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Data Management and Visualization Assignment #1

1. I have chosen the GapMinder data set

2. My initial research question is: Is there a relationship between women’s participation in the labor force and the number of Internet users? I hypothesize that the greater number of Internet users, the higher rate of women’s participation in the workforce.

3. I performed a literature review using the search terms “female employment and Internet usage,” “Women and labor and Internet,” and “women and international and development and Internet and employment.” I then focused on a region where the topic seemed to be more active in research and searched “gender” and “africa” and “internet” and “employment”

4a. I found an article named “Broadband in the Labor Market: The Impact of Residential High Speed Internet on Married Women's Labor Force Participation” by Lisa Dettling published by the Federal Reserve Board which found that Internet usage among educated married women has allowed increased access to the Internet and therefore enabled “work-family balance” for this group. This is a limited set of individuals, married women with children in the US.

4b. I found an article entitled “Inequality and gender inclusion: Minimum ICT policy thresholds for promoting female employment in Sub-Saharan Africa” that finds that ICT does have an effect on women’s participation in the workforce but there is a minimum penetration threshold that needs to be achieved in order to reduce gender inequality in economic participation. This study also addresses a limited set of individuals, women in Sub-Saharan African countries.

4c. I found an article called “Technological Advancement and the Evolving Gender Identities: A Focus on the Level of Female Economic Participation in Sub-Saharan Africa,” which found that improvement in technology increases women’s economic participation based on three criteria: mobile phone penetration, Internet penetration, and broadband subscriptions.

5. What I have found from my research is that the data included in GapMinder is much broader than the variables being used in current research to make precise conclusions about populations. The first article from the FRB shows that Internet can make a big difference for those privileged enough to afford it and access remote employment. The second two articles focus on less privileged populations of women, but also find that Internet usage is a positive force for women’s participation in the labor force. Although my data is not as detailed as these articles, I will still be able to draw some basic inferences about Internet usage and employment for women. I would be curious to see what more focused geographical groups would show: for example, if I analyzed the data set for all the countries represented vs if I only analyzed one particular African country or all Pacific Island nations.