Digital Document (pdf, doc, ppt, txt, etc.)

Innovation is critical to economic development [1] and depends upon the full participation of the scientific workforce [2]. Yet, the growing field of “innovation studies” [3] demonstrates that there are many disparities in the exploitation of human capacity for innovation. Two particularly well-noted areas are the dearth of academic and female innovators [4, 5]. The response to this lack of innovation in the academic sector has been to stress academic entrepreneurship, which encompasses the varied ways in which faculty at educational institutions engage in innovative and high risk activities which have the potential for financial rewards for the individual or the institution with which they are affiliated [6]. This is most typically operationalized as commercialization of science activities such as patenting [2], which was heavily promoted following the enactment of the Bayh-Dole Act in 1980 in the United States and similar initiatives in other countries [5].

Historical studies have shown that the rate of female patenting from 1637 to the mid-20thcentury failed to exceed 2% of total patenting [7]. Contemporary studies suggest that women may continue to be underrepresented [4, 8, 9]; however, studies on rates of female patenting are largely monodisciplinary, localized, and lack explicit connections to the types of settings where the patenting is conducted. This study addresses this gap by providing a comprehensive analysis of 4.6 million utility patents issued between 1976 and 2013 by the United States Patent and Trade Office (USPTO). The data includes 10.8 million inventors and 4.2 million assignees (owners of the property of the patents that are different from inventors).

We analyzed gender disparities in patenting by country, technological area, and type of assignee using the 4.6 million utility patents issued between 1976 and 2013 by the United States Patent and Trade Office (USPTO). Our analyses of fractionalized inventorships demonstrate that women’s rate of patenting has increased from 2.7% of total patenting activity to 10.8% over the nearly 40-year period. Our results show that, in every technological area, female patenting is proportionally more likely to occur in academic institutions than in corporate or government environments. However, women’s patents have a lower technological impact than that of men, and that gap is wider in the case of academic patents. We also provide evidence that patents to which women—and in particular academic women—contributed are associated with a higher number of International Patent Classification (IPC) codes and co-inventors than men. The policy implications of these disparities and academic setting advantages are discussed.

Through its New Scholars program, the Elsevier Foundation has contributed to the advancement of early- to mid-career women scholars for more than a decade via grants and other partner investments. These efforts laid a foundation of success upon which Elsevier has built broader corporate level gender initiatives. Last year, Elsevier placed a priority on fostering a gender-balanced workplace by implementing the EDGE (Eco- nomic Dividends for Gender Equality) program across our eight core business centers in numerous locations worldwide, thereby being among the first information service and technology companies in the world to be certified globally. Concomitantly, we formed a trans-business Gender Working Group to address external-facing issues such as enhancing sex and gender reporting in research and achieving gender balance for journal editorial boards and conferences. Further, Elsevier is committed to establishing a research framework for addressing gender issues to help advance policy. An important aspect of our commitment is this comprehensive report, Gender in the Global Research Landscape, a follow-on to Elsevier’s groundbreaking 2015 report, Mapping Gender in the German Research Arena .

Critical issues related to gender disparity and bias must be examined by sound studies. Drawing upon a collection of high-quality global data sources and analytical expertise, Elsevier has produced this report as an evidence-based examination of the outputs, quality, and impact of research worldwide through a gender lens and as a vehicle for understanding the role of gender within the structure of the global research enterprise. Gender in the Global Research Landscape employs bibliometric analyses and methodologies that enable gender disambiguation of authors within the Scopus® abstract and citation database and includes comparisons between twenty-seven subject areas, across twelve comparator countries and regions, over two decades. Elsevier partnered with expert stakeholder organizations and individuals around the world who provided advice on the report’s development, including the research questions, methodologies, and ana- lytics, and a policy context for the report findings. Our intention is to share powerful insights and guidance on gender research and gender equality policy with governments, funders, and institutions worldwide and to inspire further evidence-based studies. 

Key Findings

The proportion of women among researchers and inventors is increasing in all twelve comparator countries and regions over time.
chapter 1

Women publish fewer research papers on average than men, but there is no evidence that this affects how their papers are cited or downloaded. chapter 1

Women are less likely than men to collaborate internationally on research papers.
chapter 2

Women are slightly less likely than men to collaborate across the academic and corporate sectors on research papers.
chapter 2

In general, women’s scholarly output includes a slightly larger proportion of highly interdisciplinary research than men’s.
chapter 2

Among researchers, women are generally less internationally mobile than men.
chapter 2

Gender research is growing in terms of size and complexity, with new topics emerging over time. chapter 3

The former dominance of the United States in gender research has declined as research activity in the European Union has risen.
chapter 3 

China’s national mechanism for promoting the status of women, fully utilizing government resources and effectively mobilizing social resources, lays an important foundation for promoting gender equality and women’ s development. Over the past two decades, the mechanism has been constantly improved to allow it to play an increasingly prominent role.

