Women remain significantly underrepresented in technology innovation, new EPO study shows

The European Patent Office (EPO) has published a new in-depth study on the role of women in patenting, technology-driven entrepreneurship and STEM fields in Europe. The report, Advancing women in STEM, is released ahead of International Women’s Day and is based on extensive data from EPO databases.

The study finds that women accounted for just 13.8% of European inventors named in patent applications from EPO member states in 2022, up only marginally from 13% in 2019. In international comparison, Europe performs slightly better than Japan (10.9%) but remains below the United States (16.7%) in terms of the share of women inventors.

Women are also underrepresented in technology entrepreneurship. They are founders in only 13.5% of startups holding European patents, and fewer than one in ten founders in deep-tech ventures are women.

Iceland below the European average

According to the report, the share of women among inventors residing in Iceland was 11.9% in the period 2018–2022, placing Iceland below the overall European average in this respect.

At the same time, women account for 43% of STEM university graduates in Iceland, indicating that the gender gap emerges later in the innovation pathway rather than at the education stage.

Across all EPO member states, women remain underrepresented among PhD graduates who go on to be named as inventors on patent applications, despite the relatively high share of women among doctoral graduates. The gender gap widens at each stage of the career pathway. The study further shows that the lower participation of women in patenting is primarily linked to social, institutional and economic factors shaping career opportunities, rather than differences in research quality or inventive potential.

Significant variation across technology fields

Women’s participation in patenting varies considerably across technology sectors. The highest shares of women inventors are found in pharmaceuticals (34.9%), biotechnology (34.2%) and food chemistry (32.3%), reflecting women’s comparatively strong presence in life sciences.

By contrast, women remain significantly underrepresented in several engineering fields where patenting activity is particularly intense. The highest proportion of women inventors overall is found in patent applications filed by universities and public research organisations (24.4%), while the share is markedly lower among small and medium-sized enterprises.