3 Ideas You Can Start at Home to Boost Creativity
When it Comes to Driving Innovations that Will Solve the World’s Toughest Challenges, Closing the STEM Gender Gap is More Relevant—and Urgent than You May Think.
Image credits: Gualtiero Boffi via Shutterstock.
May is National Inventors Month, which makes it the perfect time to reflect on how we can spur creativity to drive the innovations that the world needs now.
How do we define an “inventor”? By focusing on the act of filing a patent, in 2018 a group of researchers uncovered several important findings about who becomes an inventor in America (links appear below).
Here are two that unfortunately come as no surprise:
There are large disparities in innovation rates according to socioeconomic class, race, and gender.
Being exposed to innovation increases the chances that a child will become an inventor.
In this study, Bell et al. reported that the children of people in the top 1% of income earning were 10x more likely to become inventors than children from below-median-income families. White children were 3x more likely to become inventors than black children in their dataset. And only 18% of the ~1.2 million inventors in this analysis were female. While there are efforts to narrow this gender gap,* the authors predict that at the current rate of change, it will be another 113 years from today (!) before we reach gender parity for inventors.
💡 These imbalances are compelling—and they suggest that “business as usual” is overlooking a massive reservoir of creative solutions.
Bell et al. further predicted that if girls had exposure to female inventors the way that boys encounter male inventors, then the girls would innovate 2.5x as much as they do now. That increase would close the gender innovation gap by half.
This insight brings us back to the critical importance of sharing the stories of innovators who aren’t white, male, or wealthy. I’m always on the lookout for opportunities to learn about these innovators and to pass on their experience to my audiences and colleagues. Two podcasts in my library are helping me with this right now; I’ve posted the links below, in case you’d like to enjoy some great storytelling!
I love seeing my son building and launching rockets. Through crafts, art, and play, you can help your kids embrace a maker mindset at home too!
How can you help support your kids’ ability to innovate and to invent?
Here are three ideas:
💡 Get them to solve their own problems. For real.
💡 Enlist them as collaborators in solving family problems.
💡 Encourage a maker mindset at home. You can do this with fancy and expensive equipment, like 3D printers (which are accessible at some local libraries and other public spaces), but you can do this in other ways too: crafts, art, and play.
Inventors work hard. No question. But by blending curiosity and creativity with the sheer joy of making, inventors can achieve that magic goal of loving what they do. Let’s empower as many people as possible as they pursue that sense of purpose and elation.
Additional links you might enjoy:
*I previously wrote about steps we can take to narrow the gender gap in STEM: https://www.tiffanyvora.com/blog/3-ideas-to-get-you-started-on-closing-the-stem-gender-gap
*A talk I hosted at the Cordoba Tech Week about women in biotech: https://www.tiffanyvora.com/videogallery/women-in-biotech-for-crdoba-tech-week
*Lost Women of Science podcast: https://lostwomenofscience.org/
*Cautionary Tales episode about the innovation gap: https://timharford.com/2021/05/cautionary-tales-do-not-pass-go/
*Full paper by Bell et al.: http://www.equality-of-opportunity.org/assets/documents/inventors_paper.pdf
*Summary of the research into who becomes an inventor in America: https://opportunityinsights.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/inventors_summary.pdf
About Tiffany
Dr. Tiffany Vora speaks, writes, and advises on how to harness technology to build the best possible future(s). She is an expert in biotech, health, & innovation.
For a full list of topics and ways to collaborate, visit Tiffany’s Work Together webpage.
Donate = Impact
After a 19-day voyage to Antarctica aboard The Island Sky in November 2023, Tiffany has many remarkable stories to share & a wealth of insights to catalyze a sustainable future.
You can support her ongoing journey by making a contribution through her donation page. Your support will spread positive impact around the world, empower Tiffany to protect time for impact-focused projects, and support logistical costs for pro bono events with students & nonprofits.
Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org where your purchases support local bookstores. I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.