The Illusory Optimism and Dismissal around a System of Oppression

Analysing an article about how being an IITian is great and all if you are a man wanting a career in tech, opening a startup or simply forming a network of extremely resourceful individuals, unless, you know, you happen to not be a man.

During a Critique and Redesign exercise of my Data Visualization course, we looked at a Rest of World article (https://restofworld.org/2023/iit-graduates-dominate-tech/) about how the IITs are catalyzing India’s success in the tech landscape. As we discussed the interesting infographics presented in the article as examples of rather good data design, one of them particularly caught my eye.

The Critique

As the article touched upon the less-talked-about downsides of the IIT network, the under-representation of minority groups, high suicide rates and the blatant casteism and sexism faced by some of the interviewees, it was also quick to swerve back by talking about how one must find something positive even in such circumstances. This projected optimism, also reflected in the infographic that demonstrates the sex ratio of IIT campuses, bugged me enough to redesign this supposedly well-designed chart.

The Numbers Don’t Speak for Themselves
Principle #6 of Data Feminism is to Consider Context. Data feminism asserts that data are not neutral or objective. They are the products of unequal social relations, and this context is essential for conducting accurate, ethical analysis.

I thought the problem was the regressive rhetoric and framing that positioned men as the default and women as intruders. So in the first iteration of the redesign, I renamed the chart and explicitly clarified in the footnote that the quota introduced for female applicants in 2018 expanded total seats to include more women, without reducing seats for men. Until, in a related discussion with a friend, I realized how the visualization itself makes it look as if women increasing in number are replacing men.

The design, in that sense, becomes a metaphorical representation of the intersectionality between the patriarchy and the meritocracy myth; of losing systemic advantages. It visually mirrors the same zero-sum logic used to resist caste-based reservations in India.

The Re-Design

Here, I decided to move away from the fixed grid of 10 icons for every year, and let them increase with the actual scale of admissions.
By making these tweaks, the visualization now equitably represents the data while maintaining factual accuracy. It not only demonstrates the gender disparity but also draws a clear difference between the growth in the number of female and male candidates over the years.

I also chose to represent the figures as whole people rather than as fractional icons, to create a realistic and relatable comparison between the data and real-life contexts, without flattening people into statistics.

The Illusory Optimism and Dismissal around a System of Oppression was originally published in Bootcamp on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.