Data Visualization Literacy: A Feminist Starting Point

Abstract

We assert that visual-numeric literacy, indeed all data literacy, must take as its starting point that the human relations and impacts currently produced and reproduced through data are unequal. Likewise, the majority of those who work with data are wealthy, white and male. To address these inequalities in the ecosystem, we introduce a starting point for teaching data visualization that is grounded in feminist theory, process and design principles. Through three case studies, we examine what feminism may have to offer data visualization literacy, with the ultimate goals of cultivating self-efficacy for women and underrepresented groups to work with data as well as creating learning spaces where, as Philip et al (2016) state, "groups influence, resist, and transform everyday and formal processes of power that impact their lives".