Gender Data Gap: Baseline of U.S. Academic Institutions

Despite evidence of the positive impact of female participation in leadership roles of corporations, women remain consistently under-represented in business ventures, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. For the U.S. economy to expand and produce jobs at an accelerated rate, women must account for a much higher percentage of entrepreneurial leaders throughout all phases of the innovation life cycle. Female academicians face disproportionately low engagement in the technology transfer process, both in the initial invention disclosure submission as well as in the patenting process (1-4). This investigation sought to both establish a baseline for measuring U.S. academic institutions' tracking of inventors by gender and gain insight about the barriers keeping technology transfer offices (TTOs) from tracking gender in commercialization-related areas. The researchers also conducted an initial analysis on the leading software tools currently being utilized to track gender in academic TTOs. Raising awareness of this issue on a national level will help institutional leaders create strategies and mechanisms to help address the issue of gender disparity and increase the inclusion of women in the innovation lifecycle, particularly at the university disclosure and patenting level.