Question

The paper "Community Colleges Start to Ask, Where Are the Men?" (Chronicle of Higher Education, June 28,2002 ) gave data on gender for community college students. It was reported that \(42 \%\) of students enrolled at community colleges nationwide were male and \(58 \%\) were female. Construct a segmented bar graph for these data.

Short answer

The segmented bar graph, representing the gender distribution of community college students in the United States, would have a bar segmented into a part representing male students (42%) and a part representing female students (58%).

Step-by-step solution

Drawing the bar

First, draw a horizontal or vertical bar that represents the entirety of the community college students (100%). Label this bar 'Community College Students'. It doesn't matter the length of the bar but ensure that the length is fully representative of a hundred percent.

Segment the bar

Next, segment the bar into two parts according to the percentage values given. One segment represents the male students at 42% and the other segment represents the female students at 58%. If the bar was 10 cm long for instance, the segment for male students should measure 4.2 cm and the segment for female students should measure 5.8 cm. It's useful to use different colors or hatching to differentiate the segments.

Label the segments

After segmenting the bar, label each part with its respective category and percentage. The smaller segment should be labelled 'Male, 42%' and the larger segment should be labelled 'Female, 58%'.

Finishing up

Lastly, title the graph appropriately (e.g. 'Gender Distribution of Community College Students'). This helps people understand what the graph represents without requiring further explanation.