Take a Guess:
What percent of Small Innovative Business Research (SBIR) or Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) awards do you think go to women investigators across all agencies giving these awards (according to the NNWBC report, 2020)?
Correct: The National Women’s Business Council (FLC, 2020) reported that women accounted for 15% of Phase 1 SBIR proposals and about 14% of awards given out by all agencies. This has increased over the past 15 years (Liu & Parilla, 2016). The National Science Foundation experienced an even greater increase, going from 15.5% of Phase I SBIR awards for women-owned businesses in 2011 to 22.4% in 2018 (FLC, 2020).
Part of the reason for a still-low number of SBIR awards for women is a “leaky pipeline”, which sees progressively smaller numbers of women participating in science, engineering, and technology at each developmental stage from training to employment” (Martin et al., 2015). Some of the reasons for the “leak” are discussed in other articles in this section on Women Entrepreneurship.
It is actually fewer:
According to the 2020 report, around 15% of SBIR/STTR awards went to women-owned businesses, which is comparable to the percentage of applications from women-owned businesses (FLC, 2020). However, the numbers have increased since 2006:
It is actually fewer:
According to the 2020 report, around 15% of SBIR/STTR awards went to women-owned businesses, which is comparable to the percentage of applications from women-owned businesses (FLC, 2020). However, numbers have increased since 2006:
It is much fewer:
According to the 2020 report, around 15% of SBIR/STTR awards went to women-owned businesses, which is comparable to the percentage of applications from women-owned businesses (FLC, 2020). However, numbers have increased since 2006:
Sources: FLC, 2020; Liu, 2016
Quiz Sources
FLC. Report finds 15% of SBIR/STTR funds go to women-owned businesses | Federal Labs. Federal Laboratory Consortium. August 12, 2020.
Liu S & Parilla J. Is America’s Seed Fund investing in women- and minority-owned businesse? Brookings. June 4, 2016
Martin L, Wright L, Matlay H, Beaven Z. An Unusual Job for a Woman? Female Entrepreneurs in Scientific, Engineering and Technology Sectors. Int J Entrep Behav Res. May 21, 2015;21(4):539-556. doi:10.1108/IJEBR-08-2011-0095.
Evidence for Gender Disparities in Funding
- A 2018 review found women received fewer than one-third of NIH research grants (Hechtman et al., 2018).
- Women demonstrated research longevity on par with men after receiving their first NIH grants, contradicting a perception of a high attrition rate in this group (Hechtman et al., 2018).
- A report by NWBC (2020) showed an improvement in the rate of SBIR/STTR funding for women from 8% in 2006 to around 14% of awards. This rate is similar to the rate of submission of proposals by women (15%).
- Rissle et al. (2020) found that discrepancies in funding are mostly explained by discrepancies in grant submission rates. They proposed one reason for this is that fewer women focus on research as their primary work activity.
- Female surgeons received fewer NIH awards than would be expected by their representation in the field, according to a review of 2019 funding. Those who did receive awards were granted less money on average, even when controlling for academic status (Hlavinka, 2020).
- A summary of the evidence on gender inequality in grant peer reviews and the outcomes found both equality and inequality, and the evidence was inconclusive as to which predominated (Sato et al., 2020).
Sources
- FLC. Report finds 15% of SBIR/STTR funds go to women-owned businesses | Federal Labs. Federal Laboratory Consortium. August 12, 2020.
- Hechtman LA, Moore NP, Schulkey CE, et al. NIH Funding Longevity by Gender. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. July 31, 2018;115(31):7943-7948. doi:10.1073/pnas.1800615115. PMCID: PMC6077749. PMID: 30012615.
- Hlavinka E. Female Surgeons Get Less NIH Funding Than Men. Medpage Today. December 9, 2020.
- RissleR LJ, Hale KL, Joffe NR, Caruso NM. Gender Differences in Grant Submissions across Science and Engineering Fields at the NSF. Bioscience. July 29, 2020;70(9):814-820. doi:10.1093/biosci/biaa072. PMCID: PMC7498325. PMID: 32973410.
- Sato S, Gygax PM, Randall J, Schmid Mast M. The Leaky Pipeline in Research Grant Peer Review and Funding Decisions: Challenges and Future Directions. High Educ (Dordr). October 3, 2020:1-18. doi:10.1007/s10734-020-00626-y. PMCID: PMC7532736. PMID: 33041361.
Resource
Women’s Inclusion in Small Business Innovation Research & Small Business Technology Transfer Programs. NWBC Report. August 2020.
