New UMass Amherst Study Examines Gendered and Racial Inequality in Academic Entrepreneurship and its Impact on Innovation

As policymakers search for solutions to the problem of inequality in innovation, a new study by a pair of researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst examines the role academic inequalities play in gender and innovation, and the implications these inequalities have in determining who such innovations serve.

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Published in the journal Sociology Compass, the study by Ethel Mickey and Laurel Smith-Doerr summarizes research on gender and race gaps in academic entrepreneurship, examines the reasons for those longstanding inequities and discusses why these innovation gaps matter and the need to think critically about academic commercialization.

“We were invited by the editor of the journal to contribute to a special issue on innovation, and to write about the state of knowledge on gender and innovation,” says Smith-Doerr, professor of sociology at UMass Amherst and principal investigator with the UMass ADVANCE Program. “Because of our experience with UMass ADVANCE research projects on faculty equity, we have seen the importance of an intersectional approach – how we can’t separately address race and gender inequalities in science because they are inseparable. So, in this piece we wanted to call attention to the need for more research that takes an intersectional lens on innovation. To date, research has examined either gender gaps or race gaps in patenting but hasn’t considered the particular barriers women of color scientists may face in commercializing their ideas. We can’t solve inequalities unless we understand them first.”

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The study, which was funded by a National Science Foundation ADVANCE Institutional Transformation Award, draws on organizational sociology to suggest why such gender and racial gaps persist and examines the consequences of the organizational systems of innovation. The analysis concludes with a call for new research toward intersectional understanding of inequalities in innovation.

The researchers write that “improving representation in innovation would shift the very nature of knowledge production, leading to the development of inventions aimed at improving the lives of people who have been traditionally marginalized or harmed by inventions.”

“Policymakers in the U.S. advocate for closing the patenting gap by gender and race to turbocharge the economy – which is important – but it was also important for us as scholars of inequality to bring attention to the social justice effects of including women, especially women of color, in patenting,” says Mickey, a sociologist and postdoctoral research associate with the UMass ADVANCE Program. “Diversifying who is inventing means diversifying scientific priorities. Especially now, in the context of COVID-19, we know that the pandemic has had disparate effects on communities of color, so it is as urgent as ever that scientific innovation benefits everyone.” 

Mickey and Smith-Doerr say that intersectional analysis is important for studying innovation because of the material effects academic research has on the lives of women and especially women of color. White male privilege, they say, is built into the products that are being marketed or withheld as a result of academic innovation, including medicines, and the AI-powered data systems that shape opportunities from dating to work to healthcare access.

“Research shows us that who inventors are matters for who benefits from the innovations,” Smith-Doerr says. “One recent study found that when women life scientists made up the majority of teams patenting an idea, those innovations were more likely to benefit women’s health. If innovations are going to benefit everyone, we need inventors to come from all walks of life.”

The processes of racialized and gendered inequalities found in academic entrepreneurship may also apply to other parts of academic science, such as publishing, as well as other professions like law and medicine, the researchers say.

Smith-Doerr says, “Faculty play an important role in innovation and inventors are almost always part of a team rather than solo in the 21st century, so our focus on understanding and promoting equitable research collaboration among faculty is a key contribution toward equitable innovation in academic contexts.” 

The complete report, “Gender and innovation through an intersectional lens: Re-imagining academic entrepreneurship in the United States,” is available online from Sociology Compass.