The state has kept improving government organs for promoting the status of women. In 1990, the State Council established the National Working Committee on Children and Women (NWCCW), which has been commissioned the responsibilities to organize, coordinate, guide, supervise and urge departments concerned in promoting gender equality and women’s development. Composed of leading ministerial-level members from relevant government organs, the Committee is chaired by a member of the State Council leadership. Over the previous 20 years, the Committee has expanded its member units from 19 to 35, now including government organs such as the National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Civil Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, Ministry of Agriculture, and the National Health and Family Planning Commission, in addition to six mass organizations. The Committee has a general office doing day-to-day work by full-time staff with specially allocated funds. Relevant organizations have been set up under people’ s governments above the county level in 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government, forming a multi-dimensional and well-coordinated network for promoting gender equality and women’ s development.

The state has developed and implemented national plans and programs for promoting women’ s development. Women’s development was included in China’s 10th, 11th and 12th five-year plans for economic and social development, each time with greater emphasis, clearer goals, and more effective measures for promoting coordinated development between Chinese women and China’ s economy and society. The State Council has issued three programs covering different periods for the development of Chinese women, clearly defining the overall goals, key areas and policies and measures to be adopted for women’s development at different stages. People’s governments at and above the county level in the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities have worked out similar programs for women’s development for areas within their respective jurisdiction, thus forming a top-down framework for promoting women’ s development at all levels. Adopting the target management responsibility system, the working committees on children and women at various levels resolve and allocate the main targets to the related functional departments of the governments and see to it that they are included in corresponding plans and implemented. They also established an appraisal system and carried out assessments of the implementation results of the programs at the end of every year, and in the middle and at the end of the implementation of the programs, ensuring that the targets set in these programs were met as scheduled.

The state has established a working mechanism featuring leadership by the government, multi-departmental cooperation and participation of the whole of society. The State Council and local governments at various levels hold working meetings on children and women on a regular basis to discuss and make plans. Every year, the State Council and local working committees on children and women hold special meetings to hear reports from all their member units, analyze progress made in the implementation of the current program for women’ s development, and work out measures to address matters of pressing concern for the smooth implementation of the program. Guidance has been given to local governments in actively exploring the establishment of an assessment system of laws and policies related to gender equality, so as to provide at the source a solid institutional guarantee for promoting gender equality and women’ s development. The state supports the women’ s federation organizations in representing and safeguarding women’ s rights and promoting gender equality. As the organizational system of women’ s federations is better established, it has been playing an increasingly prominent role in conducting theoretical studies and carrying out publicity, education and training programs in relation to gender equality.

Although since the 1990s, the work of gender statistics in China has obtained apparent achievements growing out of nothing; several problems are still existed in this domain, such as the insufficiency of the data of gender statistics, the relatively low sensitivity of indicators, and the unimproved indicator system of gender statistics. All these problems and deficiencies not only restricted experts and scholars to accurately master and evaluate the current situation of gender equality and women's development in China, but influenced upon the awareness of the significance and emergency of the implementation of gender equality basic state policy for the decision-makers and the general public. 
I. Connotation and Nature of Gender Statistics 
The common drafted "Research Report of the Countermeasures for the Establishment and Improvement of Gender Statistics with Chinese Characteristics" elaborated the definition of gender statistics as follows: gender statistics refers to a kind of statistical method for the analysis and research of social economic development and changes, which describes, analyzes, studies and judges the series of phenomenon and problems during the process of social economic development, and in turn discover the methods to solve the unequal development between male and female through the differences between both sexes in the aspects of status, power, roles and development condition in the social economic development. Gender statistics requires not only the provision of general correlation data between men and women, but also the guarantee of correct calculation and estimation of the rate of social participation and contribution by both men and women. 
II. Necessity and Significance of the Innovation of Gender Statistics 
With rapid social economic development, the fundamental function of the gender statistical information in the scientific decision-making gradually becomes more apparent. The amount and quality of gender statistical information in demand by governments and organizations at all levels grow bigger and higher. Therefore, the conversion of the previous traditional mind-set and the innovation of gender statistics are not only of great significance, but necessity. 
i. The Global Women's Movement Promotes the Innovation of Gender Statistics 
ii. Gender Mainstreaming Appeals for the Innovation of Gender Statistics 
iii. Scientific Monitoring of the Outline Program for Development of Women and Children Requires the Innovation of Gender Statistics 
iv. International Experiences of Gender Statistics Promotes the Innovation of Gender Statistics 
III. The Concept Innovation of Gender Statistics 
The innovation of gender statistics shall be all-around and on-going, which is not an event of one single side or in a certain period of time. The statistical innovation in common sense is mainly composed of three aspects, namely concept innovation, indicator innovation and method innovation. From the perspective of the most dominating factors that influence and restrict the normal development of Chinese gender statistical work on the basis of this theory, we believe that one of the most vital missions of the gender statistical innovation in China is the realization of concept innovation. 
IV. Conclusion 
The conduct of bringing the concepts of gender sensitivity and gender mainstreaming into current gender statistics would not only grant "gender" with the connotation of gender in the gender statistics, but make the statistical work pay more attention to the roles of both sexes in social development, which are then favorable for the formation of a whole set of innovative, comprehensive, and accurate indicator system, methods and modes that is applicable in gender statistics.