Females and felines in intellectual property law

On this day 98 years ago the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 was passed, officially deeming women to be “persons”. Previously, this omission disqualified women from entering the professions, including law. [Kats have always been allowed]. This anniversary provides an opportunity for some feminist feline musing and a timely introduction to the World IP Women (WIPW) global network. 

The gender conversation is by no means new to IPKat - see AmeriKat's post here. But, as Mary Beard stated in her Manifesto: Women & Power, there remain both reasons to be angry as well as reasons to celebrate. For example, here you can watch Baroness Hale talking of her achievements and the role of women in the legal profession. However, whilst gender equality is slowly improving, it continues to be a “grave injustice”, as so described by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in her seminal essay, We Should All Be Feminists.

Reading gender disparity statistics like... 

Wangari Maathai famously stated that: “The higher you go, the fewer women there are,” and the legal profession is no exception. According to the UK Solicitors Regulation Authority, women make up just 33% of partners in small or medium sized law firms, and larger firms have even fewer, with 27% female partners. In the UK legal profession, the gender pay gap is estimated at 30%, compared with a UK-wide average of 19%.

Intellectual property law is, sadly, recognised as particularly poor in gender diversity. In an interview with Inside Council, Felicia Boyd (Partner and firm-wide co-chair of the Intellectual Property group at Barnes & Thornburg) suggested that one reason for fewer women in IP, was that less women pursed degrees in science and technical fields. Whilst this rather academic Kat does not doubt that education is the answer to almost everything, it is worth noting that women far outnumber men in 112 of 180 degree subjects. For example, this year 135,940 (18 year old) women were placed for an undergraduate degree, compared to 105,150 (18 year old) men.

Adichie suggested that whilst things have started to improve, due to policy and law, what matters even more is our attitude, our mind set. Building on this, Shirley Chisholm maintained “the law cannot do it for us. We must do it for ourselves. Women in this country [everywhere] must be revolutionaries.”

In the spirit of this day of celebrating the achievements in the progression towards gender equality, whilst also recognising that there is still some way to go, this Kat wanted to share with you her recent gender agenda. She has created a free global network for women working in intellectual property law; World IP Women (WIPW).

The key objectives of WIPW are to:

(1) Increase the visibility of women who work in IP by creating and publishing an open-access directory of women working in IP. The database will enable people to search by name, location, or field of expertise.

(2) To promote gender equality and grow the global network of women who work in IP by connecting women with their local IP communities, and connecting those communities in a global network.

LJ Sumption once cautiously suggested that we not rush into gender equality, a statement not well received and, frankly, ignored. This Kat submits that in order to achieve gender equality, we do not need time, we need conviction. Gathering together, supporting each other and making Women in IP more visible will no doubt encourage more women to join the IP community.

So, I invite any fellow female felines to become a member of WIPW by simply filling in the information you want to appear on the directory, and joining the community group on Linkedin.

Wishing you all a joyful winter break! 

photo: cuatrok77