underrepresentation
underrepresentation — noun
1. the state in which a group makes up a much smaller share of an institution or pr
the state in which a group makes up a much smaller share of an institution or profession than it does of the general population — for example, if women are half the population but only a tenth of company directors, they face underrepresentation
Dr. Okonkwo's review of twelve London hospitals revealed a stark underrepresentation of Black consultants in senior surgical posts.
collocation: underrepresentation of [group] in [field]
Only three of 140 PhD students in Eleni's biology department were Black — an underrepresentation she felt sharply in the lab.
pattern: felt + underrepresentation + [adverb]
Zayd spent three years campaigning against the underrepresentation of working-class students at top law schools.
Why did the underrepresentation of women in engineering persist, Indra wondered, when half the graduating class was female?
The underrepresentation of disabled athletes in national team funding led the sports council to rewrite its selection rules.
- insufficient representation
a more direct but wordier alternative, common in formal writing
- lack of diversity
broader and less precise; can refer to any absence of variety, not just numerical imbalance
- numerical imbalance
neutral and statistical; lacks the social-justice connotation of 'underrepresentation'
- overrepresentation
the opposite condition, where a group's presence exceeds its population share
- proportional representation
the ideal state where each group's presence matches its share of the wider population
文法句型
underrepresentation of [group] in [domain]
用法筆記
Typically used in formal writing about social issues, demographics, or institutional composition. Uncountable; most often appears in the pattern 'underrepresentation of [group] in [domain]'.