Gender gap in patenting?

A recent study co-authored by a UC Berkeley researcher and sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation has found that female academic scientists patent their findings at about 40 percent the rate of their male counterparts. Thus, the study suggests that similarly-situated women are less likely to obtain patents than men.

"What initially sparked our interest in this topic is what the data reveals-the fairly low number of patents owned by women faculty," said study co-author and UC Berkeley Haas School of Business professor Waverly Ding in an e-mail.