Inhalt: While women’s contributions to science and technology have been increasing in recent decades, parity with men has still not been reached. This study examines women’s participation in patenting activity at the EPO in the 38 contracting states to the European Patent Convention (EPC). 1 The analysis focuses on all European patent applications submitted between 1978 and 2019, with occasional extensions until 2021, where possible. Using disambiguated inventor data and attributing gender to individual inventors based on their names, the analysis provides evidence on the presence of women inventors across different countries, time periods, technology fields and patent applicant profiles.
A new study released by the European Patent Office (EPO) finds that 13.2% of inventors in Europe are women. The study, the first of its kind to be published by the EPO, is based on the percentage of women inventors named in all patent applications to the EPO from 1978 until 2019. It highlights that while the women inventor rate in Europe has been rising in recent decades (up from only 2% in the late 1970s to 13.2% in 2019), a strong gender gap remains. The rate of women inventors is also far below the share of women among science and engineering researchers and graduates.
The EPO study aims to provide policymakers and the general public with insights and evidence on gender and patenting in Europe. It provides data on women inventors across different countries, time periods, technology fields and patent applicant profiles.
In the ranking of EPO member states (for the period 2010-19) Latvia (30.6%), Portugal (26.8%), Croatia (25.8%), Spain (23.2%) and Lithuania (21.4%) have the highest proportion of women inventors, while Germany (10.0%), Luxembourg (10.0%), Liechtenstein (9.6%) and Austria (8.0%) have the lowest.
Chemistry stands out as the technology sector with the highest share of women inventors (22.4% in 2010-19), while mechanical engineering (5.2%) has the lowest share. Within the chemistry sector, patent applications in the areas of biotechnology and pharmaceuticals have rates of over 30% women inventors.
The report also highlights that patent applications from universities and public research organisations have a significantly larger share of women inventors (19.4% in 2010-19) than those from private business (10.0%).
Schlagwörter:Erfinderin; EU; gender equality; Geschlechterunterschied; Innovation; internationaler Vergleich; inventor; participation; Patent; Repräsentation; Technologie
CEWS Kategorie:Europa und Internationales, Naturwissenschaft und Technik, Geschlechterverhältnis
Dokumenttyp:Graue Literatur, Bericht
