The Challenges of Measuring Gender Inequality in Innovation

April 6, 2022

April 6, 2022 ・ minutes reading time

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Identifying where gender gap challenges in innovation are may be the key to help policymakers intervene effectively. Listen to the gender and diversity expert, Lisa Cook, discussing the issue.

Key takeaway

Bridging the innovation gender and diversity gaps can increase the productive capacity of countries. Policy-makers need to understand where, how and why these disparities occur to better address them.

Dr Lisa D. Cook’s presentation on the gender gap challenges in IP

Dr. Lisa Cook’s presentation during Panel II: IP economists panel on challenges of measuring and analyzing the gender gap in the IP system of the Americas region.

Women’s participation in the innovation process in the US

Studies in the US show that women participate less in each of the three stages of the innovation process:

  • education and training;
  • practice of inventions;
  • commercialization of inventions.

US policies on innovation and diversity

This misallocation of talent affects nearly 40% of US productivity. To rectify the problem, policymakers are considering for policies such as the SUCCESS (Study of Underrepresented Classes Chasing Engineering and Science Success) Act of 2018 and the IDEA (Inventor Diversity for Economic Advancement) Act of 2021 to identify and measure the gender gap, with the intention of narrowing it.

The expert:

Dr. Lisa Cook is a prominent and leading scholar studying issues of gender and racial disparities. She is a Professor of Economics and International Relations at Michigan State University. In 2022, she was nominated to the Federal Reserve Board.

Do you want to learn more about Lisa’s work? Check our selection of publications from our Economics Literature Database.

 

Related resources

Guidelines for producing gender analysis from innovation and IP data

Disclaimer: The short posts and articles included in the Innovation Economics Themes Series typically report on research in progress and are circulated in a timely manner for discussion and comment. The views expressed in them are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of WIPO or its Member States. ​​​​​​​

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