The Role of Intellectual Property in Assuring Cultural and Gender Diversity in Labor Force in an Internationalized World

Abstract

When we think of a globalized world, whose development is based on internationalized actions, the ease of communication, access to information, cultural and commercial exchanges, and the technological development that they ignite immediately come to mind. Clearly, much is earned from internationalization; however, what is lost is rarely considered. A rigorous assessment of the changes that internationalization represents for a nation is needed in order to understand its effective costs and handle it properly. It is common sense that the main impact of internationalization is on the culture of a people. Internationalization, as a mechanism to facilitate sharing of information, products, and knowledge, certainly has an impact on cultural diversity; however, it is not always clear if it is positive or negative. Regarding intellectual property, it often influences authorship recognition and, therefore, ownership of innovative creations. Often, cultural issues affect the way in which authorship recognition occurs, especially when it comes to different ethnicities and genders. In this chapter, we will explore the aspects of intellectual property related to traditional knowledge that influence cultural and gender diversity, worldwide, evidencing their pros and cons, aiming to collaborate with public policies to bridge the gender gap and truly protect diversity.

1. Introduction

Diversity ensembles a complexity of participants that are used to designate similar characteristics that identify a group. Although it aims to distinguish the interesting and unique aspects of tangible contributions, ambiguously, it also denotes the expected products that can be obtained from a selected group of people, practices, or actions.

Cultural diversity, therefore, resembles the distinct contributions of distinct communities to humanity. It encompasses everything that is produced by a specific community by means of the learnings passed on to its members from generation to generation. This is an internationalized behavior, recognizable in any part of the world.

It is generally referred to as traditional knowledge, and it is comprehended worldwide as related to a community as its own way of being productive and distinguishable. Due to this characteristic, traditional knowledge is an intellectual property and, as such, must be protected. It is a cumulative body of knowledge due to the mechanism by which it is passed on through generations, conserving its first traces and being modified only by the next generation.

Traditional knowledge refers to know-how, innovations, and practices of a specific community, formed by people from a location, sharing the same backgrounds, as provided by their ancestors. There are several products, knowledge and practices that are understood as traditional because of their long-standing interactions with their natural surroundings.

These constant interactions result in these unique practices and products that are, then, transmitted through language and oral traditions inherited from ancestors. Moreover, this knowledge also contributes to the well-being of the communities, and their insertion in the environment, therefore, they also refer to medicinal knowledge, products and practices. Diversity is then an intangible heritage of humanity that must be protected to ensure the sustainable development of every corner of the world [1, 2, 3, 4].

Gender diversity is a reflex of cultural diversity, since it assumes distinct aspects depending on the community and the production that are in focus. For instance, if products are related to crafts and clothes or tools for agriculture, there is a predominance of female work and knowledge in the prior example and male knowledge in the late one.

In traditional knowledge, there is a significant aspect of the social organization of communities that results in a workload share that considers the differences between male and female abilities, giving rise to knowledge provided by them, differently, and originating gender diversity into traditional knowledge.

Since the needs of a community are influenced by their environments and available resources, and these needs are supplied by the efforts of every member of the community, gender diversity assumes significantly distinct aspects that can be neither anticipated nor controlled by broad parameters [5]. It is evident that there is a disparity of opportunities and access to education, positions and payment offers, socialization mechanisms, and personal development between men and women all over the world, which have profound impacts not only on behavioral development but on cultural-social, scientific-technological and economic developments [6]. Nevertheless, it is crucial to know the essential causes of this diversity and its local and global impacts to establish legislations that foster equity.

With this regard, it is noteworthy that what is common in gender diversity worldwide is the fact that it differs in the quality of intellectual property produced by men and women, and the impact of this, generally, is negative for the overall development of all nations.

Although the reasons for the gender gap, especially in intellectual property rights, have distinct origins, it is clear that it has a negative impact on a country’s technological and economic development, at least because there is an evident waste of creativity and intellectual abilities and, therefore, must be broadly bridged [7, 8, 9].

To bridge the gender gap can be a powerful tool to strengthen the intellectual property of a community and to achieve the desired economic development. Also, attention must be paid to the traditional knowledge in all kinds of communities, searching for mechanisms to adequately protect them. It is because traditional knowledge is often underrespected by other communities and nations. It means that very often they are subject to misappropriation especially because of their commercial value to several kinds of industries [4, 10].

