This variation uses grouped instead of stacked bars to show male and female graduate numbers side by side. I found grouped bars to be more efficient at representing raw data that is not normalized because each bar is at the same level as each other. This makes it easier to discern the differences between male and female graduate amounts for multiple provinces. For example, if we want to know how the female graduate count for Alberta compares with other provinces, we just simply focus on the length of the rest of the plotted green bars.
Variation 2 is a stacked bar plot of STEM graduation rates by gender. In other words, it displays the male and female share percentages for the selected STEM grouping and subset (province/territory, educational attainment, or age group). What I like about this variation is that the data for each province is clearly visible unlike variation 1, where the data for certain provinces cannot be seen due to its smallness. Furthermore, because each bar has the same length of 1.0, female and male graduation rates can easily be compared across different categories without having to do any mental calculations.
Variation 3 is a basic bar graph illustrating the female share percentages for the selected STEM grouping and subset. I created five rankings for female share percentages and assigned a color to each ranking. I believe that the use of shades helps the reader discern the magnitude of a female share percentage easily. By glancing at the visualization, the reader should naturally deduct that the darker shade of green a bar is, the higher its value is. I made the y-axis domain go from 0 to 1.0 because I wanted to show how female share is usually less than 0.5, indicating a lack of gender diversity across different categories.