Gender disparities in involvement and collaboration on patenting activities in Chinese cities

Abstract

Gender inequality is rife in science. There are still large gaps between female and male inventors. Scholars have previously focused on gender disparities in innovation activities, but these studies pay more attention to global gender disparities or gender differences in science and technology among different countries. Yet, there is little evidence available on gender differences on the regional level, especially in Chinese cities. As a consequence, we know very little about the gender differences on the involvement in patenting activities in Chinese cities. Collaborations among scholars and inventors have been commonplace as collaborating contributes to knowledge production. The number of collaborations correlates with scientific achievement in terms of quantity and quality of knowledge production. Furthermore, collaboration also has a stimulating influence on urban innovation. Given the high prevalence and importance of collaborations among researchers and inventors, it is crucial to understand the systematic differences in collaboration behaviors. The extant literature has focused more on gender differences in scientific collaboration across different disciplines, institutions and countries using social network analysis methods. However, very few studies have investigated female collaboration propensity in patenting activities across different years, technology sectors, and especially across Chinese cities. This dissertation contributes to this gap by examining Chinese patent data to reveal gender differences in inventor involvement and collaboration behaviors across Chinese cities. The empirical analysis reveals that (1) female involvement in patenting activities has increased over time, (2) female involvement in patenting activities is unevenly distributed in different technology domains and across Chinese cities, (3) in general, male inventors are more likely to collaborate than female inventors, and (4) there is a great variation in the collaborations of female and male inventors in certain technology domains and Chinese cities. This is the first initial systematic study of gender differences in patenting activities in China.