Specifically biopiracy, as a result of the misappropriation of knowledge of indigenous people on medicinal products and plants, has been ascendant and, especially in Brazil, as a nation with a enormous biodiversity, regulations are not efficient in preventing it.

The country had approved in 2015 its biodiversity law [11] to specify the rules for access to traditional knowledge and genetic heritage, which is essential for the sustainable conservation and use of biodiversity. However, it must be efficient and aligned to the context of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and, in fact, it has been proven to provoke violations of international agreements and has been denounced for excluding indigenous and traditional people’s rights, having inadequate legal provisions on access and benefit-sharing (ABS) [12].

Brazil is not the only example of biopiracy and disrespect to traditional knowledge. Worldwide, misappropriation of traditional knowledge has occurred due to inadequacies of the existing intellectual property regulations that can greatly differ in distinct nations. In an effort to equalize the protection mechanisms, several organizations with diverse visions of traditional knowledge have been discussing the aspects of protection of the broad forms of knowledge. World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), World Trade Organization (WTO) International Labour Organization (ILO), the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations (UN) through its United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) have been, in 2005 starred in a discussion that culminated with the initiative of a Sui Generis protection for traditional knowledge, among others [13, 14].

The rules for the protection are, since then, been established and adopted, giving rise to several national regulations to provide Sui Generis protection for traditional knowledge [14, 15, 16], most of them taking into account the definitions and perceptions of the characteristics of the traditional knowledge presented by those organizations in several meetings and conferences.

Particularly relevant are the discussions in COP 8, where the participants agreed that “urge the Governance to develop, adopt national and local sui generis models for the protection of knowledge, innovations and traditional practices, with the full and effective participation of indigenous and local communities”. It is equally relevant to consider the UNESCO – Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions perception that “Cultural diversity is an essential characteristic of humanity, constituting, in itself, a heritage that must be valued and preserved.​”

They also agreed that culture should be incorporated as a strategic element of national and international development policies, which provides the view of heritage promotion to ensure maintenance for future generations, with a humanistic focus.

Allied to that are the visions of WTO and WIPO that this knowledge must provide economic support and financial return to the communities in order to foster their preservation and development by means of defining authorship and ways to compensate the communities´ members for the inappropriate use of cultural creativity, having a focus on commercial exploitation. Also relevant is the vision of CBD, which values respect for traditional communities, and the right to a fair division of benefits from the use of traditional culture, in a community focus.

In this work, we provide an overview of the intellectual property rights application worldwide, taking into account how the protection of traditional knowledge is supported, the female participation in the labor force in distinct countries, and how cultural and educational differences may support or devast gender equity.

Also, we evaluated the relevance of national regulations and how they are attached to international approaches, and the impacts they have in distinct communities worldwide. We examined the characteristics of the gender gap in the global economy, considering its growth especially related to technology and innovation promotion, by analyzing the participation of women in patent application and in startup creation and management, also considering it as a tool to provide equity among genders, despite cultural differences.

With this effort, we aim to evidence the pros and cons of the intellectual property related to traditional knowledge, which directly influences cultural and gender diversity, and, therefore, contribute to public policies to bridge the gender gap and foster diversity.

2. Methodology

To acquire the data that are explored in this work, searches in patent databases and in scientific publications were conducted, in a bibliometric mean. To perform the analysis presented in this work, some developing and developed countries were selected to have their tendencies of women in the labor market and as inventors and entrepreneurs evaluated in the time flow.

2.1 Countries selection

To illustrate women’s participation in the economy, countries with similar socioeconomic development indices were selected, such as those referring to education, health, and income. The chosen countries are economically and culturally significant, so that it is possible to analyze the barriers that women in developing countries have to overcome in the path to a better future.

2.2 Data gathering

Part of the data used for analysis was made openly available at the Our World in Data website, at the Status of Women in the States website (which seeks to monitor socioeconomic data related to the labor market and the performance of women) and in WIPO reports and statistics, made available through WIPO intellectual property data center (free online service that provide access to WIPO statistical data on intellectual property activity), which can be accessed also in their website, all under the Creative Commons BY license. Part of the data used was acquired from studies carried out by third parties and duly referenced.

