Sixty-seven years ago, Mary Kenner applied for her first patent. Kenner had invented an adjustable sanitary belt with a built-in, moisture-proof pocket to keep the napkin in place. Such a device would have revolutionized menstrual hygiene. As the product used adhesive to secure the pad, it eliminated “chafing and irritation,” as well as reducing the risk of leakage.

When the Sonn-Nap-Pack Company showed interest in marketing Kenner’s idea, she was ecstatic. Kenner said, “In my mind, I had built I don’t know how many castles or how many cars I had brought [sic].” But when the company’s representatives arrived at her house to sign a contract with her, the dream was over. “They had absolutely no idea that they had been negotiating with a black person … Then they tried to find every reason under the sun as to why I couldn’t sign that contract.” The negotiations then dissolved.

Kenner had faced setbacks before. She was no stranger to racial discrimination; her grandfather, Tony Phoneberger, had an invention stolen by three white men he had demonstrated it to. Kenner also struggled financially: She dropped out of Howard University after a year because of money pressures and instead worked various odd jobs. She was a foster parent to five boys, and in between caring for them and her sister, who had multiple sclerosis, and running a floral business, she had little time to pursue her true passion: inventing. 

Yet despite these varied barriers, Kenner went on to patent four more household items, including a toilet roll holder, a shower back washer, and an attachment for a walking frame. To this day, she has still held more patents than any other African American woman. 

Kenner’s patents may have since expired, but the systemic disadvantages facing female inventors like Kenner have not. Only 12.7 percent of inventors named on patents are women. Most patent applications are developed in teams and the gender make-up of these teams is staggeringly imbalanced. According to a study by the U.K. Patent Office, only 0.28 percent of global patent applications come from women-only teams, whereas 96 percent name one or more male inventors.  

It might be easy to blame these statistics on the lack of women in STEM industries, but that is only part of the picture. Women make up 27 percent of the core STEM workforce in the U.S., and 23 percent in the U.K. Women are also awarded half of all PhDs in the U.S. and own four out of ten businesses. These statistics should warrant a larger female presence among patent applications.

There is also disparity within STEM industries themselves. According to the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO), biotechnologies have the largest number of women inventors with 53 percent of patents naming at least one woman inventor, as do 52 percent of pharmaceutical patents. On the other hand, less than 10 percent of electrical engineering patents have at least one woman inventor. 

In a conversation with Lady Science, a patent attorney at the law firm Kilburn and Strode LLP stated that the largest patent filers are in computing, consumer electronics and telecoms, all of which are more male-dominated industries.

The U.S. Patent Office (USTPO) also suggests that “female scientists face more difficulty securing funding and lack the social networks that can be critical to commercializing inventions.” This is changing, particularly in the world of femtech, which received more than $1 billion worth of funding between 2015 and 2018 and is estimated to be worth $50 billion by 2025. Even with these strides, however, women inventors still face funding issues when commercialization and financial support is involved.

There are other social and cultural barriers: gender and racial biases in degree choices, hiring practices, work evaluation and promotion. The lack of women progressing to senior positions in research and academia is sometimes referred to as the “leaky pipeline,” which means that female innovation is not being captured because there are progressively fewer women at each step of the career ladder. 

There are also fewer women inventors as role models; despite her accolades, Kenner herself remains virtually unknown. No one is taught in school about how women invented coffee filters, windscreen wipers, space station batteries, stem cell isolation, and even Monopoly. Everyone has heard of Henry Ford, Nikola Tesla, and Alexander Graham Bell, but relatively few people have heard of Radia Perlman, a woman who held more than 100 patents and paved the way for the development of the internet. 

Yet the problem could also be behavioral, and ultimately come down to imposter syndrome. Pushing for an idea to be pursued, developed, and protected requires confidence, self-assurance, and a willingness to take risks—traits women and girls are discouraged from displaying at an early age. It also comes with considerable time commitment and financial burden. In the U.S., patent applications take on average two years (in the U.K., they take four). The cost to secure a patent averages between $5,000 and $15,000; Kenner herself had been working on her sanitary belt for over a decade but had needed time to save up enough money for her application.

