From “Lean-in” to Systemic Reform: Investigating the Patent Gender Gap in Canada

Studies conducted by the Canadian and US governments, other international institutions such as the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and independent legal scholars have suggested that women are granted fewer patents compared to men. Such a patent gender gap would suggest that there are systemic barriers for women and potentially other groups within the innovation system in Canada. To confirm findings and address the implications of prior studies, we used name-gender matching data to examine patents granted in Canada. Specifically, we matched gender to inventor names using the World Gender-Name Dictionary produced by the WIPO. We analyzed 418,162 patents granted in English by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office between 2000 and 2024 that had inventors who could be matched to a gender at a likelihood of 0.95 percent and above. We found that Canadian women were granted significantly fewer patents compared to Canadian and non-Canadian men and to women from other nations. We also found that, where Canadian women were granted patents, they were more likely to be part of a team of mixed gender inventors rather than solo inventors or participating on a team of all women inventors. These trends apply to all the patents studied as well as for patents related to neurotechnology, a subfield of technological innovation that has seen rapid advancements and increases in activities related to patent law as well as policy and regulatory reform. Despite educational and other initiatives in both the academic and commercial sectors that have recognized failures in equity, diversity, and inclusion, more work is needed to understand the extent of the patent gender gap and how to best address it to meet the needs of women and people from other historically marginalized populations.