Patents are intended to lure potential inventors into the business of innovation. The truth is, however, that very little is known about how patents really drive innovation.
Historically, only a very small number of women have obtained patents. Data from historic studies:
- 1790 – 1895: About 1% were granted to women;
- 1905 – 1921: About 1.4% were granted to women;
- 1954: 1.5% of issued patents included women inventors;
- 1977: 2.6% listed one or more women as inventors;
- 1996: 9.2% listed one or more women as inventors.
Since patentees do not list their sex, all of these studies rely upon segregating inventors according to traditional first-names.
2006: In my own recent study, I looked at a sample of 150,000+ patents issued between 1999 and 2006. I then made a list-ranking of first-names of first-listed inventors. Can anyone guess how many of of the top-100 inventor-names were traditionally female names???
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