Making gender diversity work for scientific discovery and innovation

Nielsen, Mathias Wullum; Bloch, Carter; Schiebinger, Londa

doi:10.1038/s41562-018-0433-1

Cited by 188 publications

(142 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Kushnirovich and Heilbrunn [50], who use a survey from Israel, find that culture, rather than gender, has a significant impact on innovation. However, it is contrary to results of Østergaard et al [25], Horbach and Jacob [45], Nielsen, Bloch, and Schiebinger [46], and Dai, Byun, and Ding [47]. These studies find that gender diversity improves innovation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 62%

“…Horbach and Jacob [45], based on the German employee database of the Institute for Employment Research, demonstrate that highly-qualified female workers with a university education and a mixed-gender management board have a positive effect on a firm's innovation. Nielsen, Bloch, and Schiebinger [46] find that gender diversity of employees can positively influence scientific discovery and innovation by three approaches to gender diversity: (1) diversity in research teams, (2) diversity in research methods, and (3) diversity in research questions. Furthermore, in the context of new ventures, there is a positive relationship between the gender diversity of new venture firms and their innovation performance [47].…”

Section: The Effect Of Gender On Innovationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Gender Effect on a Firm’s Innovative Activities in the Emerging Economies

Shin

2019

Sustainability

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This study examines the impact of gender at three different positions in a firm’s hierarchy on innovative activities, looking at over 6474 firms in 30 emerging countries. We create a dummy variable for each of the six survey questions on product innovation, process innovation, organizational innovation, marketing innovation, and R&D (Research & Development) spending. Each dummy acts as a dependent variable in a separate logit regression, and the sum of the dummies acts as the dependent variable in another ordered logit regression. We use the female ownership percentage, female top management, and female majority in the workforce as test variables. We use the Heckman two-stage model to address endogeneity concerns with gender. We find that the female ownership percentage is generally positively related to individual innovation measures as well as the composite measure, while female top management is positively associated with marketing innovation only, and a female majority in the workforce is not significantly related to any measure. The results suggest that promoting innovation in emerging countries would involve governments encouraging further market participation by women and supporting female CEOs (Chief Executive Officers) to innovate, and firms fostering innovation among female workers.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 62%

Section: The Effect Of Gender On Innovationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Gender Effect on a Firm’s Innovative Activities in the Emerging Economies

Shin

2019

Sustainability

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“…Given this situation, institutions such as the European Commission are working on gendered innovation, which aims at including the gender/sex analysis and gender diversity among research and innovation and is one of the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) indicators in the field of Science and Technology considered by the European Union. In fact, ensuring the incorporation of the gender perspective supposes a crosscutting issue for the European Commission in its Horizon 2020 funding program in every stage of the research process, where not only diversity in research teams needs to be fulfilled but also diversity in research methods and in research questions [31].…”

Section: The Information Theory Field: Impact Of Gendered Innovationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender Diversity in STEM Disciplines: A Multiple Factor Problem

Botella

Rueda

López-Iñesta

et al. 2019

Entropy

159

123

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Lack of diversity, and specifically, gender diversity, is one of the key problems that both technological companies and academia are facing these days. Moreover, recent studies show that the number of female students enrolled in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) related disciplines have been decreasing in the last twenty years, while the number of women resigning from technological job positions remains unacceptably high. As members of a higher education institution, we foresee that working towards increasing and retaining the number of female students enrolled in STEM disciplines can help to alleviate part of the challenges faced by women in STEM fields. In this paper, we first review the main barriers and challenges that women encounter in their professional STEM careers through different age stages. Next, we focus on the special case of the information theory field, discussing the potential of gendered innovation, and whether it can be applied in the Information Theory case. The working program developed by the School of Engineering at the University of Valencia (ETSE-UV), Spain, which aims at decreasing the gender diversity gap, is then presented and recommendations for practice are given. This program started in 2011 and it encompasses Bachelor, Master and PhD levels. Four main actions are implemented: Providing institutional encouragement and support, increasing the professional support network, promoting and supporting the leadership, and increasing the visibility of female role models. To assess the impact of these actions, a chi-square test of independence is included to evaluate whether there is a significant effect on the percentage of enrolled female students. The percentage of graduated female students in the information and Communications Technology Field is also positioned with respect to other universities and the Spanish reference value. This analysis establishes that, in part, this program has helped to achieve higher female graduation rates, especially among Bachelor students, as well as increasing the number of top-decision positions held by faculty women.

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“…Studies of science and medicine offer perhaps the best characterized examples of the potential impact of female representation. Gender diversity may impact scientific research and innovation in two important ways, beyond possible benefits to performance and innovation (Nielsen, Bloch, & Schiebinger, ). First, it may lead to greater diversity in research methods, in particular, the inclusion of “sex and gender analysis”—that is, a lens that explicitly takes sex and gender into account—that can give rise to new insights, increased validity or precision, and better servicing of females’ needs (Schiebinger, ).…”

Section: Justice and Workplace Gender Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The second proposed impact of gender diversity is on “research priorities and agendas” (Nielsen et al., , p. 728). In academic research, values shape the research programs considered worthy of resources and investigation.…”

Section: Justice and Workplace Gender Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Does Workplace Gender Diversity Matter? Justice, Organizational Benefits, and Policy

Fine

Sojo

Lawford‐Smith

2019

Social Issues Policy Review

109

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Why does workplace gender diversity matter? Here, we provide a review of the literature on both justice-based and organizational benefits of workplace gender diversity that, importantly, is informed by evidence regarding sex differences and their relationship with vocational behavior and outcomes. This review indicates that the sexes are neither distinctly different, nor so similar as to be fungible. Justice-based gains of workplace gender diversity include that it may cause less sex discrimination and may combat androcentrism in products and services. We then consider potential instrumental benefits of workplace gender diversity to organizations, including for team and firm performance, innovation, occupational well-being, and corporate governance. The evidence of positive association is currently strongest for occupational well-being and governance. We recommend that policy makers ground gender diversity initiatives in this comprehensive and evidence-based understanding of the benefits of workplace gender diversity.

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Making gender diversity work for scientific discovery and innovation

Cited by 188 publications

References 55 publications

The Gender Effect on a Firm’s Innovative Activities in the Emerging Economies

The Gender Effect on a Firm’s Innovative Activities in the Emerging Economies

Gender Diversity in STEM Disciplines: A Multiple Factor Problem

Why Does Workplace Gender Diversity Matter? Justice, Organizational Benefits, and Policy

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