Women far behind in patent awards

Women who strive to make new biological discoveries at universities are awarded less than half the number of patents than their male colleagues.

According to a new study by researchers at Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and University of California, Berkeley, female faculty members in the life sciences receive patents at only 40 percent the rate of men. Patents are doors into the commercial world of royalties, consulting fees, and paid memberships on the boards of corporations, creating another source of income difference between men and women.

The patent gap can also lead people to think that women tackle less challenging or important scientific problems. However, the study of 4,227 individuals with at least five years experience as university researchers showed no evidence that women do less significant work than men in fields like biochemistry, genetics, organic chemistry, health sciences, and related areas.

What's holding women back then? The researchers cite one major reason as the lack of a professional "old girls" network between people in academia and their counterparts in commerce, those in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and chemical companies.

Another hurdle involves women's concern that pursuing commercial opportunities could hinder their university careers. During interviews with faculty members in life sciences, women expressed worries about the negative impact commercial pursuits might have on their teaching responsibilities, collegiality, and research quality.

These factors are holding back older women more than younger ones. For the 35-year span covered by the data collected, women who earned their Ph.D. degrees between 1986 and 1995 received patents at a higher rate than those who began their research career between 1967 and 1985.