This might not be such a problem if you are working for a large corporation with deep pockets, although women still need to have the conviction to see an idea through and the courage to disclose it to colleagues in the first place. 

For individuals who do not work for a large corporation, the process can seem long-winded and complicated without the necessary support networks. Whilst Kenner had no college degree or professional training, she came from a family of inventors who could guide her: Her grandfather had invented a tricolor light signal to guide trains; her father had patented a clothes press; and her sister created her own family board game. 

Others must be self-taught. Charlene Davis, a U.K. business-owner who runs a home-decor company called Untainted, recently applied for two patents for home fragrance devices. She used lockdown to do all the necessary research, mostly relying on podcasts and YouTube videos. Whilst the process was a huge time commitment, she knew patents were central to her commercial strategy. 

In an interview with Lady Science, she stated, “I want Untainted to be a worldwide brand, and so I knew it was going to be in my best interest to go through with the process. I had to be confident in my products and believe that it was worth patenting in the U.K., the U.S., and Europe.” 

She appreciates that many women though are quick to doubt themselves: “Women are more likely to think their idea is not that good or assume it might not work out anyway. Shows like Dragon’s Den and The Apprentice help to show how important and attractive patents are, and female visibility definitely helps.”

Clearly, more needs to be done though. According to Kilburn and Strode, “if the proportion of female inventors increases at the same rate as the last 40 years, it will take until the year 2198 to achieve an equal proportion of female and male patent-holders.”

“Just as there is no single barrier facing women inventors, there is no single solution: more funding, more networking opportunities, more female role models, better visibility and accessibility, and more transparency around the system would all help.”

Elizabeth Donnelly, CEO of Women’s Engineering Society, agrees that social stigma plays an important part. She says, “There are still massive issues around putting yourself forward as a woman, and targeted intervention is needed around high school level. Generally speaking, up until puberty girls are equally as able, competitive, and interested in science as boys. However, this starts to drop off through adolescence because of peer pressure, gender stereotypes, and not wanting to assert themselves.”

These insecurities last until adulthood: “Many women in STEM, particularly young women, still feel like they don’t belong and that they have to justify themselves and their qualifications.” 

“One chief factor to consider is that women might lack the self-belief—or the know-how—to go through with a patent,” Donnelly explains. “Many women will question: do I know what I’m doing? Is my idea patentable? Should I apply for one? Because they don’t know about the process, they are more likely to talk about it to someone, usually a male colleague. They then work collaboratively, and it ends up becoming a group patent.” 

However, group patents can sometimes stop women from getting the credit or profits they deserve. For example, if a patent turns out to be of “outstanding value” to the company, as was in the case with Shanks vs Unilever, then the whole team will be compensated, regardless of who had the original idea. 

Donnelly believes that while the patent application process could be more transparent (and perhaps even taught at schools), it could also ultimately be a numbers game. “In the U.K., just 16 percent of Engineering undergraduates are female—the lowest proportion of any subject other than Computer Science. Of those, only 60 percent of female Engineering graduates into jobs related to Engineering, and so there are literally thousands more male graduates going into Engineering roles than female graduates.” This then inevitably means fewer female patents.

Yet female innovation benefits everyone, not just women. The USPTO’s research found that women, like other under-represented groups, are “among the ‘lost Einsteins’—people who would contribute valuable inventions had they had early exposure to innovation and inventor role models.”

Just as there is no single barrier facing women inventors, there is no single solution: more funding, more networking opportunities, more female role models, better visibility and accessibility, and more transparency around the system would all help.

Nonetheless, the key could still be behavioral as well as economic. Despite all the obstacles facing her—her race, her gender, her lack of college education—Kenner still had what was most needed: self-belief. Mary Kenner famously said, “Every person is born with a creative mind. Everyone has that ability.” It is well worth making sure that women inventors—present as well as future—remember that too. 

Further Reading

Carter Sluby, P., The Inventive Spirit of African Americans: Patented Ingenuity, Westport: Praeger Publishers (2004).

Jordan, D. Sisters in Science: Conversations with Black Women Scientists on Race, Gender and Their Passion, Indiana: Purdue University Press (2006)