Gender disparity in U.S. patenting

Abstract Despite growing attention to gender disparities in innovation, little is known about how gender shapes the characteristics and outcomes of patented inventions. This study analyzes 3.7 million U.S. utility patents, covering 1.8 million distinct inventors and over 200,000 organizations, to investigate the gendered patterns of inventorship. While women’s participation in patenting has increased over time, they remain significantly underrepresented, and patents involving female inventors consistently receive fewer citations than those by all-male teams. However, women-participated patents are more likely to exhibit novelty, originality, and technological generality, particularly when produced by mixed-gender teams, which tend to generate the most disruptive inventions. Female inventors also draw more heavily on scientific literature and public support, especially in green technology and academic settings. Organizational and domain-level differences are pronounced: universities involve women at higher rates than corporations, and fields such as biotechnology and civil engineering demonstrate distinct gendered patterns in patent quality and disruption. These results suggest that women make important yet often overlooked contributions to innovation and that structural barriers may suppress their full inventive potential. Addressing these disparities can enhance innovation diversity, expand the societal relevance of patented technologies, and better support the next generation of inventors.