Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank Remarks at Global Women Innovation Network Luncheon Thank you, Congresswoman Emerson and Congresswoman Schwartz. And thanks to everyone at GlobalWIN. It’s great to be with women leaders from some of America’s most innovative companies as well as the federal government.
When it comes to decision-making in the boardroom, on Capitol Hill, or anywhere else, the best decisions get made when there is more diversity of perspectives and opinions at the table.
All of you prove that to be true every day, both in the workplace and by being involved in organizations like this.
Innovation is one of the key issues for anyone who is concerned about long-term American competitiveness. That’s certainly true for all of us at the Commerce Department and throughout the administration.
In fact, in January, we compiled a report about the competitiveness and innovative capacity of the entire U.S. economy.
In it, we discussed a number of what we called “alarm bells”: I realize we are facing large government deficits—I’m an economist and strongly believe we need to worry about that. But, the fact is, smart investments now will only help our long-term budget situation as well.
First, we should invest more federal dollars in basic research.
Basic R&D is an area that is under-provided in the private sector. Every major developed country recognizes the need to put public dollars into R&D.
In the U.S., the federal government has played a crucial role in developing key innovations in the 20th century. The Internet, satellite communications, semi-conductors and other job-generating advances would not have been possible without the wise investment of taxpayer dollars.
Unfortunately, since 1980, federal funding for basic research has dropped from 70 percent of all basic research funding to just 57 percent.
To reverse that trend, the President has set of goal of doubling federal funding for basic research and development by 2016.
In the 2011 and 2012 budgets, and in the proposed 2013 budget, there are substantial increases in funding for NSF, for Department of Energy labs, and for the National Institute of Standards and Technology at the Department of Commerce. These all support important core scientific research.
The fact is, governments around the world are increasing their public support at universities and research institutions. So must we.
Second—and to build on our R&D support—we must support the transfer of new technologies to help increase our productivity, especially in areas such as manufacturing.
Production and innovation are inextricably linked. Innovation is an iterative process, where ideas are tested in production, and those lessons feed back into new innovation.
Manufacturing companies in the United States account for 70 percent of private sector R&D and employ the majority of domestic scientists and engineers. Manufacturing R&D is also the dominant source of innovative technologies that are adopted into the service sector.
The government has played an active role in this space. For instance, for nearly 25 Years, our Manufacturing Extension Partnership—MEP—has funded centers around the country that consult with private sector companies facing technological problems. MEP puts them in touch with scientists and engineers who can help solve those problems.
The Advanced Manufacturing Partnership launched last summer and co-chaired by Susan Hockfield of MIT, is another important model to help advance tech transfer. This public-private partnership uses the convening power of the government to bring together top research universities with top U.S. manufacturers.
Third, we need to ensure that America’s intellectual property protection system remains strong.
Patents are a critical tool to help commercialize game-changing ideas. They’re the fuel for innovation.
The Department of Commerce recently released a report on the role of IP in the economy. It shows that nearly 35 percent of our GDP—more than $5 trillion—comes from what we call “IP-intensive industries.” These industries support about 40 million jobs.
The report also made clear that IP protections have a ripple effect in the market.
For example, a newly-patented technology in computer manufacturing could increase the demand for products in related industries, such as semiconductors.
For all these reasons, the landmark America Invents Act—signed into law last year by President Obama—is critically important. This new law is playing a crucial role in helping us build a 21st century IP system.
A globally competitive economy requires a globally competitive workforce. There are many important policy issues related to providing effective education and skill training to all of our children, but I want to focus on the need to increase the number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates – the so-called STEM fields.
As you know, these fields produce many of the inventors and leaders who bring new ideas from the lab to the marketplace. We need these people now more than ever.
One reason we have so few STEM workers is because women are seriously underrepresented in these fields. Women make up nearly half of America’s labor force – but less than one-fourth of our STEM workforce.
That has remained fairly constant even though more women than men now attend and graduate college.
As long as more than half of our population can’t find a path to science-related fields of study, we will have inadequate numbers of STEM graduates overall.
The good news is that women experience what we call a “STEM premium.” Women in STEM jobs earn 22 percent more than women in non-STEM jobs. For men, that jump is only 13 percent.
Because of this, there is a smaller disparity in pay between men and women in STEM fields than elsewhere. This should, in theory, help attract more women to these jobs.
For some young women, this promise of a better, more financially secure life could play a powerful role in their career choice.
So why do so few women enter STEM fields? That’s a difficult question with many possible answers.
Some of it is lack of information and lack of role models or lack of mentors. I myself never met a woman with a Ph.D. in economics until I was a Ph.D. student at MIT.
We need to make sure that women who hold science and technical degrees—including those who work in companies like yours—are visible to young girls, so that they can envision themselves in these careers.
And, from the federal government’s perspective, we need to implement programs and policies that allow girls to ask questions and explore these exciting fields first-hand.
Thankfully, we have a president who gets it.
But we can’t do it alone. I strongly believe that everyone here can help us find answers to the questions that still remain.
Thank you for being so committed to issues of innovation and competitiveness. And thank you for working closely with this administration as we move forward together.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce
