May 2026
New Wharton research reveals why all-female professional environments drive stronger outcomes.
A new study from Wharton School professor Tiantian Yang has confirmed something many professional women have long suspected, but now with data to back it up.
Women who attended virtual career training classes exclusively with other women were significantly more likely to complete their training on time, earn professional certification, and secure employment in their field, compared to women in mixed-gender groups.
The mechanism? The absence of men created psychological safety, which led women to share personal stories, encourage one another, and exchange practical employment resources.
An examination of messages exchanged on the training platform revealed three key differences in how women communicated in same-gender versus mixed-gender groups. In all-female cohorts, women opened up about their shared identities as mothers, daughters, wives, and caregivers, discussing career ambitions, fears, and vulnerabilities in detail. This depth of sharing built what the researchers call “identity-based trust”, and that trust translated directly into better outcomes.
Yang noted that she and her colleagues were surprised by how large the gaps were. They predicted women would benefit from all-women groups, but not to the extent the data showed.
This study is the first to demonstrate that gender homophily, the tendency to connect with those who share your identity, has distinct advantages for women specifically in remote environments. That is a significant finding at a time when virtual learning and distributed teams are the norm, not the exception.
It also challenges a longstanding assumption. Previous research has argued that women benefit most from mixed-gender environments, where proximity to male colleagues offers access to networks and sponsorship. Yang’s work shows that in remote settings, the dynamic shifts, and the design of the environment matters as much as the content within it.
The practical implication is straightforward: organisations designing virtual training programmes, professional development pathways, or peer learning communities should consider whether their structures are actively enabling the psychological safety that drives performance.
As Yang puts it: “More help is always better, but it doesn’t have to come from men.”
As remote and hybrid work models continue to expand, organisations are increasingly focused on productivity, retention, and leadership development within distributed teams.
This research suggests that inclusion is not simply about representation, but about designing environments where individuals feel psychologically safe enough to participate fully.
For businesses, that means rethinking how virtual learning, mentorship, and peer support systems are structured, particularly for women navigating leadership and career progression in remote settings.
Women in all-female virtual training cohorts completed training, earned certification, and secured employment at significantly higher rates than those in mixed-gender groups.
The driver was psychological safety, when women felt safe, they shared more, supported each other, and built identity-based trust that translated into measurable outcomes.
In remote environments, the design of how people learn together matters as much as what they are learning.
Organisations running virtual training, peer learning, or professional development programmes should actively audit whether their structures enable this kind of safety, or unintentionally suppress it.
“More help is always better, but it doesn’t have to come from men.” — Tiantian Yang, Wharton School
Source: “Why Women Need Other Women at Work”, Knowledge at Wharton, May 2026
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