In open-source software design, the inclusion of women is often highlighted simply to remind programmers that women exist. Yet, little attention is given to how greater gender diversity, specifically women's participation, could fundamentally alter development patterns. To understand the potential impact of gender inclusion, this study investigates React, a widely used JavaScript library for building user interfaces with an active contributor community. I examine gender differences in metrics of robustness and innovation, as well as shifts in contribution patterns leading up to major version releases over 11 years of the React project. My results show that the exclusion of women is detrimental to software as women contribute significantly more to feature enhancement and dependency management. By exploring how gender influences innovation and robustness in the development of React, the study offers critical insights into how increasing gender diversity could lead to more inclusive, innovative, and robust software.

翻译：在开源软件设计中，女性参与常被强调仅为提醒程序员女性群体的存在。然而，对于更高的性别多样性——特别是女性参与——如何可能从根本上改变开发模式，却鲜有关注。为理解性别包容的潜在影响，本研究调查了React——一个拥有活跃贡献者社区的、广泛用于构建用户界面的JavaScript库。我考察了在鲁棒性和创新性指标上的性别差异，以及React项目11年间主要版本发布前贡献模式的变化。我的结果表明，排除女性对软件有害，因为女性在功能增强和依赖管理方面贡献显著更多。通过探索性别如何影响React开发中的创新与鲁棒性，本研究为增加性别多样性如何可能导向更具包容性、创新性和鲁棒性的软件提供了关键见解。