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The Academic Advantage: Gender Disparities in Patenting

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  • Cassidy R Sugimoto
  • Chaoqun Ni
  • Jevin D West
  • Vincent Larivière

Abstract

We analyzed gender disparities in patenting by country, technological area, and type of assignee using the 4.6 million utility patents issued between 1976 and 2013 by the United States Patent and Trade Office (USPTO). Our analyses of fractionalized inventorships demonstrate that women’s rate of patenting has increased from 2.7% of total patenting activity to 10.8% over the nearly 40-year period. Our results show that, in every technological area, female patenting is proportionally more likely to occur in academic institutions than in corporate or government environments. However, women’s patents have a lower technological impact than that of men, and that gap is wider in the case of academic patents. We also provide evidence that patents to which women—and in particular academic women—contributed are associated with a higher number of International Patent Classification (IPC) codes and co-inventors than men. The policy implications of these disparities and academic setting advantages are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Cassidy R Sugimoto & Chaoqun Ni & Jevin D West & Vincent Larivière, 2015. "The Academic Advantage: Gender Disparities in Patenting," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(5), pages 1-10, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0128000
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0128000
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    4. Edoardo FERRUCCI & Francesco LISSONI & Ernest MIGUELEZ, 2020. "Coming from afar and picking a man’s job:Women immigrant inventors in the United States," Bordeaux Economics Working Papers 2020-01, Bordeaux School of Economics (BSE).
    5. Junwan Liu & Yinglu Song & Sai Yang, 2020. "Gender disparities in the field of economics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(2), pages 1477-1498, November.
    6. Paola Giuri & Rosa Grimaldi & Anna Kochenkova & Federico Munari & Laura Toschi, 2020. "The effects of university-level policies on women’s participation in academic patenting in Italy," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 122-150, February.
    7. Domingo Sifontes & Rosa Morales, 2020. "Gender differences and patenting in Latin America: understanding female participation in commercial science," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 124(3), pages 2009-2036, September.
    8. Muscio, Alessandro & Vallanti, Giovanna, 2024. "The gender gap in PhD entrepreneurship: Why balancing employment in academia really matters," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(1).
    9. Karin Hoisl & Hans Christian Kongsted & Myriam Mariani, 2023. "Lost Marie Curies: Parental Impact on the Probability of Becoming an Inventor," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(3), pages 1714-1738, March.
    10. Gita Ghiasi & Matthew Harsh & Andrea Schiffauerova, 2018. "Inequality and collaboration patterns in Canadian nanotechnology: implications for pro-poor and gender-inclusive policy," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 115(2), pages 785-815, May.
    11. Graddy-Reed, Alexandra & Lanahan, Lauren & Eyer, Jonathan, 2019. "Gender discrepancies in publication productivity of high-performing life science graduate students," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1-1.
    12. Pellegrino, Gabriele & Penner, Orion & Piguet, Etienne & de Rassenfosse, Gaétan, 2023. "Productivity gains from migration: Evidence from inventors," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(1).
    13. Merouani, Youssouf & Perrin, Faustine, 2024. "Women Inventors: On the Origins of the Gender Patenting Gap," Lund Papers in Economic History 255, Lund University, Department of Economic History.
    14. J. Chubb & G. E. Derrick, 2020. "The impact a-gender: gendered orientations towards research Impact and its evaluation," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 6(1), pages 1-11, December.
    15. Richard Klavans & Kevin W Boyack, 2017. "The Research Focus of Nations: Economic vs. Altruistic Motivations," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(1), pages 1-27, January.
    16. Gema Lax Martínez & Julio Raffo & Kaori Saito, 2016. "Identifying the Gender of PCT inventors," WIPO Economic Research Working Papers 33, World Intellectual Property Organization - Economics and Statistics Division.
    17. Whittington, Kjersten Bunker, 2018. "“A tie is a tie? Gender and network positioning in life science inventor collaboration”," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 511-526.
    18. Tahmooresnejad, Leila & Turkina, Ekaterina, 2022. "Female inventors over time: Factors affecting female Inventors’ innovation performance," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1).
    19. Jussi Heikkilä, 2019. "IPR gender gaps: a first look at utility model, design right and trademark filings," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 118(3), pages 869-883, March.
    20. Wang, Yukai & Yang, Zhongkai & Liu, Lanjian & Wang, Xianwen, 2020. "Gender bias in patenting process," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 14(3).
    21. Bustelo, María & Salido, Olga, 2024. "Gender biases in the evaluation of knowledge transfer: A meta-evaluative analysis of the Spanish “Knowledge Transfer and Innovation Sexennium”," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    22. Halilem, Norrin & De Silva, Muthu & Amara, Nabil, 2022. "Fairly assessing unfairness: An exploration of gender disparities in informal entrepreneurship amongst academics in business schools," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    23. Eduardo B Araújo & Nuno A M Araújo & André A Moreira & Hans J Herrmann & José S Andrade Jr., 2017. "Gender differences in scientific collaborations: Women are more egalitarian than men," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(5), pages 1-10, May.
    24. Wipo, 2016. "World Intellectual Property Indicators, 2016 edition," WIPO Economics & Statistics Series, World Intellectual Property Organization - Economics and Statistics Division, number 2016:941, April.

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