Although women have more than quintupled their representation among patent holders since 1977, a pronounced patent gender gap remains. In 2010, according to a new briefing paper by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), fewer than one in five patents had at least one woman inventor named. Although quintupling the number of women inventors over the last 30+ years is impressive, at the current growth rate, it is projected that it will take until 2092 for women to reach parity in patenting.
The IWPR briefing paper reports that women make up only 7.7 percent of primary inventors who hold patents. According to IWPR, those women who are the primary inventor tend to hold patents for inventions associated with traditional female roles, such as jewelry and apparel.
Closing the patent gender gap and increasing women’s patenting rate could (and should) also increase access to venture capital funding for women-owned businesses. Venture capital investors consider patents in funding determinations, so with women receiving few patents, it only stands to reason that women-owned businesses would not do well in the VC marketplace. Indeed, while 36.3 percent of all businesses in the United States are women-owned, only three percent of venture capital funding went to businesses with a woman CEO between 2011 and 2013.
“Not only do women and people of color have unequal access to the economic rewards and fulfillment of STEM careers and inventing, but the nation is missing out on a huge swath of talent and innovation that could contribute to solving important social and scientific problems.” said IWPR Vice President and Executive Director Barbara Gault, Ph.D. “Supporting women inventors is a key element of a thriving innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem in the United States.”
One of the main reasons why there is such a pronounced patent gender gap, with women having such a small share of the overall number of patents, is due to their significant under-representation in patent-intensive fields. For example, in 2010, only 19.1 percent of engineering degrees, 20.9 percent of computer science, and 38.7 percent of degrees in the physical sciences were awarded to women. Meanwhile, 58.3 percent of degrees in the biological sciences were held by women.
In order to close the patent gender gap, it will be necessary to reach young girls before they choose a path away from science and math, whatever the reason may be. One way to reach children is with positive role models. So, to encourage more participation in STEM fields, there needs to be more successful female role models for girls to look up to and want to emulate.
One easy recommendation proffered by IWPR, which could be nearly immediately implemented, is for the Patent Office to start collecting at least some basic demographic information about inventors. The current data is not foolproof, because researchers typically use name-matching software to presumptively identify gender, race and ethnicity. Getting better data will give us a better picture of what is happening and where to focus resources to tap into vast wells of undiscovered potential.
Tags: patent, patents, STEM, women inventors
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