International Working Women's Day, March 8th, is rooted in the social mobilization of women workers and is celebrated with various events around the world. The primary goal of these celebrations is to raise awareness about improving women's social and economic status, as gender inequality persists, though it varies across countries.

For this reason, the United Nations General Assembly and member states have included the “Gender Equality” target in the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

When we look at women's participation in the field of Intellectual and Industrial Property Rights, we encounter a similar picture of gender inequality.

According to WIPO data, there has been an increase in the patent registration rate of women in the last 10 years, and this rate varies between countries and regions.

In this change, economic performance indicators such as GDP per capita are no longer considered a criterion for explaining gender inequality. For example, middle-income countries like Brazil and Mexico have lower inequality rates than high-income countries like Canada and Denmark. Furthermore, Germany, Italy, Japan, and South Africa have the highest inequality rates.

When we consider the sector, the fields where women file more patent applications appear to be science-related. While there is a balance between the number of applications from women and men in biotechnology, chemistry, and food, very few women file patent applications in engineering-related fields.

Despite the generally positive increase in patent applications by women, it seems unlikely that we will see a balanced picture by 2070, as you can see in the graph below.