Changing the Landscape for Women Innovators and Entrepreneurs

Alice Li
Executive Director of Center for Technology Licensing
Cornell University

My wakeup call came 10 years ago when our office organized an innovation partnership forum in engineering. A professor called me and said she wouldn’t promote the event to her students. She wanted to see more women speakers at the forum to inspire and set an example for young women engineering students. It taught me that just having a good intention is not enough; we need to do more to change the landscape. Ten years later, there are much more awareness and activities, but there is a long way to go.
 
According to a study from the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the women inventor rate (share of women among all US inventor patentees) was 13% in 2019, which compares unfavorably to rates of 27% of the STEM population and more than 50% of the national work force. Data released from PitchBook indicated that startups with sole female founders raised only 2.4% of the venture capital invested in US startups in 2021. Women are clearly under-represented in innovation and entrepreneurial activity.
 
Increasing the participation of women in innovation and entrepreneurship is important for the growth of the knowledge-based economy and will lead to “a bigger pie” in many countries. This is not only an equity issue for inventorship and entrepreneurship. Cultivating women innovators and entrepreneurs will increase innovation and enterprise quantitatively and qualitatively. Moreover, it will improve the creative process by broadening the views and connections.
 
As tech transfer professionals, we are in a unique position to change the landscape for women innovators and entrepreneurs. We are in the trenches, working with and educating vast numbers of researchers in technology creation, evaluation and protection. We partner closely with investors, mentors and industries. We can influence the ecosystem within academia, facilitate connections with industries, and create new programs and models for nurturing women innovators and entrepreneurs. Pilot programs that are effective for women can also be evaluated and adapted to benefit other under-represented demographics within the innovation ecosystem.
 
AUTM is actively engaged in the advancement of women innovators. The Women Inventors Special Interest Group released the Women Inventor’s Toolkit to help tech transfer offices support women in STEM and entrepreneurship. A paper, “Engaging More Women in Academic Innovation: Findings and Recommendations", published by the group based on survey findings, provides a list of practical guidelines and action items. More recently, this year AUTM’s Equity Diversity and Inclusion committee released the EDI Toolkit to enhance the effectiveness of EDI protocols to support tech transfer. Standard Operation Protocols (SOPs) are being developed for tech transfer offices to track metrics for women and other under-represented groups consistently.
 
Many university tech transfer offices have initiated new programs to promote women innovators and entrepreneurs to start changing the culture. For example, Equalize is a mentor program and pitch competition started by Washington University in St. Louis and Osage University Partners to take national actions to support academic women inventors forming startups. My own institution, Cornell, started the Women Innovators Initiative for training and mentorship and established the Women Innovator Awards. At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a program called AWARE (Accelerating Women And under-Represented Entrepreneurs) offers training, counseling and networking. Furthermore, there are equity initiatives at USPTO with a number of pilot programs to advance diversity in innovators.
 
The new generation of innovators and entrepreneurs will shape the future. Let’s embrace changes in big or small ways. Together we can move the needle and change the landscape for women innovators and entrepreneurs.