Female inventors have been historically underrepresented in patent applications and remain so to this day. While women are underrepresented in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) in the UK more generally, there is an even greater disparity seen in female representation as inventors of patent applications.
The UKIPO recently published a report on female participation on inventorship based on data from UK patent applications and PCT applications published between 1997 and 2024. The report uses an estimate of the inventor’s sex based on their name and country to quantify how well-represented female inventors are and goes on to consider the breakdown of how female inventors are represented in various different categories. Some of the key findings of the report are highlighted below and the graphs are reproduced from the report.
Overall trend
The overall percentage of female inventors for patent applications published each year from 1997 to 2024 has been increasing gradually, from 3.9% in 1997 to 7.8% of all applications in 2024. This is when only data with a confidence of more than 95% is considered. The data also shows that the rate of increase in female inventors has also increased, when comparing the last decade to earlier years.
Individual inventors and inventors in teams
The report examines how individual female inventors, all-female teams of inventors, and mixed male and female teams of inventors are represented in patent applications and how the distribution of teams of inventors and of individuals has evolved over the years.
In 1997, about 95% of inventors were individual male inventors and all-male teams, and just 3% were mixed teams and 2% were individual female inventors. Comparatively, in 2024, individual female inventors and female teams made up 3.5%, mixed teams made up 7.0%, and individual male inventors and male teams made up just under 90% of inventors.
Even in mixed inventor teams, over the 28-year period analysed, the proportion of male inventors in the mixed teams has been consistently higher than that of female inventors, who typically make up about 36% of a mixed inventor team when looking only at teams where sex is inferred with more than 95% confidence, excluding unisex names.
Types of applicants
The report breaks down how female inventors are represented depending on the type of applicant. Of note is that 21.4%, or just over 1 in 5, of patent applications filed by individual female inventors or teams made up of only female inventors from 1997 to 2024 are ‘private applicants’, acting without a patent agent or a patent attorney. In comparison, only 9% of individual male inventors and all-male teams, and 3.4% of mixed teams, are private applicants. While these percentages have all fluctuated over the years, female inventors have been consistently more likely than male inventors or mixed teams to file a patent application without a patent agent or patent attorney.
Areas of technology
Some areas of technology see a bigger proportion of female inventors than others. The most likely technology sector for female inventors is “Other consumer goods”. 19% of applications by individual female inventors or female teams at 95% confidence are in the “Other consumer goods” sector, which includes a wide range of consumer products. The next most likely sectors for female inventors are “Furniture and games”, and “Medical technology.”
The biggest disparity in the volume of published patent applications is seen in patent applications in the “Civil Engineering” sector – 4.4% of applications by female inventors or female teams are in the civil engineering sector, while 11% of applications by male inventors or male teams are in the civil engineering sector, and 5.2% of mixed teams. Around 1 in 10 of all patent applications in the 28-year period from 1997 to 2024 are in the civil engineering sector.
Proceeding to grant
For female inventors, both individual and in all-female teams, the proportion of granted patents across the years is slightly lower than the proportion of published patent applications, suggesting that a lower proportion of the patent applications filed by female inventors only proceed to grant – although this doesn’t take into account that individual inventors also have a lower proportion proceed to grant, as individual male inventors show a similar trend.
Future projections
Ultimately, parity between female and male inventors, where female inventors make up 50% of inventors, is still not projected to be achieved for at least a few decades, with the most optimistic projection presented in the report suggesting that parity can be achieved by 2051, without taking into account any contributing factors other than just the trend in the proportion of female inventors.
Conclusion
Reflecting following International Women’s Day, the findings of this report show how there has been gradual but continuous improvement in the last thirty years in the representation of female inventors in patent applications in the UK, while also highlighting how much work there is yet to be done for representation of female inventors.
