Women's empowerment and participation in innovation: Evidence from the one-child policy in China

IF 8 1区管理学 Q1 MANAGEMENT

Research Policy Pub Date : 2025-09-25 DOI:10.1016/j.respol.2025.105334

Zhijie Zhang , Qingqing Zong

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Women have historically been underrepresented in technological innovation activities, leading to a substantial underutilisation of human resources. This study examines the impact of family-level women's empowerment on their participation in innovation using China's one-child policy and patent data from 2009 to 2021. The findings indicate that strengthening women's empowerment can effectively enhance their participation in innovation by increasing human capital, reducing domestic responsibilities, reinforcing gender equality awareness, and increasing the likelihood of remaining unmarried. Furthermore, the heterogeneity analysis of enterprise characteristics and regional factors reveals that the positive impact of women's empowerment on participation in innovation is more pronounced in enterprises with a higher proportion of female directors, lower market uncertainty, and weaker competition. The effect is also more significant in regions with weaker fertility culture, son preference, and gender identity norms. This study contributes to eliminate occupational gender segregation and fully use women's intellectual resources to promote innovation.

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妇女赋权与参与创新：来自中国独生子女政策的证据

妇女历来在技术创新活动中的代表性不足，导致人力资源的利用严重不足。本研究利用2009年至2021年中国的独生子女政策和专利数据，考察了家庭层面的女性赋权对她们参与创新的影响。研究结果表明，加强女性赋权可以通过增加人力资本、减少家庭责任、增强性别平等意识和增加未婚可能性等方式有效提高女性对创新的参与。此外，对企业特征和区域因素的异质性分析表明，在女性董事比例较高、市场不确定性较低、竞争较弱的企业中，女性赋权对创新参与的积极影响更为明显。在生育文化、重男轻女和性别认同规范较弱的地区，这种影响也更为显著。本研究有助于消除职业性别隔离，充分利用女性智力资源促进创新。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Research Policy MANAGEMENT-

CiteScore

12.80

自引率

6.90%

发文量

182

期刊介绍： Research Policy (RP) articles explore the interaction between innovation, technology, or research, and economic, social, political, and organizational processes, both empirically and theoretically. All RP papers are expected to provide insights with implications for policy or management. Research Policy (RP) is a multidisciplinary journal focused on analyzing, understanding, and effectively addressing the challenges posed by innovation, technology, R&D, and science. This includes activities related to knowledge creation, diffusion, acquisition, and exploitation in the form of new or improved products, processes, or services, across economic, policy, management, organizational, and environmental dimensions.