TAMPA, Fla., — Statistics show that women are named as inventors on less than one in five U.S. patents. Why does this gender disparity exist, and what is being done to address it? The new issue of Technology and Innovation, Journal of the National Academy of Inventors ® (19:4) (full text) tackles these key questions, and the papers collected here serve as a primer on the state of the invention gender gap, why it persists, and what can be done to change it.
“There is perhaps no area more crucial to explore than the gender gap in invention,” said Dr. Paul Sanberg, president of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) and co-editor-in-chief of T&I. “The persistence of this problem cuts us off from leveraging the full innovative potential of half of our population, thus reducing our innovative output and making us less competitive as a nation. In addition to the many articles on the gender gap, we are also taking this opportunity to honor our women NAI Fellows, as are the National Inventors Hall of Fame and the National Science and Technology Medals Foundation with their respective women Inductees and Laureates.”
The full issue highlights can be found at the following link: http://academyofinventors.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Issue-Highlights-Aesthetic-Final.pdf
ARTICLES INCLUDED:
The National Academy of Inventors is a member organization comprising U.S. and international universities, and governmental and non-profit research institutes, with over 4,000 individual inventor members and Fellows spanning more than 250 institutions worldwide. It was founded in 2010 to recognize and encourage inventors with patents issued from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, enhance the visibility of academic technology and innovation, encourage the disclosure of intellectual property, educate and mentor innovative students, and translate the inventions of its members to benefit society. The NAI publishes the multidisciplinary journal, Technology and Innovation. www.academyofinventors.org