Men Still Account For The Majority Of Patents Worldwide

Men are still filing the majority of patent applications around the world, according to a recent study by the UK's Intellectual Property Office. That being said, the proportion filed by women is slowly increasing with the pace picking up noticeably over the past 20 years. Last year, female inventors were associated with just over 13 percent of global applications, a significant improvement over the mid 1980s when it was under 5 percent. At the current rate, gender parity in patents will only be achieved in 2070.

The main reason for the gender gap is the disparity between male and female students and employees in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields. Patents are generally filed individually or by teams of inventors that are generally dominated by men. For example, in 2017, for example, only 6 percent of patents were filed by all-female teams while another 6 percent were filed by women individually.