Amy Sheng can sum up in one sentence why it’s important to have more female scientists and engineers designing products — especially if those products involve childbirth or breast-feeding. “A guy cannot fundamentally understand,” she said.
A Stanford-educated mechanical engineer, Ms. Sheng was reacting to recent efforts, including a hackathon that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology held in September to come up with a better breast pump. But the sentiment also applies to her own company’s invention, which is aimed chiefly at mothers.
Ms. Sheng is a co-founder of CellScope, a smartphone attachment that allows parents to take videos of a child’s middle ear that can be sent to doctors for an ear-infection diagnosis. She began working on the idea when she was pregnant; she now has two sons under the age of 4. “I personally experienced the pain point,” she said. “My child is screaming and sick, and the pediatrician’s office is closed because it’s 9 o’clock at night. From an entrepreneur’s perspective, there is nothing better than being an actual user.”
The fact that fewer women found start-ups around science and new technologies is a concern to nonprofits like the Kauffman Foundation and corporations like 3M, Merck and Dell (and even the White House). When female perspectives are left out, innovations tend to be male-centric, often overlooking the needs or desires of women.
“When new companies and industries flourish, everyone benefits,” according to a Kauffman report, “Overcoming the Gender Gap.” “And the returns will increase when more women contribute to the process by bringing their ideas to market and building high-growth firms around them.”
Women who are pursuing start-ups in tech or science say they are often inspired to create products that they as consumers would use. In San Francisco, Leah Sparks and Katherine Bellevin are developing Due Date Plus, a smartphone-enabled maternity program. Surbhi Sarna of nVision, who suffered from ovarian cysts, is working on devices to detect ovarian cancer and tube blockages.
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