Women in Creative Labor: Inventors, Entrepreneurs and Academics

This article provides an overview of the latest empirical research on the gender gap in knowledge-intensive occupations from an economics perspective. It studies contributing factors both from an institutional and behavioral perspective, and considers potential solutions. The persisting gender gap is not only an issue of social fairness; it also hampers innovation and has direct negative implications for individual productivity as well as economic growth. The overview of the existing gender literature, as well as our own research, emphasize that it is imperative to fight the gender gap with well-tailored policies and to support gender equality at the institutional and personal level.