Mixed-gender research teams produce more high-impact scientific studies than teams made up of just one gender, according to new research from the University of Notre Dame. But, gender-diverse teams are still underrepresented in medical research.
“Medical science may have the potential ability to speed up breakthroughs by encouraging the formation of mixed-gender teams,” said lead researcher Dr. Yang Yang, an assistant professor of IT, analytics and operations at the university’s Mendoza College of Business.
Dr. Yang Yang
The study appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in late August.
Yang and his colleagues analyzed 6.6 million medical research papers published globally between 2000 and 2019. They defined “gender diversity” as a value ranging from 0 when the team was composed 100% of men or women, to 1 when the team included an equal share of men and women.
Mixed-gender teams were significantly more likely to produce more novel studies that engaged and combined existing knowledge in a new way.
Gender-diverse teams were also more likely to produce papers that would go on to be highly cited than same-gender teams. The more even the gender balance on the team, the more creative the research was.
