Women inventors
Inventions shape the world around us, yet the women behind many of them often go unrecognised. While names like Edison and Bell are well known, countless essential innovations were pioneered by brilliant female minds. Fiona Fairhurst helped revolutionise competitive swimming with her drag-reducing swimsuit design, while Carmen Hijosa developed a sustainable alternative to leather using pineapple leaf fibres.
Today, women continue to lead with creativity and ingenuity across fields like science, technology, medicine and sustainability. This page celebrates their achievements and highlights the ongoing impact of women inventors whose ideas are changing the way we live, work and connect.
Dive in
Advancing women in STEM
A new study on women in STEM, which exposes slow progress in closing the gender gaps in inventive activity, entrepreneurship, patenting professions and academic career pathways.
Women at the core of innovation
25% of patents
filed at the EPO from Europe have at least one woman inventor (2024 data).
13.9%
of European inventors who file European patent applications at the EPO are women (2022 applications).
73 women inventors
to date have been awarded the EPO’s “European Inventor Award” as of 2025 for their groundbreaking ideas that are shaping the future.
Q&A – Insights from the EPO
- How has women’s participation in inventorship evolved in recent decades?
Women’s participation in inventorship has been steadily increasing, but the gender gap remains significant. The share of women inventors rate (WIR) grew from around 2% in the late 1970s to 13% in 2019, reaching 13.8% in 2022.
At the same time, the share of patent applications naming at least one woman inventor rose to 24.1% in 2022. This suggests that women’s involvement is growing faster within team‑based innovation than in overall individual representation.
- How is Europe performing compared to other countries with regards to its share of women inventors?
The share of women inventors has increased steadily over time, but is still below parity with that of inventors who are men. In EPO countries, the women inventor rate (WIR), which measures the percentage of women inventors among all inventors in patent applications in a given year, increased from around 2% in the late 1970s to over 13% in 2019. Countries like P.R. China or R. Korea have higher values of around 25%-30%, while Japan lies behind Europe and US, with similar WIR values to those of Europe.
- In what technologies are women inventors more present?
Chemistry stands out as the technology sector with the highest share of women inventors. The WIR in the 2018-2022 period reached over 24%, while the values in other technology sectors ranged from 12.4% in instruments to 7.7% in mechanical engineering.
- Do women STEM PhD graduates patent less than men due to differences in inventive potential of their research?
No. Women STEM PhD graduates publish frontier-relevant research that is comparable to that of their male counterparts, despite being half as likely as men to be listed as inventors on European patent applications. This suggests that gender differences in patenting stem primarily from institutional and economic barriers in the transition from doctoral research to commercialisation, not from differences in inventive potential.
- How is women’s representation evolving in the patent profession?
Women’s presence in the patent profession is higher than among inventors and improving. In 2025, women accounted for 25.5% of patent examiners at the EPO and 30% of new hires. Among European patent attorneys, women now represent 29.2%. These improving trends support broader efforts across Europe as a whole to promote diversity and inclusion in legal/technical professions.
- What type of applicants have more women inventors?
Patent applications from universities and PROs have a significantly larger share of women inventors than their counterparts from companies. The WIR of 24.4% for this segment in 2018-2022 significantly exceeds that of individual inventors (12.5%) and private companies (≈ 11%).
Publications
A 2026 published study on women in STEM, which exposes slow progress in closing the gender gaps in inventive activity, entrepreneurship, patent professions and academic career pathways.
Learn more about women inventors in the study published in 2022.
How did strong IP empower women inventors to commercialise breakthrough wound-healing technology?
Podcasts
Owning her story: Dame Carol Robinson on women in STEM
The researcher and spin-out founder shares her nonlinear career path.
Get STEMpowered this International Women's Day
Female leaders in STEM share their journeys, honour women inventors, and highlight how diversity fuels innovation.
Women in tech: the road to gender equality
Leading experts tackle gender equality in tech, with insights from the EPO’s roundtable on women inventors.
Events
Explore the events we hosted and watch video recaps.
