The Gender Gap in Patents
The Gender Gap in Patents
This chapter explores the data that reveal that in all countries, across all sectors and in all fields, the percentage of women obtaining patents is less than their male counterparts and also less than the percentage of women in the relevant discipline. A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a national government to an inventor for a time-limited period in exchange for public disclosure of the invention. Having a relatively small number of women obtaining patents hurts scientific innovation, technology, and competitiveness overall. This is because women invent more useful products that might be developed to benefit society. These include many technologies for the home and for care-taking, particularly of children.
Keywords: patent, patenting, women inventors, women inventions, scientific innovation, new technology
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