Social Sustainability
Underrepresented Group
Definition
An underrepresented group is a demographic group whose representation in an organisation, profession, leadership structure or decision process is substantially lower than its share of the relevant population — women in engineering and boards, ethnic minorities in senior management, disabled people in employment, lower-income groups in higher education. Underrepresentation is a diagnostic of barriers (access, bias, pipeline, culture) rather than a property of the group itself, and it is the trigger category for targets, outreach and structural programmes.
References
This reference provides supporting context for how “Underrepresented Group” is defined and used.
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Overview
How it is used
The category structures diversity reporting, affirmative action and positive action programmes, board diversity rules, and just transition inclusion analysis.
Why it matters
You cannot fix exclusion you refuse to count; the underrepresented group is the unit in which exclusion becomes measurable.