The Global Gender Gap in Innovation and Creativity: An International Comparison of the Gender Gap in Global Patenting over Two Decades

WIPODevelopmentStudies TheGlobalGenderGap inInnovationandCreativity AnInternationalComparisonoftheGenderGapinGlobalPatentingoverTwoDecades WIPODevelopmentStudies TheGlobalGenderGap inInnovationandCreativity AnInternationalComparisonoftheGenderGapinGlobalPatentingoverTwoDecades PreparedbyElodieCarpentierandJulioRaffoInnovationEconomySection DepartmentforEconomicsandDataAnalyticsWorldIntellectualPropertyOrganization incollaborationwithInventTogether Abstract:Thisreportanalyzeswomen’sparticipationininternationalpatentappli-cationsbetween1999and2020andfindsthatwomenareinvolvedinonly23%ofallapplications,representing13%ofallinventorslisted.Women’sparticipationinpatentingvariesacrossregions,sectors,andindustries,withhigherrepresentationinbiotechnology,foodchemistry,andpharmaceuticals,andlowerinmechanicalengi-neering.Womeninventorsaremoreprevalentinacademiathanintheprivatesector,andtypicallyworkinmostly-maleteamsoralone.Achievinggenderparitywillrequiresignificanteffort,withanestimatedtargetyearof2061basedoncurrenttrends. Acknowledgments:ThisreportwasdevelopedunderthegeneraldirectionofMarcoAlemán(AssistantDirectorGeneral)andCarstenFink(ChiefEconomist).ElodieCarpentier’sworkonthisreportwasalsosupportedbyafellowshipwithInventTogether(https://inventtogether.org/).WearegratefultoMeganAanstoos,JenniferBrant,KhariCyrus,HollyFechner,IntanHamdan-Livramento,JoniLaura,FedericoMoscatelli,KristineSchlegelmilch,andMorganSchreursfortheirvaluablecommentsthroughoutthepreparationofthisreport.OurgratitudeextendstoMichaelFalk(IPAustralia),AlvaroGonzalez(IN-API),ChristopherHarrison(UKIPO),ConnorMorgan(UKIPO),AnnitaNugent(IPAustralia),MichelleSaksena(USPTO),AndyToole(USPTO),andFabianaVisentin(UNU-MERIT),whokindlyagreedtoreviewthisreportpriortopublicationandprovidedvaluableinsightsandsuggestions. Executivesummary Innovationisamajordriverofeconomicgrowth,buttheunderrepresentationofwomenamonginventorshinderstheircontributiontoinnovation. Thisreportexamineswomen’sparticipationinPCTinternationalpatentapplicationsfrom1999to2020andrevealsthatwomenwereinvolvedintheinventionsbehindonly23percentofallapplications,whilemenwereinvolvedin96percent.Asaresult,womenrepresentjust13percentofalllistedinventorsinthesefilings,withanestimatedcontributionequivalenttoonly10percentofallPCTapplications. Theglobaltrendsshowanincreasingparticipationofwomeninpatenting.Inthelastavailableyear,womenparticipatedin31percentofPCTapplicationsandrepresent16percentoflistedinventors.Theirestimatedcontributionisequivalentto14percentofPCTapplications. Althoughwomen’sparticipationinpatentinghasincreasedovertime,achievinggenderparitywilltakeawhile.Basedoncurrenttrends,iftheinclusionconditionsofthepastfiveyearsaremaintained,wemayobservethatwomeninventorswillreachthe50percenttargetaroundtheyear2061. Women’sparticipationinpatentingvariessubstantiallyacrossworldregions,sectors,andindustries.Whenanalyzedbyregion,womeninventorsaccountfor21percentofalllistedinventorsintheLatinAmericanandCaribbeanregion,17percentinAsia,15percentinNorthernAmerica,14percentinEurope,and13percentinAfricaandOceania. Womeninventorstendtobeconcentratedinspecificindustries,withlittlechangeovertime.Thefieldsofbiotechnology,foodchemistry,andpharmaceuticalshavethehighestratesofwomeninclusion,whereasfieldsrelatedtomechanicalengineeringhavefarfewerwomeninventors. Thetechnologicalspecializationofcountriesandregionscanindicatetheirrankingsofgenderinclusiontoagreatextent.Althoughthenationalspecializationsignificantlyalterstherankingforafewcountries,formostcountriestheirtechnologicalspecializationisnotthemainfactorinthegendergapinpatents.Whiledifferencesbetweentechnologicalindustriesarerelativelystableovertime,thereismoreheterogeneityandfluctuationacrosscountries. Womeninventorsaremoreprevalentinacademia(21percent)thanintheprivatesector(14percent).Nevertheless,patentapplicationscomingfromacademiarepresentonlyaminorshareofthetotal. Whilewomen’sparticipationinpatentingisontherise,anexaminationofthegendercompositionofinventorteamsshowsthatall-womenteamsareveryrare,andwomenareseldomthenumericalmajorityinmixedteams.Womenworkmorefrequentlyalonethaninall-womenteamsorteamswheretheyarethemajority. Furthermore,thedecreaseintheshareofindividualpatentingexplainsmuchofthepositivetrendinglobalinclusionoverthelasttwodecades.Weobservethattheshareofpatentswithonlyonemaninventordecreasesinallregions,whiletheshareofonewomaninventoronlyincreasessubstantiallyinAsia.Invirtuallyallregions,teamscomposedmostlyofmenincreasedmorethangender-balancedteamsorwomen-majorityteams. 1Introduction Innovationreliesontheideasanddiscoveriesofmenandwomenfromallovertheworld,ofallagesandallorigins.Yetstatisticsshowthatwomenhavebeenandremainunderrepresentedinventorsincomparisontotheirproportionofthepopulationaroundtheworld(UKIPO,2016;UKIPO,2019;Martinez,Raffo,Saito,etal.,2016;OECD,2018). Thereareseveralreasonswhywomenholdfewerpatentsoninnovationsthanmen.Onehypothesisisthatwomenmaybelessattractedtomath-intensivefields,whichproducemostinventions.However,statisticssh