Data were collected to produce graphics presented in Figures 1–8.

Figure 1.

A) Female participation in the working market, per country, per year from 1958 to 2020 and B) absolute number of women in the working market, per country, from 1958 to 2020.

Figure 2.

Percentage difference of employment between men and women, from 1990 to 2020, in selected countries.

Figure 3.

Patent application in 2021 via PCT, per country. Source: WIPO statistics database, November 2022.

Figure 4.

Patent-filling growth from 1980 to 2020, in selected countries.

Figure 5.

Unemployment rate of men and women in selected countries.

Figure 6.

Governmental investments in family aid policies and the employment rate of women in selected countries.

Figure 7.

Percentage of women listed as inventors in PCT patent applications per year, per geographical region.

Figure 8.

Number of startups that were founded by at least one woman, in the ten countries with more startups launched worldwide.

3. Findings

As showed by Montanari and Bergh [17], women’s traditional knowledge is usually related to the manufacturing and creation of several products that uses natural raw materials. Their practices are often taught by them to their children, by traditional means, learned from their mothers. Information natural resources uses and compositions are also taught this way; all of these are considered traditional knowledge of people. Therefore, women have a vital role in the preservation of a culture, but also in the preservation of the environment and biodiversity conservation.

Although it is evident that women greatly contribute to the preservation and dissemination of traditional knowledge of their communities, the lack of data in this matter that can register their efforts is a threat to their perseverance. With low information, adequately and methodologically acquired, statistics on how important women play in preserving biodiversity and cultural knowledge cannot be reliable. Therefore, it results in the lack of dedicated funding or interest in funding preservation activities conducted by women. It also damages their participation in policies formulation to address their own needs and their views in decision-making processes are often not taken into account [18, 19].

All organizations that are focused on biodiversity conservation, knowledge dissemination, and even climate change fight recognize that it is essential that women participate in equal levels to men in decision-making. Their abilities must provide them enrollment also in the design of programs on biodiversity and environmental management, to promote a reliable adaptation and mitigation of climate change consequences, and improving local development, having the premises of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development in target [20].

Although the participation of women in directly protecting traditional knowledge and promoting biodiversity is not discernible, it is easily comprehensible once their participation in the economy and labor market, especially those related to innovation and traditional knowledge is correctly analyzed. Therefore, in the following sections, we will present available data related to women’s participation in the economy worldwide, how they are involved with intellectual property protection, and how they economically benefit from their efforts toward innovation and development.

3.1 Women’s participation in economy

Women’s participation in the economy worldwide has been followed since 1980s and has been at an increased rate since then [21, 22, 23].

However, there is a sensible difference between the rates and the mechanisms to bridge the gender gap among the nations. The main reason for the distinct rates of participation of women in the economy of distinct countries is the changes in legislation and/or actions to promote gender equality, as well as education and gender equality awareness in each country.

Changes in legislation are often related to labor laws aimed at promoting gender equality in the workplace. The 1990s was marked by the main changes in labor laws that allowed the increase of women’s participation in the labor market. The adoption of these laws contributes to women’s economic emancipation and is also a significant reason for the economic growth observed in developing countries. These changes that have been contributing to the benefit changes are: 1. prohibition of discrimination of gender and/or sexual orientation in the hiring process; 2. guarantee of equal wages for women and men in similar jobs; 3. guarantee of paid maternity leave; 4. ensuring shorter working hours for pregnant women; 5. prohibition of the dismissal of pregnant women; 6. guarantee of licenses to care for sick family members; 7. guarantee of equal labor rights for women and men and 8. guarantee of rights to education for women [24].

Although all these measures are understood in terms of human rights and guarantee of health specifically related to the UN 2023 agenda, they are often characteristic of women responsibilities in a family and are often the reason for their professional drawback.

Figure 1 shows the evolution of women participation in the labor force in the selected countries, in the period of 1980 to 2020. Evidently, there was an increase in female participation over the years, with a constant growth rate until near 2008, when most of the countries presented stable participation from that year on, which can be related to the economic crash of the USA that had significant effects worldwide due to the bankruptcy announced by Lehman Brothers Bank [25, 26, 27, 28].

