To Know or To Think to Know? How Men and Women Assess Their Knowledge About IP Rights
14 avril 2026
14 avril 2026 ・ minutes reading time
Career and business decisions depend on how individuals perceive their own knowledge and capabilities. Women predominantly pursue careers in fashion, design, and creative industries, while men concentrate in machinery, engineering, and technology-intensive sectors. These specialization patterns naturally suggest that women would demonstrate higher knowledge of copyrights and industrial designs, while men would show greater familiarity with patents and trademarks.
However, the consequences of systematic underestimation are far-reaching. If women consistently undervalue their IP knowledge, they may withdraw from innovation pathways for which they are, in fact, well-qualified. When capable individuals believe they lack the expertise to be inventors, they often redirect toward lower-risk career trajectories, limiting both personal advancement and broader innovation potential.
Between 2023 and 2025, WIPO conducted a survey among the general population (WIPO Pulse survey) to collect information on knowledge and perceptions about IP rights. The initiative reached more than 60,000 individuals across 74 countries to understand how much people think they know about IP rights and how much they actually know (namely, actual and self-reported knowledge). This distinction allows for an examination of differences between men and women across both knowledge dimensions.
According to the data collected, fewer women than men think and actually know what patents and trademarks are, but more women than men correctly indicate and self-report what designs, copyrights and geographical indications are. When we compare actual and self-reported knowledge, we notice that the differences in knowledge between men and women shrink when measuring what people think they know (for designs and trademarks) or become more negative (for patents, copyrights and geographical indications, switching from positive to negative for the latter two). For instance, while more women than men correctly identify industrial designs, there is almost no difference in the share of men and women who think they know what industrial designs are.
Why do we observe this divergence? Are women too modest or it is men who are too confident?
The answer requires comparing differences between what men and women actually know against differences in what they think they know, while factoring in socioeconomic characteristics such as age, education, occupation, location of residence, household income, country of residence. If someone under-reports their knowledge, it means that their actual knowledge exceeds the self-reported one. Conversely, over-estimating means claiming more knowledge than one actually possesses.
Estimated percentage of women and men who think they know (self-reported knowledge), and who actually know (actual knowledge) about IP rights
Source: WIPO Pulse Survey 2023, 2025.
The estimates show that the percentages of men and women who overestimate their knowledge are similar, but significantly more women underestimate their awareness of IP rights. Namely, women correctly assess what they do not know while systematically underestimating what they know. Women recognize their knowledge about patents and trademarks, but they systematically underreport their familiarity in areas where they are actually more knowledgeable: designs, copyrights, and geographical indications. This finding aligns with broader research on gender differences in self-assessment, where women often demonstrate greater accuracy but less confidence in evaluating their abilities, while men show greater confidence that sometimes exceeds their actual competence.
What does the confidence gap imply for innovation?
Without addressing this confidence gap, women may continue to exit (or avoid entering) innovation and IP even when they possess sufficient knowledge. A woman entrepreneur who underestimates her understanding of industrial design rights might fail to protect a valuable innovation, not because she cannot navigate the system, but because she doubts her ability to do so.
Increasing actual knowledge through training and education remains essential, particularly in areas like patent systems where women demonstrate measurably lower expertise. Equally important is helping women recognize the knowledge they already possess. Effective programs must address both dimensions. Training builds competency while confidence-building ensures that competency translates into action. Any initiative designed to increase women's participation in IP systems should incorporate accurate self-assessment alongside skill development.
