Gender and productivity in biotechnology: Evidence from mexican scientists

In the innovation literature, it is widely recognized that women face a number of gender related barriers to succeed in scientific careers. Most women seeking to become scientists need to overcome not only professional hurdles but also personal and social obstacles. Nonetheless, in the last few years women have made strides in closing the gender gap, especially in life sciences. In Mexico, biotechnology is one of the few fields where women participate in large numbers. In particular, the School of Biological Sciences of the National Polytechnic Institute (ENCB-IPN) is one of the most prestigious academic colleges in the country, where women have a long tradition of being devoted to teaching and carrying out basic research. In this paper, we seek to identify how scientific activity is driven by gender factors by analyzing the role of Mexican female scientists from ENCB in pushing the knowledge frontier. By drawing in the Espacenet patent database we can identify how women interact with their male colleagues. Empirical findings suggest that most female scientists from ENCB patent in collaboration with male scientists, whereas with only a handful of them patenting alone.