Notably, in Germany, the growth of women’s participation in the labor force has continued to increase at a constant rate due to a higher level of qualification among women that has increased considerably, approaching that of men, enabling them to participate in several sectors [29]. However, it is expected that the next data will not be as favorable as these due to the negative impact the COVID-19 emergency had on employment in all sectors worldwide [30].

Also, countries, such as Brazil and Colombia, presented relatively high growth rates in female participation in a workforce that was growing after a brief recovery between 2012 and 2018 but that is expected to decrease again due to COVID-19 pandemic effects. Especially in Brazil, 11% of the women immediately lost their jobs related to domestic work and tourism due to the lockdown needs [31, 32].

Figure 1B shows the absolute number of women participating in the labor force. In absolute terms, China is the market with the highest participation of women in the labor force. Historically, it also had shown low levels of women unemployment; however, the available data is insufficient to infer the behavior of the current situation, but it evidences a decrease in women participation after the years 2000 that occurred at least until 2010. Yet, China is a country in which women have been over 60% of the labor force.

The United States also presents a high population of women actively participating in the labor market. Currently, they are around 57% of the labor force, and this participation has been kept since 2000, after a strong growth that occurred since 1940, pulling the female participation from nearly 40% to over 60%, and changing drastically the situation of the American labor force. However, according to the OECD, the levels practiced today are similar to those of 1993 [33].

This observed growth between 1940 and 1970 is due to two main reasons: 1) the massive high school education, graduation rates that rose substantially and included women and 2) the advent of new technologies that urged for new skilled employees and leaving old positions in the open, ready to be taken mainly by married women, such as clerical workers, that were understood as suitable for the new female labor force [34].

Figure 1 also shows that there is a general tendency to increase the participation of women in the labor market in both developed and developing countries. It also evidences that a crisis of any kind immediately causes a decrease of women in labor force and the reasons for that vary from culture to culture, but always proving a distinction that drawback women from the productive sectors, even if they are skilled and with education levels similar to those of men.

In a general manner, data show that there is an increase in women’s participation in the labor market since the 1960s. However, this behavior is changed according to the social and economic moment experienced by each country’s society.

In American society, the end of the 1990s can be pointed out as the apex of women participation in labor market. On the other hand, in China, the share of women active in the labor market by 2010 is higher than those of any other countries, with its apex occurring in the mid-1990s. In Brazil, the apex occurred before other Latin American countries that are part of this analysis, such as Colombia, Argentina and Mexico. In Latin American countries it occurs in the following decades, but at a relatively lower rate when compared to the American society. The causes for these distinct apexes may have independent reasons, possibly related to lower birth rates and population aging, commonly characterized by higher longevity rates among women. In the United States, for instance, this dynamic is related to the development of the so called Baby Boomer generation and its retirement. In 2010, the oldest Baby Boomers were about 64 years old and by 2019 they were 73. This phenomenon has led to a decrease of women’s participation in labor market participation rates, even when participation rates by age group have increased [35].

Unemployment is also higher among women, worldwide. In Figure 2 the unemployment rate is presented, considering men and women of distinct countries.

Figure 2 shows that female unemployment rates are higher in developing countries than in developed ones. Countries that experience a dynamic of economic growth, such as China and India, present much lower unemployment rates, evidencing their actual scenario of full employment, contrasting with the chronic unemployment scenarios experienced by other developing countries. Although the employment is higher in such countries, especially due to their economic growth promoted by the fast technological development implemented in these countries, it is not the main reason for the difference in economic growth experienced by other developing countries.

In China and India, they invested in technological development as a way to move forward their economy and lifestyle, which has positively impacted their industrial diversity, therefore, promoting gender diversity to fill the job vacancies created by the new fields of productions originated by the technological development. But countries such Brazil, Chile, and Mexico also had invested in technological development in this period; however, their achievements in promoting industrialization and diversification are far lower.

To promote a better understanding and use of the intellectual property system, WIPO has provided special services for developing countries, by producing information, guidelines and providing training on the Patentscope database [36].

As shown in Figure 3, China has been the greatest patent-filling country in the world, which evidences its strategy of investing in the technological development of quality to ensure new markets for their new industries.

