I think the Sims introduced a lot of people to PC games in general and is a big factor in the creation of simulation games as a genre but I don't know if it really introduced women into gaming. But then again I was approximately 7 when the Sims 1 base game came out in 1999 so maybe this would apply to older generations more. But by the time the Sims came out I was already pretty acquainted with playing video games due to the massive Pokemon popularity boom and my mom letting my play Zelda on her old NES. Nintendo games were extremely popular with both genders and girls especially were really into Tamagotchi and Neopets. And I had plenty of Barbie PC games because a lot of companies realized in the mid 90s they were missing a huge chunk on of revenue by not marketing video games to little girls as well as boys. In fact the whole "women aren't interested in gaming" really started as a marketing technique in the 80s! Nintendo is often credited with starting the unfortunate trend when they decided to market the NES as a boy's toy rather than a gaming console. Which on one hand saved the industry but on the other caused a lot of discrimination against women within it.
(Source)So I think The Sims was released during a wider movement of advertising to women and girls but not necessarily the primary reason more women got into gaming.
Unrelated I got interested in the Sims because I thought lighting stuff on fire was funny (what this says about younger me I don't know).
