It's not completely true. Yes, women had fewer opportunities to receive formal education and contribute to the workforce, but plenty of women have been responsible for revolutionary ideas and inventions.

Alice Parker created the first type of natural gas furnace; Tabitha Babbit designed the circular saw; Josephine Cochran invented the first automatic dishwasher that used pressurized water; Ida Forbes, the electric water heater; Florence Parpart, the electric refrigerator; Patricia Billings, Geobond; Marie Van Brittan Brown, CCTV security system; Maria Telkes, Thermoelectric power generator... the list goes on and on.

Many women don't get the same recognition as men to as inventors or historical figures. Also, there have been many female inventors who have had their ideas stolen or werent given credit, such as Rosalind Franklin; discovery of double helix shape of DNA; Lisa Meitner, Nuclear Fission; Eunice Foot, published the first paper detailing the Greenhouse Effect; Jocelyn Bell, the discovery of pulsar....

On and on and on it goes.