Data collected by The World Bank (available under Creative Commons license (CC.BY.4.0)) and from the WIPO Patent Report: Statistics on Worldwide Patent Activity [37] were used to plot the graph in Figure 4, which shows the progression of patent filling in selected developing countries. Comparing these data shows that since 2000 China has been producing innovations in an exponential rising behavior, and in 2020 its patent portfolio is over 64 times larger than other developing countries in the analysis. India has also increased its patent application numbers, as a strategy of specializing its industry and to enter in the market of high value products. Other developing countries also had invested in patent applications to specialize their industries, but in a very modest fashion, compared to China and India, mainly due to distinct strategies of incentive to science and education and technological development in these countries. This also has an impact on the participation of women in their labor market, confining them to sectors that are usually more affected, such as services and agriculture.

Even so, developing countries like those have also been experiencing the growth in women’s employment. Specially India, South Africa, and Brazil have faced a significant increase in female participation in the workforce, which shows that women have made efforts to make progress economically and socially. In these countries, they had found positions mainly in agriculture, services, trade, manufacturing, and construction. Agriculture is the main source of employment for women, and it has been an important driver force to the economic and social development of developing countries.

While female participation in labor markets is increasing, there is still a long way to go to improve the position of women in developing countries. Discrimination is still a reality for many women, and therefore developing countries need to take policies to promote gender equality. In addition, women need access to education and training to acquire professional skills that allow them to compete with men in the labor market. Overall, the increased participation of women in productive sectors in developing countries has been a positive step toward improving women’s living conditions. This trend has generated more opportunities for women to obtain economic independence and improve their contribution to society [38, 39].

However, this is distinct from what is observed in developed countries. In those countries, women have played an increasingly important role in the economy due to female participation increase in a broad productive field. For instance, in the United States, about 55% of the female labor force is concentrated in health and social services, and education and public administration sectors welcome nearly 40% of women. In addition, women have also increased their presence in the financial services industry, with about a third of the female labor force employed in financial services companies. Moreover, the manufacturing industry, have also employed more women, with 25% of women working in the area, and the construction industry, with a20% of women as labor force [38].

Yet in the United States, according to the most recent data, American women receive the highest salaries in government positions (whether at the federal, state, or local level). 40% of women occupy managerial functions, which require higher education, while 33% of men occupy such positions. Fields of science, technology and engineering have experienced an expressive growth in the number of positions occupied by women in the last decade, also being the sectors that are among those that provide better remuneration [38].

Therefore, the experience of the developed countries confirms that investing in science, technology and, thus, education can provide women with enough skills to enter any market as a reliable labor force. This assumption can be corroborated by unemployment rates, considering male and female, distinctly. Figure 5 shows the unemployment rates by country, as it was determined in 2017. As shown in Figure 5, unemployment among women are generally higher than among men, but the discrepancy is more pronounced in developing countries such as Argentina, Brazil and Colombia. Notably, in India, which, likewise China, invests in technological development, unemployment rates among men and women are similar. In countries such as Russia and China, however, unemployment afflicted men and in the developed countries, unemployment rates tend to be close among men and women; despite it being slightly higher among women in the United States, unemployment is similar among men and women.

Since the unemployment rate is higher among women is a general feature, afflicting both developed and developing countries, it is to be assumed that it might have common origins. Evidently, women in the labor market have yet to deal with their usual tasks, for instance, taking care of family and being responsible for the children well-being and education. Therefore, often they leave their jobs in order to accomplish those tasks and this is even more pronounced in places where policies of family care and education are not efficient.

Figure 6 presents the correlation between the governmental investment in public policies as a percentage of the gross domestic product (%GDP) related to family aid and the employment rate among women in selected countries.

From Figure 6, it is observed that there is an overall direct relation between public policy expenses aiming for family aid and female employment rates. This is because, in general, governmental policies on social support for families include maternity assistance, family assistance, paid maternity leave, paternity leave and etc. However, countries do not uniformly adopt these social policies, but several Latin American and European countries adopt paid maternity leave to some degree, leading to higher employment levels as policies are fitted to the social needs of that country.

