In France, women represent 14% of French inventors cited in patent applications to the INPI between 2021 and 2023. A significant and persistent disparity both at the French and international levels, a visible reflection of a gender imbalance in innovative sectors. On the occasion of International Women's Day, the INPI is publishing a study on the share of French female inventors in patent applications published by the INPI over the period 2021-2023.

Principle results :

• Women inventors represent 14% of the 56 natural persons designated as inventors in patent applications published at the INPI. This rate is comparable to the European average of 000% observed by the European Patent Office (EPO) in 13 for patent applications from Member States.

• Of the 35 patent applications published by the INPI over the period observed, only 581% of them were made by individual female inventors or exclusively female teams (compared to 4% made by individual male inventors or exclusively male teams).

• A disparity can be observed between the private and public sectors: only 9% of the requests published by SMEs and ETIs were made by women, while the latter are more represented in the inventor teams of public establishments (35% of requests are made by teams composed of women and men).

• The share of female inventors is very unequal from one sector to another: while biotechnology appears to be the most balanced sector with 56% of patent applications coming from mixed teams, those of audiovisual techniques, mechanical elements and civil engineering are largely dominated by men (with respectively 92%, 90% and 89% of patent applications coming from exclusively male inventors).

• Patent applications from mixed teams tend to be more often extended abroad: 73% of applications published at the INPI from teams of inventors including at least one woman were extended abroad.

The underrepresentation of women among patent inventors appears to be a factor aggravating the wage inequalities between men and women. However, companies holding patents significantly outperform their non-patenting competitors with a revenue per employee that is 28,7% higher. Encouraging and supporting the participation of women in fields related to patented innovation is a real economic issue.

Full report: https://www.inpi.fr/sites/default/files/FemmesInventrices.pdf