Abstract

Chile holds position 47th in The Global Gender Gap Index 2022 ranking. Female participation in the labor force is on average 40%. There is an overrepresentation in care and educational tasks and an underrepresentation in STEM areas. Particularly in universities, their access to the highest levels of the academic career is limited and in the best case is around 30%. Regarding TTOs that most of the country's universities have, the situation is different. These divisions consider a high female presence (54%) and a high participation in leadership or decision-making positions (61%), according to the 2020 report from RedGT, Red de Gestores Tenológicos de Chile. This could be explained by various reasons, some of which are related to having the possibility of developing the activities in flexible hours, more compatible with family life. These positions also allow high autonomy and experience is highly valued, so maternity leave does not seriously affect job performance. On the other hand, women express their genuine interest in collaboratively leading the transfer of knowledge that contributes to improving the economic and social conditions of people. Interestingly, when we compare both genders, women have better academic preparation, as measured by postgraduate degrees and training in specific topics in the area, as well as more experience in R&D. In 2022, the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge, and Innovation launched the first gender policy for Chile that seeks to encourage the participation of women in R&D, innovation and entrepreneur. It is our hope that this policy will provide new opportunities into concrete actions in Chilean academic institutions that can be taken to ensure systemic changes that foster greater engagement of academic women in all stages of the innovation lifecycle.