FemTech, short for female technology, is a rapidly growing industry that’s designed to improve the health and well-being of women all over the world. These businesses focus on creating female-centric products across several categories, including:

• Birth control
• Pregnancy
• Post-pregnancy
• Breastfeeding
• Menstruation
• Reproductive health
• Sexual health

… and more. Products in this space are created to meet a need that's been ignored for far too long. Think wearable pumps like Elvie, apps like Clue and marketplaces like Hims&Hers — they exist to solve a problem.

As a part of this industry, I know the struggle that it takes to get here. Companies and products that are designed to help women are growing by the day, but it wasn’t always like this. Everything was stacked against female inventors, and when it comes to protecting our intellectual property, it still is. 

Getting your product or idea patented is incredibly important for so many reasons — it protects your ability to do business and helps to stop competitors from infringing on your design. Obtaining a patent is a lengthy and expensive process, but it is one that so many people go through to gain legal exclusivity over their creations.

The problem is the extreme disparity between women-held and men-held patents. All published data states that women hold an extremely small share of patents, which is confirmed by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) in their Gender Patenting Gap publication:

According to a report done in 2019 by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the all-female invented patents made up only 4% of ALL issued patents. When it comes to gender-mixed teams, or patents that involve at least one female inventor, the percentage is still staggeringly low at only 22%. 

While the USPTO states that they will continue to review this and seek answers, the Institute claims that at the current rate of progress, gender patent equity is more than 75 years away.