U.S. Section H Patents: From Women to Human

This project identifies the gender gap exists in Section H – Electricity patents under the Cooperative Patent Classification. Using metadata analysis and text analysis with all the section H patents from 1976 to 2021, I found that the gender gap within Section H patents is still large and is closing up slowly. Few women get to invent, few women majority teams exist, and few patents are female-focused. On average women have higher productivity than men within section H patents creation. I also found that, during economic recessions, female job switchers are the most productive while non-top assignees' female inventors suffer the most; during normal times, non-top female inventors have the best performance while top assignees' female inventors rank the lowest.