<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> The traditional ‘leaky pipeline’ plots are widely used to inform gender equality policy and practice. Herein, we demonstrate how a statistical phenomenon known as Simpson’s paradox can obscure trends in gender ‘leaky pipeline’ plots. Our approach has been to use Excel spreadsheets to generate hypothetical ‘leaky pipeline’ plots of gender inequality within an organisation. The principal factors, which make up these hypothetical plots, can be input into the model so that a range of potential situations can be modelled. How the individual principal factors are then reflected in ‘leaky pipeline’ plots is shown. We find that the effect of Simpson’s paradox on leaky pipeline plots can be simply and clearly illustrated with the use of hypothetical modelling and our study augments the findings in other statistical reports of Simpson’s paradox in clinical trial data and in gender inequality data. The findings in this paper, however, are presented in a way, which makes the paradox accessible to a wide range of people.</p></abstract>

The traditional ‘leaky pipeline’ plots are widely used to inform gender equality policy and practice. Herein, we demonstrate how a statistical phenomenon known as Simpson’s paradox can obscure trends in gender ‘leaky pipeline’ plots. Our approach has been to use Excel spreadsheets to generate hypothetical ‘leaky pipeline’ plots of gender inequality within an organisation. The principal factors, which make up these hypothetical plots, can be input into the model so that a range of potential situations can be modelled. How the individual principal factors are then reflected in ‘leaky pipeline’ plots is shown. We find that the effect of Simpson’s paradox on leaky pipeline plots can be simply and clearly illustrated with the use of hypothetical modelling and our study augments the findings in other statistical reports of Simpson’s paradox in clinical trial data and in gender inequality data. The findings in this paper, however, are presented in a way, which makes the paradox accessible to a wide range of people.

Simpson’s Paradox in the interpretation of “leaky pipeline” data

Department of Chemistry, University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD,

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Department of Economics, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath, BA2 7AY,

International Journal for Transformative Research

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

{"article-title":"Simpson\u2019s Paradox in the interpretation of \u201cleaky pipeline\u201d data"}

The traditional ‘leaky pipeline’ plots are widely used to inform gender equality policy and practice. Herein, we demonstrate how a statistical phenomenon known...

Simpson’s Paradox in the interpretation of “leaky pipeline” data

Published Online: Dec 22, 2016

Page range: 1 - 7

Received: Oct 01, 2015

Accepted: Nov 01, 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ijtr-2016-0013

Keywords
Leaky pipeline, Simpson’s paradox, Gender equality, Gender inequality, Hypothetical modeling

© 2016

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Simpson’s Paradox in the interpretation of “leaky pipeline” data

Published Online: Dec 22, 2016

Page range: 1 - 7

Received: Oct 01, 2015

Accepted: Nov 01, 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ijtr-2016-0013

KeywordsLeaky pipeline, Simpson’s paradox, Gender equality, Gender inequality, Hypothetical modeling

© 2016

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
Leaky pipeline, Simpson’s paradox, Gender equality, Gender inequality, Hypothetical modeling