WOMEN IN TECH THE FACTS

FIG. 1.9 // Percent of U.S. Female-Invented Patents Over Time
8%
7.8
7%
6%
5%
4%
3%
2%
1%
1.7
Female
30 Year Average
©NCWIT. Ashcraft & Breitzman, 2012
Interestingly, female patenting rates also differ widely from one organization to another. In some
organizations the number of patents with at least one female inventor was 5 percent, while in other
organizations it was as high as 30 percent. A number of companies have produced large increases in
female rates of patenting. For example, 20 years ago, several companies had no female inventors; but
by 2005, approximately 25 percent of these same companies’ patents had at least one female inventor,
if not many more (see Ashcraft & Breitzman, 2012).
These differences indicate that workplaces can create conditions that increase female patenting.
One potential reason for low rates of patenting is that, in most companies, patenting is not a very
transparent process. A lot of informal knowledge and support is required for employees to figure out if
their idea is even worth patenting and if so how to go about obtaining a patent. Because women and
other underrepresented groups typically have less access to the informal networks that often provide
this kind of tacit information (see Chapter 4, page 36), they may face more difficulty in determining
whether and how to go about patenting.
See Chapter 6 for some practical ideas for making patenting processes more transparent and for creating
other conditions that might foster increased female patenting.
Another potential reason that women are even more underrepresented in technology patenting
than in technology more broadly may be the kinds of technical roles women typically hold. As
Figure 1.10 illustrates, women in one study reported that men more frequently occupy the creative and
innovative roles while women are more frequently channeled or clustered into execution roles. These
women reported difficulties in accessing the more innovative tasks, assignments, and occupations
(Hewlett et al., 2008).
WOMEN IN TECH: THE FACTS 13