another word for lack of representation

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• representation

noun as in description

Strongest matches

depiction , image , portrayal

Strong matches

adumbration , copy , delegation , delineation , design , duplicate , enactment , exhibition , illustration , imitation , impersonation , impression , likeness , narration , personification , reproduction

noun as in likeness

image , portrayal

account , chart , delegation , diagram , effigy , embodiment , graph , icon , illustration , map , model , picture , protest , sample , sketch , statement , symbol

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Example sentences.

It was a metaphorical statement of giving and withdrawing consent for a show rooted in a literal representation of Coel being assaulted.

The mathematically manipulated results are passed on and augmented through the stages, finally producing an integrated representation of a face.

I hope this list—a representation of the most consequential changes taking places in our world—is similarly useful for you.

“Given the moment we are in, I can only hope our institutions really understand what this failure of representation means to our city,” he said.

The voters don’t want to have an elected city attorney on the, and representation said, that’s fine.

With all that said, representation of each of these respective communities has increased in the new Congress.

As this excellent piece in Mother Jones describes, however, Holsey had outrageously poor representation during his trial.

During that time days, Livvix went through court hearings without legal representation.

What do you think prompted the change in comic book representation of LGBTQ characters?

Barbie is an unrealistic, unhealthy, insulting representation of female appearance.

With less intelligent children traces of this tendency to take pictorial representation for reality may appear as late as four.

As observation widens and grows finer, the first bald representation becomes fuller and more life-like.

The child now aims at constructing a particular linear representation, that of a man, a horse, or what not.

He had heard it hinted that allowing the colonies representation in Parliament would be a simple plan for making taxes legal.

But sufficient can be discerned for the grasping of the idea, which seems to be a representation of the Nativity.

Related Words

Words related to representation are not direct synonyms, but are associated with the word representation . Browse related words to learn more about word associations.

noun as in coming into sight

• actualization
• introduction
• manifestation
• materialization
• presentation

noun as in creation meant to communicate or appeal to senses or mind

• abstraction
• description
• illustration
• pictorialization
• symbolization

noun as in personal interest

• countenance
• encouragement
• furtherance
• recommendation

noun as in funny drawing, often with dialogue or caption

• comic strip

noun as in statement of disagreement, discontent

• dissatisfaction
• expostulation
• fault-finding
• protestation
• remonstrance
• remonstration

Viewing 5 / 84 related words

On this page you'll find 123 synonyms, antonyms, and words related to representation, such as: depiction, image, portrayal, adumbration, copy, and delegation.

From Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.

Synonyms of 'representation' in American English

Synonyms of 'representation' in british english, additional synonyms.

Browse alphabetically representation

• represent someone as something or someone
• represent yourself as something or someone
• representation
• representative
• All ENGLISH synonyms that begin with 'R'

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lack of representation

Meanings of and representation.

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(Definition of lack-of and representation from the Cambridge English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

• Examples of lack of representation

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• Definition of representation
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If representation is a rights issue, why are women still critically underrepresented? 

By maxine betteridge-moes.

“Leadership is a means, not an end,” wrote the feminist activist Srilatha Batliwala, an India-based scholar with the Association for Women’s Rights in Development . With this statement in mind, and in order to make sustainable progress on gender equality by 2030, we must not only fix the system that holds women back from positions of power and authority, but also ensure that women that do arrive to these leadership positions can hold onto their authority and exercise their power to achieve social transformation for generations to come.  

The 2022 SDG Gender Index measures women’s leadership and representation across 14 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Of the 56 indicators used to measure gender equality in the Index, four indicators directly measure aspects of women’s leadership, namely: women in parliament, women in ministerial posts, women in science and technology, and women in climate change leadership. In its second edition, the Index measures progress over time and has evolved into an even more useful tool for advocates to hold their governments to account in achieving gender equality.  

Alison Holder, the director of Equal Measures 2030 says the Index shows that while some countries have made significant progress on women’s representation in recent years, a persistent lack of gender data masks disparities across different sectors and groups of women.  

“If you dig into the Index, there is a mixed picture in terms of progress on women’s representation,” she said. “We have to celebrate progress where it’s happening, but there isn’t one single trend or story we can draw about women’s leadership from the Index.”   

“It’s the system’s problem”

Women’s representation and feminist leadership are two important concepts for gender equality, but they are not one in the same. While women’s representation is easier to count and measure through data and statistics, feminist leadership considers how power is executed and decisions are made. As champions of grassroots feminist leadership themselves, many of EM2030’s partners have found ways to redefine, value, use, share and distribute power.  

“One of the challenges is that the focus is usually on fixing the woman rather than fixing the problem,” explained Emily Maranga, the program manager at GROOTS Kenya . “So we use the power of our collective to carry out advocacy and encourage women to take up leadership. Because if the leadership spaces are open and women are not taking them up, that’s not the woman's problem. It's the system's problem.” 

The volatility of women's leadership

The best available data in terms of measuring women’s leadership is their political representation in parliament and senior government roles. According to the Index, the world on average made significant progress on women’s political representation between 2015 and 2020: 90 countries made ‘very fast’ progress on increasing women’s representation in parliament and 78 countries made ‘very fast’ progress on increasing women’s representation in senior government roles.  

