The Gender Patenting Gap: A Study on the Iberoamerican Countries

doi:10.2478/jdis-2020-0025

Abstract

Abstract:

Purpose: This work presents a study on the female involvement in patent applications in all 23 Ibero-American countries that are WIPO members, in order to measure gender inequalities in institutional collaborations and technological fields, across time.

Design/methodology/approach: The data used in this paper come from EPO Worldwide Patent Statistical Database (PATSTAT). PATSTAT contains bibliographical data relating to more than 100 million patent documents from leading industrialized and developing countries, as well as legal event data from more than 40 patent authorities contained in the EPO worldwide legal event data (INPADOC). The extracted subset is composed of 150,863 patent applications with priority years between 2007 and 2016.

Findings: Our observations indicate that even in more dynamic economies such as Portugal and Spain, the participation of women per patent applications does not exceed 30%. Additionally, the distribution of female participation among institutional sectors and technological fields is consistent with previous studies in other regions and indicate a socio-cultural divide.

Research limitations: Unisex names were not considered and were counted as gender unknown, and patent applications for which no inventor information was available were discarded, but further effort of data analysis may provide more information about gender inequalities.

Practical implications: While patents are imperfect variables of inventive step and therefore should be considered as a variable proxy of innovation, our findings may help to guide the implementation of policies for balancing gender participation in innovative activities, as well as instigating research into the issues causing divisive participation along gender lines.

Originality/value: While there is a widespread effort into evaluating and improving the participation of groups recognized as minorities within state-of-the-art activities, research about women participation in the innovation sector is fragmented due to differing regional characteristics: industrial and academic segmentation, socio-economic disparities, and cultural factors. Thus, localized studies present an opportunity of filling the gaps of knowledge on societal participation in innovation activities.

Key words: Gender, Iberoamerica, Patent statistic

S. Carvalho, Danilo, Lydia Bares, and Kelyane Silva. "The Gender Patenting Gap: A Study on the Iberoamerican Countries." Journal of Data and Information Science, vol.5, no.3, 2020, pp.116-128. DOI: 10.2478/jdis-2020-0025

Figures/Tables 6

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Country	# of patents	percent	# of inventors	Avg. women p/patent²	Avg. women invt. ratio³
Argentina	2,019	1.2338	4,741	0.486	0.207
Bolivia (LA)	16	0.0098	73	0.500	0.109
Brazil (LA)	18,632	11.3859	28,099	0.352	0.233
Belize	145	0.0886	26	0.062	0.360
Chile (LA)	3,521	2.1517	5,180	0.348	0.237
Colombia (LA)	1,547	0.9454	2,847	0.451	0.245
Costa Rica (LA)	173	0.1057	689	0.358	0.090
Cuba (LA)	1,018	0.6221	1,556	0.672	0.440
Dominican Republic (LA)	76	0.0464	148	0.487	0.250
Ecuador (LA)	365	0.2230	481	0.266	0.201
Spain (IB)	63,128	38.5771	95,002	0.426	0.283
French Guyana (LA)	1	0.0006	12	5.000	0.417
Guatemala (LA)	18	0.0110	91	0.500	0.099
Honduras (LA)	7	0.0043	35	1.571	0.314
Mexico (LA)	6,569	4.0143	13,731	0.428	0.204
Nicaragua (LA)	7	0.0043	36	0.143	0.028
Panama (LA)	613	0.3746	302	0.132	0.268
Peru (LA)	211	0.1289	484	0.588	0.256
Portugal (IB)	5,242	3.2034	9,129	0.465	0.267
Paraguay (LA)	23	0.0141	44	0.174	0.091
Suriname (LA)	5	0.0031	10	0.600	0.300
Uruguay (LA)	324	0.1980	649	0.346	0.172
Venezuela (LA)	254	0.1552	791	0.779	0.250
Latin America	35,544	0.342	60,016	0.678	0.228
Iberian countries	68,370	0.658	104,131	0.446	0.275
Ibero-America	103,914	100.0	164,156	0.658	0.232

Sector	Avg. women invt. ratio
Sector	# of patents	percent	# of inventors	Avg. women p/patent	Avg. women invt. ratio
COMPANY	119,364	0.730	150,866	0.347	0.274
GOVERNMENT	12,991	0.079	21,126	0.679	0.418
INDIVIDUAL	6,453	0.039	6,412	0.194	0.193
UNIVERSITY	17,712	0.108	28,006	0.635	0.404

Rank	Country	Avg. women invt. ratio
Rank	Country	2007	2016	growth
1	Chile	0.199	0.308	0.108
2	Ecuador	0.062	0.154	0.091
3	Colombia	0.170	0.259	0.088
4	Portugal	0.228	0.302	0.074
5	Dominican Republic	0.437	0.500	0.062
6	Costa Rica	0.071	0.131	0.060
7	Mexico	0.165	0.206	0.040
8	Brazil	0.223	0.257	0.033
9	Spain	0.273	0.275	0.001