A study published by the UK's Intellectual Property Office has explored gender profiles in worldwide patenting, finding that the overwhelming majority of patents are filed by men. Over the past decade, things have started to change, though progress is slow. Last year, female inventors were only associated with 13.07 percent of all global patent applications.

In the United States and the United Kingdom, the proportion of female inventors in patent applications stood at 10.04 and 9.44 percent in the period between 1998 and 2017. Some countries do boast a far higher female share, however, particularly in Africa. The study found that Togo had the highest proportion of female involvement at 57.14 prercent, ahead of Uganda's 44.55 percent.