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Has there been any study showing that fields that went from being dominated by one sex to having a more balanced ratio benefited in any significant way. No seri

Has there been any study showing that fields that went from being dominated by one sex to having a more balanced ratio benefited in any significant way. No seriously... For instance, has there been an explosion of new ideas and research in the legal or medical fields since women started being more prominent in those fields that could have only come from women? The underlying belief in these types articles seems to be that women have a lot to offer the tech industry _just by virtue of them being women_.

jlvarner 15y ago
While not at an industry level, which I agree would be interesting analysis. There is some research indicating at the group level, in general, women do have a beneficial influence: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100930143339.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100930143339.ht... But I think there are two aspects of including more women, or any other underrepresented group, in tech. One is what you mentioned in regard to pushing the state of the art, but the other is providing service to different sectors of the population. If the primary thing you need as an entrepreneur is to understand the needs and wants of your audience, there's only so far I can go before it's at best a purely intellectual understanding. Same thing with small startups, if they are growing out of scratching my own itch, the lack of women means needs specific to them are much less likely to be addressed.