A new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research was released last week, examining the gender gap between the number of patents held by men and women in the United States. The immediate news is not reassuring: only 5.5% of holders of all commercial patents in the U.S. are female.
But more interesting to me are the reasons why, and the Bureau’s recommendations as to what can be done about it. With so much focus on getting more women and girls into STEM-related educational tracks, this was, of course, my first inclination. But according to the research, which looked at the National Survey of College Graduates for 2003, only 7% of the gap is accounted for by women’s lower probability of holding any science or engineering degree. So the education itself isn’t quite enough. The researchers say that a woman holding an advanced degree in science or engineering is scarcely more likely to hold a patent than one without.
Then what is it? Patents are often, if begrudgingly, considered the lifeblood of new technology, particularly in the fast-paced race to create marketable innovations in Silicon Valley. While some contend that patents are stifling, preventing the very innovation they claim to protect, (especially open-source software developers), the protection they provides to inventors and industrialists may be a necessary evil.
Big companies buy and sell patents daily. Owning thousands of patents—and suing over the most minor of infringements—has even become a source of revenue for both titans of industries and non-practicing entities who buy up patents by the hundred. Bottom line, if women aren’t holding patents, their ideas and profitability are at risk.
So why is it, and what can be done? According to the authors, the most important issue is the number of women employed in electrical and mechanical engineering, considered the “most patent-intensive fields,” and more specifically increasing the number of women in development and design positions. They say this alone accounts for 40 percent of the gap in commercial patents. More intriguing—and where I start to see some signs of light in all this less-than-stellar news—is a point they allude to on the age of women in these design and development positions. According to the research, women who do work in engineering, in environments where the patent output is high, tend to be significantly younger than their male counterparts. (Inference: the older, read: male employees are securing patents. The young women, still, not so much, accounting for a further 29% of the gender gap.)
Young women in environments where patents are prevalent? This buoys my confidence that it isn’t a matter of what needs to be done, but of what is already happening, if slowly, still surely. On Mother Jones, writer Kate Sheppard seems to agree:
But here’s what both Dubner and the NBER paper missed: women are actually closing the patent gap quite quickly already. The National Women’s Business Council released a report earlier this month that found that women have doubled their share of patents in the last 22 years. Women hold 18 percent of the patents filed since 1990. And in 2010, the number of patents granted to women increased by 35 percent.
As someone who frequently tires of the “where are the women in tech” question–despite understanding its importance–this news, and Sheppard’s tone, made my Monday. In Austin, Tex., recently for South By Southwest Interactive, I found myself surrounded by young women running creative, innovative and, yes, technical, companies that employ thousands. The in-joke in that crowd seemed to be the answer to the question: “Where are the women in tech?” “Ummm, right here.”
So when the National Bureau of Economic Research asks “Where are the women holding patents,” the answer that most quickly comes to mind, especially given the climbing numbers in recent years and the young age of women entering engineering fields, is a very positive, “Hold on, they’re coming.”