For instance, in France, the higher public investment in policies resulted in a level of female employment similar to that achieved by Germany, which invested less of its gross domestic product in those policies. It is noteworthy that, according to Martin [40, 41], France has been going through a relevant change in its labor force behavior. Between the years 1945 and 1975, women start to participate more effectively in the labor market, finding positions mainly in a simple part-time job, thus showing an expressive growth in the female employment rate. In these last decades, more qualified women have been working in full-time jobs, in similar regimens than men, resulting in less expressive employment growth but also indicating that the gender gap is closing. In fact, nowadays, nearly 49% of the French labor force is female.

On the other hand, the low investment of the United States in public policies for family aid resulted in a higher female employment rate. The United States is among the few developed countries that do not have specific legislation that guarantees paid maternity leave. Thus, only 23% of employees of US companies grant the benefit of paid maternity leave [42]. However, the United States has been investing in women’s education as a way to provide equality in job opportunities [43, 44].

3.2 Women as inventors and patent owners

To understand the gender diversity in the labor market is essential to promote equity in a sustainable fashion. We were able to evidence that the national differences in female employment rates and characteristics can be related to public incentives, in the form of family aid and the promotion of female access to higher education. Also, we understood that countries focused on their technological and scientific development are more prepared to bridge the gender gap in the labor force. But, to be a sustainable process, meaning that gender equity must be achieved once and for all, women must be as well prepared as encouraged to value and realize their ideas; therefore, they must develop the same confidence in their abilities that are taught to men by all cultures.

To understand if the female qualification is rendering women that are confident and conscientious of their abilities to contribute to the technological development of a country, as well as to find a place in the challenging market of advanced technology industry, it is relevant to analyze the characteristics of the inventors of patent applications filed worldwide.

Data provided by the WIPO Intellectual property data center [45] and reported in WIPO Yearly PCT Review 2022, evidence that the female participation as inventors in patent applications, through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) is increasing at a faster rhythm, with women being responsible for near 30% of the patent filed worldwide. In 2021, the share of women as inventors in patent applications via PCT increased by 1%, compared to 2020, reaching the historical mark of 16.5% of the application having at least one female inventor. This increase is impressive, considering that it is similar to the increase noted between 2001 and 2011, suggesting that this is a recent endeavor for women.

However, even though this evidences a never experienced growth before and, therefore, a behavior change, it is still too slow, meaning that equity will only be achieved in 2050, if women participation evolute in the same rhythm it evolved in 2021 [46, 47]. Figure 7 shows the women’s participation as inventors in PCT applications worldwide, by year, in distinct regions of the world. Figure 7 evidences that the growth acknowledged in WIPO Yearly PCT reviews [47] is, actually consisted of apexes that are related to a growth behavior if analyzed each 5 years, as in the report’s methodology. However, they evidence a growth that hardly is higher than 30%.

From Figure 7, it is observed that participation of women inventors in PCT application is less than 30% in most geographical regions and that the mark of one-third of women as inventors was only achieved in 2017; however, it was not kept in 2021 by any region. Latin America and Caribbean countries counted with the highest participation in 2021, around 23%, and the most pronounced decrease was in Asian countries, followed by the decrease perceived in North America.

Due to the high PCT application number from both regions also affected the women participation counted in the world, resulting in a female share of 16.5% as inventors in PCT applications. These data, therefore, show that there is a tendency for an increase in women’s participation as inventors in patents, as all geographical regions are perceiving their participation increase and, as for Latin America and the Caribbean, this can be more propounded from year to year. These observations sustain that this number may rise much faster from now on, since which may lead to equity earlier than expected.

Male participation as inventors in PCT application, in the same period, was never less than 95.5% and achieved 96% in 2021, one of the lowest participation in a long period [47]. It indicates that female participation may be increasing much faster in numbers, since most inventions have more than one inventor, as they result from collaborative work, where women have the most significant share in the labor force, have conquered positions that are now available to them due to their higher education access and that this increase is occurring worldwide. Therefore, it is a prognostic that countries are in the way of equity and, if they learn from each other experiences, it may occur faster than predicted.

3.3 Women as leaders in technological-based companies

The global startup economy is large and is rising. According to the Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2020 of the Global Entrepreneurship Network – Genome Startup [48], it creates nearly US$3 trillion in value with increasing economic participation. They reported that in 2019, 84 startup ecosystems, worldwide, had created a billion-dollar-value startups, known as unicorns, contrasting with the 4 unicorns created in 2013, when the term started to be used. It represents a growth of 26% considering the number of unicorns launched in the year before.

