I think we should be very careful how we choose to interpret the results here. There are a lot of unknowns and variables presented in the paper (how they're determining gender, for example.)
I'm not sure there's enough data here to create an understanding about the relationship between merge rate and gender. Various external issues could be the cause of the difference (I don't believe either gender is more capable) - for example (not sure if this is true, but it portrays how these stats could be skewed): In India, there's a higher incentive to be recognized in the community because competition is stiffer, so more people submit PRs. In this case, people who generally wouldn't submit a PR because of their lack of expertise are now submitting PRs on the chance that it may get accepted. The result is a greater number of PRs with lower quality.
These are the effects of having a global community. There are so many external factors I don't really think we can determine much of anything from these results. It's an interesting analysis regardless though.
I'm not sure there's enough data here to create an understanding about the relationship between merge rate and gender. Various external issues could be the cause of the difference (I don't believe either gender is more capable) - for example (not sure if this is true, but it portrays how these stats could be skewed): In India, there's a higher incentive to be recognized in the community because competition is stiffer, so more people submit PRs. In this case, people who generally wouldn't submit a PR because of their lack of expertise are now submitting PRs on the chance that it may get accepted. The result is a greater number of PRs with lower quality.
These are the effects of having a global community. There are so many external factors I don't really think we can determine much of anything from these results. It's an interesting analysis regardless though.