Inventor gender gap means women have lost out on 6,500 inventions

With women representing as few as one in six patent-holders, researchers unpacked the obvious and subtle consequences of this gender divide.

According to a new study published in Science, medical patents show distinct gender-related patterns.

To determine which inventions are female-focused, male-focused or neutral, researchers analysed 441,504 medical patents filed from 1976 through to 2010 using machine learning.

First, as a blanket fact, women hold fewer biomedical patents. This number has risen but is still nowhere near equal, maintaining a persistent inventor gender gap.

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