Gender Differences in Patenting in the Academic Life Sciences

doi:10.1126/science.1124832

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Gender Differences in Patenting in the Academic Life Sciences

Waverly W. Ding,¹ Fiona Murray,² Toby E. Stuart³^*

We analyzed longitudinal data on academic careers and conductedinterviews with faculty members to determine the scope and causesof the gender gap in patenting among life scientists. Our regressionson a random sample of 4227 life scientists over a 30-year periodshow that women faculty members patent at about 40% of the rateof men. We found that the gender gap has improved over timebut remains large.

¹ Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
² MIT Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
³ Harvard Business School, Soldiers Field Road, Boston, MA 02163, USA.

^* All authors contributed equally to this work.

To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: tstuart{at}hbs.edu

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