Out of every 100 patent applications, only 16 come from women. This stark disparity highlights the persistent underrepresentation women face in innovation and intellectual property. In the occasion of the International Girls and Women in Science Day, it is important to highlight the recurrent issue of underrepresentation that women still encounter in every aspect of their lives. Although female patent ownership has increased over time, current gender gap analyses reveal women’s systemic inequalities in the patenting sector.
WIPO’s findings and the Gender Gap
The World Intellectual Property Organization has kept raising awareness in women’s inequalities in the patent sector, finding only 16 percent of patent applications are filed by women, and estimating, based on current trends, reaching gender parity around 2061. This number varies across countries, technologies, and sectors. Even tho countries like France (11,7%) and Russia (15,7%) show a higher percentage of women inventors, and percentages have grown over time, numerical equality is still very far.
STEM underrepresentation issue
Among different reasons affecting the ongoing disparity, the disproportion between men and women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is one of the primary ones. For example, in 2014, only 20% of physics bachelor’s degrees were earned by women. In computer science, the gender gap is growing: from 35% of computer science women-earned bachelors, it dropped to 18% in 2014. This directly impacts the number of potential women contributing to inventions and filing patent applications.
The impact of social norms on women’s inventorship
Another factor impacting the number of women in STEM is socialization, in fact, studies suggest that women have been socialized to advocate and think less about commercialization of their work, excluding them from innovation-related opportunities and institutions, which can lead to women undervaluing their achievements and contributions, as well as not patenting their works. This becomes clear when discovering that more than half of Ph.D.’s in life sciences sectors are awarded to women, but only 15% of them patent their discoveries. Additionally, women in STEM may develop social reactions and responses that discourage patenting and commercialization of their research. This also means being less likely to consider commercialization for their inventions and being less comfortable when marketing their work to potential business partners, compared to males.
The financial and systemic barriers to women’s innovation
Another aspect that is emphasized by academics, is the difficulty level that women experience in accessing funding and resources for financing research and development of inventions. As the patenting process can be costly and time-consuming, women may lack the funding to secure their patenting rights or access patent prosecution counsel in case of a patent prosecution. Moreover, since patents and pending applications are what investors look for, women entrepreneurs may be less likely to obtain financing if they are less likely to possess IP rights.
Different studies found that the patent system itself is biased. For example, Jessica C. Lai for the Queen Mary IP Law Journal highlights how law fields cannot be neutral. Instead, she presents the Law as a social and cultural reflection of its creation context, which would attribute criteria for patentability (novelty and non-obviousness) to inherent masculine innovations and favouring them in the patenting process, finding female patent applicants more likely to be rejected.
The Matilda Effect and overlooked contributions
Often, historical contributions of women have been overlooked. This is referred to as the Matilda Effect, where men receive the credit for work done by women inventors. A prime example of this effect is the creation of Gatorade. Although Mary Cade and Davis significantly contributed to the development of Gatorade, they were not mentioned on the patent applications. This highlights how women are often not given credit or ignored in the patenting process, which discourages women from pursuing science and technology careers.
A legacy of discovery: the Radium Revolution and Marie Curie’s impact
Marie Curie represents an exceptional example of a woman breaking societal expectations by making groundbreaking contributions to science. Marie Curie is the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the only woman to win a Nobel Prize twice, and in two different scientific fields. She paved the way for future generations of women in STEM and led to extraordinary advancements in the area of radioactivity. In fact, she made available all of her detailed research on how to isolate radium, without patenting it. Marie Curie’s story keeps inspiring women to pursue scientific research and highlights the need for an inclusive and equitable system, where women are acknowledged and celebrated.
All of these factors paint a clear picture: the patenting system is not yet gender neutral. Underrepresentation of women in STEM and the biases on how inventions are evaluated in the patenting process play a big role in the perpetuation of the Matilda Effect, which casts a long shadow. This isn’t about historical injustices, but about the ongoing loss of valuable opportunities and ideas. With all of this in mind, we must ask ourselves: how much innovation are we losing by not embracing women’s contributions?
Sources:
- Merlin Johns, ‘Challenges Faced by Women in Protecting Intellectual Property Rights’ (2024) 7 Int’l JL Mgmt & Human 704.
- Michael Schuster, Miriam Marcowitz-Bitton & Deborah R. Gerhardt, ‘The Gender Gap in Academic Patenting’ (2022) 56 UC Davis L Rev 759.
- WIPO, ‘The Global Gender Gap in Innovation and Creativity: An International Comparison of the Gender Gap in Global Patenting over Two Decades’ (2023) WIPO Development Studies.
- Sharon Bar-Ziv, Orit Fischman-Afori & Miriam Marcowitz-Bitton, ‘Where the Gender Gap Meets Academic Patenting: An Empirical Study’ (2022) 18 Ohio St Tech L J 239.
- Allie Porter, ‘Where Are the Women? The Gender Gap within Intellectual Property’ (2020) 28 Tex Intell Prop LJ 511.
- Jessica C. Lai, ‘Patents and Gender: A Contextual Analysis’ (2020) 10 Queen Mary J Intell Prop 283.
- Kyle Jensen, Balazs Kovics and Olav Sorenson, ‘Gender Difference in Obtaining and Maintaining Patent Rights’ (2018) 36(4) Nat Biotechnol 307.
Article by Pierina Simone
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