This is an innovation-domain environment and it can directly inform about the contribution of women to such promising businesses. To participate on that, a person must be enthusiastic about innovations, well trained, and develop skills in highly technological fields. Also, must be capable of generating new products, fundraising and understand about business launching. Therefore, it can promptly inform about any changes in the gender gap. (Unfortunately, bridge the gender gap is perceived as a challenge for such a specialized field. Only 14% of startup founders in the world are female, yet it is a business concentrated in specific cities in the world.)[48].

Figure 8 shows the number of startups that present at least a woman as founder, per country, among the ten countries with more startups in the eorld [49, 50].

Figure 8 shows that, on average, women founded around 20% of the startups in these countries. India is the country counting with more female participation in this market as founders of a startup company, being 45%, while Indonesia presents the lowest female participation as startups founders (2%), followed by China, where women founded 3% of the existing companies there. These number agree with the percentage of women listed as inventors in patent applications, as previously discussed (Section 3.2).

Considering that most startups are related to innovative business and products, in the technology field, it is expected that successful startups also present a vast intellectual property portfolio for two main reasons: it proves to investors that the business is serious and supported by a good idea and intellectual property portfolio also ensures a reliable asset that means value to the startup. Therefore, if women are similarly participating in intellectual property production and protection and in company launching, it may indicate that those women have access to more information and better training in technological fields, as well as having information about the business. Moreover, it also means that they understand their role in the technological development around the world, and they are seeking to have their adequate share of it.

Moreover, many well-funded startups failed in 2017; some examples are Jawbone, Juicero, Sprig, Beepi, Yik Yak, Quixey, and Luxe, which together had raised more than US$ 1 billion and yet, failed. It is interesting that also in 2017, female participation in patent applications via PCT had dropped. This may be related to a misinterpretation of the market needs for new technologies, which is also a reason for startup closures. However, startups are a risky business, and it is still unknown the effect that failure might have on female participation acceptance in such field. Most of the startups fail within a year, due to many factors, among them, lack of funding, lack of skills, and market misinterpretation. However, those that succeed and ultimately become unicorns are investing in their intellectual property portfolio and that is a strong reason for more and more women to seek information on intellectual property system worldwide.

4. Conclusion

Despite the lack of data enduring the efforts of women to preserve and disseminate the traditional knowledge of their people, it is perceived among all cultures that they play a crucial role to that. However, their significant contribution is not often recognized and, in most cultures and regions, women lack opportunities to create new products based on their knowledge, produce them, and profit from their efforts. It is not offered to them the same opportunities of training, knowledge, and working as men worldwide, as it is shown by the available data on women contribution to the work force in many countries.

Also, related to that is the lack of women’s representation as inventors in patents. Its correlation to the innovation production points out that women are not innovating in the same degree as men. Or they do not know the intellectual property system as well as they do.

In addition, the same contribution women provide as inventors is identified as founders of startups, companies that as mostly based in technological breakthroughs. Therefore, these data evidenced that much has to be done to bridge the gender gap and that it must focus on several critical issues such as education, family aid, and policies to instigate women to achieve their place in the innovative world. They also provide evidence that promoting information dissemination about intellectual property related to the knowledge of women in their environments is an efficient mechanism to provide gender equity and equal collaboration in a country’s economic and social development.

If women were so encouraged to value their knowledge and protect them as men are, much of the wasted intellectual abilities could be well used to provide direct development, as we can see by considering the relation between patent application by women and their ability to be part of startups, a very risky business, that needs courage and knowledge to be fostered and that can be the driving force to a fast economic development, especially in developing countries.

Data also show that many have improved in the last years, despite the COVID-19 pandemic effect, and women are getting more access to higher education and, therefore, have found working positions similar to men in many places. Women’s qualification is thought to be improving which, in addition, may indicate that the path toward equity is being created over secure and consistent strategies of providing as quality education as support to families, in order to promote their effective participation in the labor market in a sustainable way.

It may be too soon to say that the world is coming to equity, and it is still far from the goal to be achieved by 2030, but the intellectual property has proven to be an important driving force to promote education, training, and opportunities for women to be as active as men in the labor market and to incentive women to this endeavor and to be a good indicator to follow the evolvement of such endeavor.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.