Stereotypical colours in european gender statistics visualisations

Bavdaž, Mojca (author), Kos, Jerneja (author), Pavasović Trošt, Tamara (author), Marinšek, Denis (author)

Gender statistics play an important role in highlighting gender inequalities, but they are often presented in a conventional way by depicting males in blue and females in pink. Using stereotypical colours saves users from having to learn which colour is used for which gender. However, colours can also convey unintended messages of strength vs. weakness, status, and power, confirming the very stereotypes they are intended to address. National statistical institutes have the opportunity to influence public perceptions and could play a leading role in raising awareness about gender issues. In our article, we examine the use of colours to represent gender in the Twitter accounts (rebranded to X accounts on July 23, 2023) of national statistical institutes in 24 European countries. Quantitative analysis of 631 colour pairs from 644 images reveals that the stereotypical use of colours in official statistics is still widespread. We examine the nine patterns discovered and comment on possible solutions.

• Language: English
• Keywords: gender, official statistics, colour, communication, visualisation
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: EF - School of Economics and Business
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-172547
• UDC: 005.4
• ISSN on article: 2158-2440
• DOI: 10.1177/21582440251336950
• COBISS.SI-ID: 237214467
• Publication date in RUL: 08.09.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: SAGE open
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• ISSN: 2158-2440
• COBISS.SI-ID: 2586967

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: statistika, spol, vizualizacija

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P5-0441-2023
• Name: Regeneracija ekonomije in posla

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P5-0128-2018
• Name: Izzivi vključujočega in trajnostnega razvoja v prevladujoči paradigmi ekonomskih in poslovnih znanosti