The share of women inventors is rising, but major gaps remain
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Women's participation in scientific patents has increased since 2000, according to new data analyzing patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
The big picture: The share of women inventors has grown over the last four decades but a large gap remains between the share of inventions involving men and those that include women inventors.
- Gender influences what is invented: In biotech, fewer women inventors has resulted in fewer health products for women.
By the numbers: In 2022, the share of inventors who were women was highest (about 18%) in chemistry and lowest in mechanical engineering (roughly 6%), per the report from the National Science Foundation's National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics.
- The fastest increase in the share between 2000 and 2022 was in electrical engineering, which grew from 5.4% to 10%.
- The share for all patents started at 7.2% in 2000 and rose to 10.9% by 2022.
Between the lines: Women's increased participation in patenting may stem from collaboration with university advisers in graduate programs, according to the report.
- Those collaborations are "associated with higher rates of first-time patenting by women, identifying a role for mentorship at universities in the invention process," they write.
How it works: Names on patents were used to attribute gender participation in the invention.
- Inventor names from patents granted in the U.S. were matched to their most likely gender using a gender name dictionary. The information was verified using data sets of known inventors and their gender.
