Page 74 - T-I JOURNAL19 4

722 DEMIRALP ET AL.

to enroll in programs with and gain access to indus- that, regardless of academic or industrial setting, gen-
try-funded research and development opportunities der equality in the workplace may be easier to achieve
as men, which significantly influences their future in smaller work environments with network-oriented
patenting behaviors (6). structures as compared to hierarchical institutions.
Studies examining women-owned firms’ per- Hierarchical organizational dynamics may provide
formance, often measured in revenue or firm size, structures that hide existing gender bias (29).
similarly link this gender gap to a disparity in expo- Further, some suggest that identifying a gender
sure to commercialization behaviors. Specifically, disparity in commercialization measured by the
findings link women’s firm performance to a lack volume of patents may fundamentally favor men.
of previous experience in and with the commercial Whittington et al. (2005) examine women and men
sector, less common training in engineering-specific in the life sciences in both industry and academia and
disciplines, and fewer women in “patent-intensive” find that, while male scientists may produce more
jobs (16,24). However, most widely studied is the commercial output than their female counterparts,
role of limited financial access on women-owned women may produce patents of higher quality and
firms’ entrepreneurial performance, which identifies impact (30). Patent quality and impact is measured
discrimination and limitations in access to funding by the number of other patents that cite the inno-
networks and high cost of capital (8,25,26). vation, a metric shown to be highly correlated with
Further, organizational dynamics and associated the value of an innovation. The authors suggest that
incentive structures may also play an important role looking beyond a simple count of patents and look-
in influencing women’s commercialization efforts. ing more closely at patents’ societal and scientific
Overall, scientists working in industry see a smaller value may better distinguish the value of women in
gender gap in patenting and commercialization than commercialization.
in academia. Studies suggest that this gap decreases
in industry due to organizational incentives and POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS IDENTIFIED IN
resources, such as bonus structures and promo- LITERATURE REVIEW AND POLICY SCAN
tions that reward commercialization activities (9). The significance of the gender gap in STEM is
Academia stands in contrast to industry in that lit- salient in the discussions of practical solutions to
tle incentive is given to commercialization, especially decrease it, from educational participation in K-12
in the academic tenure process (27). to patenting activities of women scientists. Through
Institutional dynamics between academia and a review of scientific literature and policy discus-
industry may also affect women’s patenting outputs sions, we summarize these proposed solutions on a
uniquely, for example, affecting women who have variety of levels, including recommendations for leg-
children. A study of patenting among women scien- islative action and programmatic best practices. The
tists with and without children in academia and in majority of these recommendations are organized
industry suggests that patenting outputs of women around central objectives of increasing women and
in industry were not affected by their decision to girls’ participation in STEM educations, supporting
have children, while, in academia, women with chil- women’s inclusion in STEM commercial activity,
dren were less likely to patent at the rate of women boosting commercial outputs among women aca-
without children (28). The authors suggest that this demics in STEM, and improving opportunities for
“motherhood gap,” the disparity in commercialization further research in this field.
output once a woman has children, further under-
scores the significant role of organizational incentives Increasing Women and Girls’ Participation in
and dynamics. STEM Education
Findings suggest that network-oriented, non-hi- Concentrated policy efforts targeting women and
erarchical organizational structures—in academia or girls’ STEM education center on participation and tar-
in industry—may also decrease the disparity across get future gains in the STEM gender gap. At a policy
genders in patenting (9). Smith-Doerr (2004) finds level, recommendations include legislative allocation