Mapping the Inventor Gender Gap: Analyzing Regional & Organization Variation in the Inclusivity of the Innovation Economy

绘制发明家性别差距：区域分析

• 批准号: 1757344
• 负责人: Fiona Murray
• 金额: $ 52万
• 依托单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-04-01 至 2021-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1757344&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Mapping; Inventor; Gender; Gap; Analyzing

This project examines the gender gap among US inventors by mapping the patenting activity of female versus male inventors (FIs vs MIs) across regions (cities, economic areas, states), sectors, and types of organizations. It is critical to understand these patterns to explain the very low presence of female inventors in today's innovation economy. This problem holds significant implications for the inclusive growth of economies. To better understand the gap, this project examines the differences in the regional context where female and male inventors operate. While prior work has explored the role of location (e.g. agglomerations of firms) on innovation, little is known about the role of location on gender-based inventor activity. The goal of this project is to fill this hole by examining key questions such as: Where are female inventors located? What locations and fields have a higher relative presence of FIs (i.e., higher inclusivity)? Within given regions what types of organizations are more inclusive? Do regional industry clusters support higher rates of FIs? How do female versus male inventors source knowledge inside their organizations and in the external environment? To answer these questions, the research develops new indicators on the geography of inventors and their patents by gender. The mapping of inventors is extended to European Union countries to aid comparability in FI inclusivity across countries, and inform policies to promote gender equality. The project also develops an inventor mapping tool that provides interactive maps and visualizations that help policy makers, firms, and researchers to understand variation across regions in the participation and performance of inventors by gender. In this way, this project can inform the design of policy initiatives (e.g., programs to mobilize inventors) to influence locational attributes and firm practices that could reduce the inventor gender gap and, ultimately, reduce the inefficiencies in the match between science and technology skills and innovation.To address our core questions regarding the gender gap, this project develops new statistics on female inventor inclusivity (e.g., percent of inventors that are women and the percent of patents attributed to women) at the organization, field (industry cluster and technology class), and regional levels since 2000 onwards. These inclusivity indicators, together with data on STEM education and occupations, will identify what locational and organizational attributes are associated with female participation. Beyond detailed descriptive analysis and visualizations, the new data is used to assess a variety of explanations for the gender gap in patenting. First, women are not selecting STEM-based skills that are compatible with participation in patenting. Two, women in STEM are under-represented in patent-intensive fields and organizations. Third, women are more geographically constrained than men (e.g., due to lower income or family obligations), and so, they could benefit specially from being in locations and organizations where is easier to access knowledge and collaborate with nearby inventors. Overall, this work offers important policy and managerial advice to improve the inclusivity and performance of the innovation economy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该项目通过绘制跨地区(城市、经济区、州)、部门和组织类型的女性和男性发明者的专利活动(FIS和MIS)来检查美国发明者的性别差距。理解这些模式对于解释女性发明者在当今创新经济中的比例非常低是至关重要的。这一问题对各经济体的包容性增长具有重大影响。为了更好地理解这一差距，该项目考察了男女发明家开展业务的地区背景下的差异。虽然先前的工作已经探讨了地点(例如公司的集聚)对创新的作用，但关于地点对基于性别的发明人活动的作用知之甚少。这个项目的目标是通过研究关键问题来填补这一空白，例如：女性发明家在哪里？哪些地点和领域有较高的FIS相对存在(即较高的包容性)？在特定区域内，哪些类型的组织更具包容性？区域产业集群是否支持更高的外商直接投资比率？女性发明者和男性发明者如何在其组织内部和外部环境中获取知识？为了回答这些问题，这项研究开发了新的指标，按性别划分发明者及其专利的地理位置。发明者的地图已扩展到欧盟国家，以帮助各国在金融包容性方面的可比性，并为促进性别平等的政策提供信息。该项目还开发了一个Inventor地图工具，提供交互式地图和可视化，帮助政策制定者、公司和研究人员了解不同地区发明者按性别参与和表现的差异。通过这种方式，这个项目可以为政策倡议的设计提供信息(例如，动员发明者的计划)，以影响地点属性和公司实践，从而减少发明者的性别差距，并最终减少科学和技术技能与创新之间匹配的低效。为了解决我们关于性别差距的核心问题，该项目开发了自2000年以来在组织、领域(行业集群和技术阶层)和地区层面关于女性发明者包容性的新统计数据(例如，女性发明者的百分比和归因于女性的专利的百分比)。这些包容性指标，连同关于STEM教育和职业的数据，将确定哪些地点和组织属性与妇女参与有关。除了详细的描述性分析和可视化，新的数据还被用来评估对专利申请中性别差距的各种解释。首先，女性没有选择与参与专利申请相适应的基于STEM的技能。第二，STEM中的妇女在专利密集型领域和组织中的代表性不足。第三，女性比男性更受地域限制(例如，由于收入较低或家庭义务较低)，因此，如果身处更容易获得知识并与附近发明家合作的地点和组织，她们可以特别受益。总体而言，这项工作为提高创新经济的包容性和绩效提供了重要的政策和管理建议。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。