Why Are There So Few Female Inventors?

Only a small fraction of inventors are women. Using Finnish administrative data linked to patent records, I show that educational and occupational sorting explain roughly 54% of the gender gap in patenting rates. The remaining 46% arises because women patent less than men within nearly all occupations, even after controlling for education, high school grades, and employer firm, revealing the pervasiveness of the gender differences in innovation. The career impacts of parenthood are a key mechanism: following their first childbirth, mothers’ annual patenting rates decline by roughly 65%, with signs of long-term recovery, whereas fathers’ patenting rates rise permanently by about 13%.