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680 SOHAR ET AL.

In consideration of a TTO’s willingness to under- impact in their routine activities. The final objective
stand gender tracking and possibly implement it, the was to increase the number of university TTOs track-
survey asked whether an office not currently tracking ing gender in order to get maximal impact when the
was willing to take a future call for further conver- WIC/MSC decided to submit gender-specific ques-
sation. Of the 52 schools who responded directly to tions to the AUTM annual survey.
the initial survey, 25 indicated they would like to Perhaps the most surprising result of the study was
have a future conversation, which was almost 50%, the low number of university TTOs that were track-
while 40% indicated they did not want to have a fol- ing inventor gender. Of the 81 survey respondents,
low-up conversation. The WIC/MSC chair reached only six (7%) were tracking this metric. Furthermore,
eight schools for advocacy conversations after the half of the leading software providers utilized by uni-
survey to discuss the implementation of gender track- versity TTOs did not have gender-tracking capability
ing, while all 28 schools that received a phone call to as a standard option at the start of this investiga-
gather initial survey data also received information tion. With the current emphasis on gender parity
on tracking gender. and increasing initiatives targeting women in STEM
and innovation, the exclusion of this basic variable
Gender Tracking Technology Findings was unexpected. The results of respondents’ reason-
Four predominant off-the-shelf software compa- ing behind not tracking gender provide important
nies provide technology transfer databases: InfoEd insights into why the gender variable has not previ-
Global, Inteum, KSS, and Wellspring. Of these four ously been more widely incorporated. The majority
companies, two of them (KSS and InfoEd Global) of respondents reported that the reason their office
already had built-in capability for tracking gen- was not tracking gender was that they “had not pre-
der. After discussions with the WIC/MSC, Inteum viously considered it.”
updated their software to include gender-tracking There is an old axiom that says, “Identifying
capability in the fall of 2015. Prior to the initiation the problem is half the solution.” The WIC/MSC
of this survey, Wellspring only offered gender track- research team found this to be an appropriate strat-
ing as an add-on available upon request. However, egy in addressing the lack of gender tracking in TTOs
in the fall of 2016, Wellspring made it possible for and advocating for change during phone conversa-
users to add the gender field themselves. tions between the WIC/MSC team and university
TTO representatives. Almost 50% of original survey
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS respondents indicated that they would like additional
Research increasingly indicates that the dispar- information about the issue and provided contact
ity in gender regarding issues surrounding IP has information. During these follow-up calls and the
negative impacts throughout the innovation life- survey calls to initial non-respondents, the major-
cycle. Universities are at the forefront of much of ity of respondents indicated high levels of interest in
the research being done, and a more comprehensive addressing the issue of gender tracking at their insti-
understanding of how university TTOs are address- tutions and many shared that they wanted to act as
ing the issue of gender and innovation is a fruitful advocates to help implement these changes. These
and important area for investigation. responses indicated that the lack of gender tracking
This study directly addressed this issue by con- may simply have been historical oversight. Because of
ducting the first known baseline study of TTO gender the historically lower level of involvement of females
tracking at U.S. universities. The investigation sought in higher academic research positions (i.e., the “leaky
to determine baseline data for gender tracking at uni- pipeline”), the majority of inventors have tradition-
versity TTOs and gain insight about barriers keeping ally been male. As such, it can be hypothesized that
TTOs from tracking gender in commercialization- gender tracking may not have been considered when
related areas. A secondary goal included increasing TTOs were originally set up. Furthermore, the tech-
awareness about the importance of gender track- nology transfer profession is relatively young. The
ing for those who had not been considering gender passage of the Bayh-Dole Act in 1980 precipitated a