Identifying the gender of PCT inventors

This paper analyzes the gender of inventors in international patent applications. We compile a worldwide gender-name dictionary, which includes 6.2 million names for 182 different countries to disambiguate the gender of PCT inventors. Our results suggest that there is a gender imbalance in PCT applications, but the proportion of women inventors is improving over time. We also find that the rates of women participation differ substantially across countries, technological fields and sectors.