometimes hard to "follow" the label over to the number

That is a fair comment, I actually specifically removed "Total", this is the graph with total included. the values for total go from 57% -> 60%

I don't know. The data is not broken down in that manner.

Maybe light horizontal markings would help track the label to the data point?

... I am asking, because in my european (post-communist) country, the numbers would be 47 -> 60. I always thought, that this was quite wild, considering that during communism our state encouraged women to study, and during this time we had +/- parity, but the number got much higher afterwards. Do you know what was the reason for the abnormally high numbers of female graduates in canada already in 1992?

Why does anything need to be done?

Hey, Im a man in healthcare. I am worried you're asking for equality for the sake of making things equal but not necessarily equitable. Speaking from my side, there are literally 0 barriers to entry as a man into health, and from what I know about comp sci careers, there are no large barriers there either. (Although, this is obviously from anecdotal stories from my mother, who had a comp sci degree and from my peers of any gender who have gone into comp sci).

There is clearly a descriptive disparity, but not a normative one. That is to say there's no harm being caused by different people pursuing different vocations. From my perspective, I ask the question "Would patient outcomes be any different if there were more male nurses" and the answer is a resounding no, as male and female nurses are identical in quality, in general, aside from a few niche cases like transporting large patients, and even then only some men would be better than some women at that specific task.

People's interests are their own, and so long as no one is disallowed from pursuing their own interests, I don't think any harms being done. In fact any attempt to equalize this normal distribution could come at a cost of limitting peoples natural interests

Thank you, for your clearly articulated and polite comment!

> I am worried you're asking for equality for the sake of making things equal but not necessarily equitable.

To clarify, I don't want equity as in 50-50. I think we should think a little bit about what the effects having large disparity could have on society in any given field, and If the disparity has negative effects we should attempt to minimize the negative effects possibly by encouraging entry into that field.

> I ask the question "Would patient outcomes be any different if there were more male nurses"

So this an effect that does happen:

Example, My father in-law has serious issues currently, he can't stand, change himself, and wears a diaper. This morning he needed 3 females to help change him and get him into a wheel chair. His pride was hurt by having to be naked in front of these women, in a way that does not happen when I am there to assist him alone. If enough male assistants were available he would feel much better about it, also he is not large as in your example so it is mainly in this case a pride issue.

> People's interests are their own, and so long as no one is disallowed from pursuing their own interests, I don't think any harms being done. In fact any attempt to equalize this normal distribution could come at a cost of limiting peoples natural interests

I agree people should pursue there own interests and never be forced into anything. I even think that encouragement should be limited to cases where there are larger nock on effects, that are identified.