What accounts for the common perception that women have contributed little to advances in entrepreneurship and innovation in Britain during the early industrial era? This paper empirically examines the role of gender diversity in inventive activity during the first and second industrial revolutions. The analysis of systematic data on patents and unpatentable innovations uniquely enables an evaluation of women's creativity within both the market and nonmarket sectors. British women inventors were significantly more likely than men to focus on unpatentable innovations in consumer final goods and design-oriented products that spanned art and technology, and on uncommercialized improvements within the household. Conventional approaches that fail to account for nonmarket activity and for such incremental changes in consumer goods and design innovations therefore significantly underestimate women's contributions to household welfare and overall economic progress.

中文翻译：

---

“她发明的新方法”：1800-1930 年英国的女性发明家和技术创新

为什么人们普遍认为，在工业时代早期，女性对英国创业和创新的进步贡献甚少？本文实证研究了第一次和第二次工业革命期间性别多样性在发明活动中的作用。对专利和非专利创新的系统数据的分析能够独特地评估女性在市场和非市场领域的创造力。英国女性发明家比男性发明家更有可能关注消费品最终产品和跨越艺术和技术的设计导向型产品的非专利创新，以及家庭内非商业化的改进。因此，传统方法未能考虑非市场活动以及消费品和设计创新的这种渐进变化，因此大大低估了妇女对家庭福利和总体经济进步的贡献。