“We can’t ignore, however, that this progress comes from a very low base and the world is still far from where it needs to be to meet the target of gender parity in political participation,” said Holder. In 2020, just 26.4% of parliamentary seats and 24.7% of senior government roles globally were held by women. The volatility of these statistics also can’t be ignored, as women’s representation can fluctuate widely depending on the political agenda of ruling parties. For example, the Index shows that between 2015 and 2020, several countries including Ethiopia, Lebanon and Mexico saw major leaps forward in the percentage of women in senior government positions, while several countries including Estonia, Slovenia and Poland fell back significantly in the wrong direction. The result is an overall global grade of ‘very poor’ for these two indicators.  

Other indicators on women in science and technology and on women in climate change delegations paint an even more mixed picture. As of 2018, only 31% of science and technology research posts were held by women, and on average, the world had made ‘no progress’ on increasing the share of women since 2015. In terms of women’s representation in climate change delegations, Holder describes a “tale of two halves”. While 55% of countries made ‘some’ or ‘fast’ progress on increasing women’s participation in climate change leadership between 2015 and 2020, a large proportion of countries (41%) moved in the wrong direction on this measure and reduced the proportion of women in their climate change delegations. At COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, the global summit to accelerate action on climate change, women accounted for, on average, 33% of government delegates, just as they did in 2019 and 2020.  

Persistent data gaps

The increased participation and presence of women in politics and public life is a vital step towards advancing gender equality - but it is not the only factor. Women often encounter hierarchical and exclusionary power structures in decision-making spaces that undermine their active participation and engagement. Transforming this structural context is key for their political empowerment and authority. 

Data on women’s representation in parliament and senior government positions is relatively easy to find, but it indicates that women in these formal political spaces come from more privileged backgrounds. Comparable data on women’s representation at the subnational level is scarce, and for nearly half of all countries, sub-national data does not exist at all. Most countries do not collect data on women’s representation in the private sector and in NGOs, which is needed to provide a clearer picture of women’s voice and influence across sectors. Data is also missing across all sectors on the participation and experience of other groups including ethnic or racial minorities, the LGBTQ community, women with disabilities and others, to arrive in leadership positions. 

“The Index report expresses the importance of having better gender data that allows us to measure intersecting inequalities to look at the situation for women on average, but crucially the situation for different groups of women to ensure equality and justice,” said Holder.  

The road ahead  

Even as most countries worldwide seem to be making some advances on women’s representation, the SDG Gender Index sounds the alarm at its slow pace, its limited scale, and its profound fragility. It’s still too soon to gauge the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on girls and women around the world, and future humanitarian crises will further expose and intensify the severe inequalities laid bare in the Index. What matters now is what we do next. 

The first step for women’s rights advocates like EM2030 is to continue promoting the visibility of female politicians and decision-makers across public and private sectors, and collecting and using disaggregated data to plug persistent gaps around women’s leadership and representation. Donors must invest more in data monitoring and accountability across all sectors, fund grassroots organizations and invest in more training programs on political systems, women’s right to participation, and their roles in decision-making. Finally, governments can promote quota systems to help bring women into political spheres, use international frameworks to bring diverse women into emergency responses, conflict prevention, and peacebuilding, invest in structural and legal reforms that provide women with social and legal protections, and finally, call for gender-balanced decision-making bodies.  

The road ahead for gender equality, and particularly for women’s representation and feminist leadership will undoubtedly have its bumps. But as Lina Abirafeh, the former Executive Director of the Arab Institute for Women puts it: “Right now, we need to defend and reclaim our space, our voice and our words. And then we can move forward.”  

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representation

Definition of representation

Examples of representation in a sentence.

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'representation.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing representation

• proportional representation
• self - representation

Dictionary Entries Near representation

representant

representationalism

Cite this Entry

“Representation.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/representation. Accessed 9 May. 2024.

Kids Definition

Kids definition of representation, legal definition, legal definition of representation, more from merriam-webster on representation.

Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for representation

Nglish: Translation of representation for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of representation for Arabic Speakers

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about representation

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Lexington nonprofit gets backlash for lack of diversity after display announcement

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - In April, the nonprofit Lexarts announced the 13 artists from across the region whose work will be displayed in a Lexington office space.

“When we posted the picture with the artists that were chosen for the commerce Lexington, we really had the intention to celebrate the fact that local artists were being used,” said LexArts President and CEO Ame Sweetall.

This post was met with some backlash, but not because of who was selected, but because of who was not.

The 13 artists selected appeared to be all white and around the same age.

Former LexArts board member Bryce Oquaye said people are pointing out a lack of diversity.

“Oftentimes, when people think of an organization like LexArts, they don’t think of a person that looks like myself, and that in itself is telling because it’s not about the optics of who I am, it’s about what I am, I which is an artist,” Oquaye said.

Sweetall said the client buying artwork for projects like this picks the artists, but she said the organization understands where people are coming from.

“Its really been eye opening and enlightening to me to know where we failed in that process,” Sweetall said. “I’ve had a lot of talk with my staff and board about how we can turn that process into an opportunity for equity.”

Oquaye said LexArts should extend their efforts into more minority communities so they know that opportunities like this exist.

“I think an organization that has the ability to really fund things and have access and step outside in all kinds of ways they deem important, well, if this is important to you, that’s the same energy and effort that you’ll place in going outside to those communities as well, so really act on stuff,” he said.

“Its been very important to me to really listen to where are those places that we are just not doing a good job, so that I can commit to that change, and that’s what we want to do is commit to those changes and make them happen,” Sweetall added.

Sweetall said LexArts is continuing to expand upon diversity and inclusion efforts, especially through grant funding that highlights minority artists.

Copyright 2024 WKYT. All rights reserved.

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