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Sy-Stem-Ic Bias: An Exploration Of Gender And Race Representation On University Patents, Jordana R. Goodman

Brooklyn Law Review

People of color and women are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields in the United States. Through both intentional and unintentional structural barriers, universities continue to lose valuable intellectual resources by perpetuating a lack of gender, racial, and ethnic diversity as people climb the academic ladder. Identifying racial and gender disparities between university campus populations and their patent representation quantifies the qualitatively observed systemic racism and sexism plaguing STEM. Without data quantifying the underrepresentation of women and people of color, specifically when protecting their intellectual property rights, universities cannot show that their programs designed to close these …