Intellectual Property, Gender, and Diversity
Innovation by women are changing the world. However, women remain underrepresented in international patenting.
WIPO publications on gender and diversity
IP and Gender Action Plan (IPGAP)
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2023
Our strategic plan for WIPO’s work through policy, data, and capacity-building initiatives to promote and advance women’s engagement in all aspects of IP, innovation, and creativity.
WIPO Policy on Gender Equality
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2024
Our overall guidance to ensure the equal participation of diverse women and men in both the innovation ecosystem and in the structures and organizations that support it.
News
WIPO Guidelines on Inclusive Language
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2022
The challenge – Insufficient data and persisting gender gaps
Disparities exist in the use of the IP system by women and other groups. WIPO is working to bridge them. According to WIPO data released in March 2024, it is estimated that only 17.7 percent of inventors named in international patent applications were women in 2023. While numbers are rising, progress is slow. WIPO estimates that, at current rates, parity among Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)-listed inventors will only be reached in 2077.
Find out more
- World Intellectual Property Day 2023 - Women and IP: Accelerating innovation and creativity
- The Innovation Gender Gap – Economic research and the importance of measuring women's participation in the innovation ecosystem
- Innovation Gender Gap: Gender Parity in Patenting Expected by 2061 (2023 report)
- Together We Can: Approaches to Empowering Women in IP
World Intellectual Property Day 2024
Initiatives at WIPO
Inspiring innovators
Research and studies
- Policy Approaches to Close the Intellectual Property Gender Gap - Practices to Support Access to the Intellectual Property System for Female Innovators, Creators and Entrepreneurs [PDF]
- Challenges for Women Inventors and Innovators in Using the Intellectual Property System - A Literature Review [PDF]
- Women and IP Commercialization in the Asian region: the case of the Philippines [PDF]
- Women and IP Commercialization in the Asian region: the case of Sri Lanka [PDF]