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Gender gap in US patents leads to few inventions that help women

Inventor teams with women represent 16% of filed patents, yet are more likely than male teams to create women’s health products.
  1. Sara Reardon

    1. Sara Reardon is a freelance writer in Bozeman, Montana.

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When Rembrand Koning’s wife was giving birth to their first child in 2017, the couple was dismayed by the lack of technology for new mothers who were recovering from pregnancy complications. Baby scales were hard to use one-handed, breast pumps were frustrating, and there were few resources to help Koning’s wife with the post-partum pre-eclampsia that she experienced.

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Nature 597, 139-140 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02298-9

References

  1. Koning, R., Samila, S. & Ferguson, J.-P. Science 372, 1345–1348 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Milli, J., Gault, B., Williams-Baron, E., Xia, J. & Berlan, M. The Gender Patenting Gap (Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2016).

  3. Ding, W. W., Murray, F. & Stuart, T. E. Acad. Manag. J. 56, 1443–1464 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

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