A lack of women and girls studying “Stem” subjects in schools and universities has led to a “gender digital divide” among inventors and software developers in developed economies, according to a new report from the OECD. 

The report — “Bridging the Digital Gender Divide” — offers the first comprehensive analysis of gender differences in patents filed in the “IP5” intellectual property offices in the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and China. It found that between 2010 and 2015, fewer than nine in 100 patents in the G20 countries were granted to inventions by women. The proportion dropped to just seven in 100 patents for information and communication technology inventions.

While the share of patents granted to women’s inventions in the G20 rose from 5.6 per cent in 1994 to 8.4 per cent in 2014, the report’s author, Mariagrazia Squicciarini, warned that at the current rate, “some gender parity in innovation will be reached only in 2080”.