The share of women inventors is rising, but major gaps remain
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.