Cisco Boosts Female Inventors Through Mentorship Program
Cisco launched the WIN++ mentorship program, pairing experienced inventors with first-time applicants. The program has led to an increase in women's representation in patent filings.
Networking company Cisco has successfully increased the representation of women inventors in its patent filings through its WIN++ mentorship program. Launched in 2020, the initiative pairs small teams of first-time inventors with experienced mentors.
Nearly 700 employees across 20 countries have participated in the program, supported by 119 volunteer mentors. Cisco's review of its patent process identified that senior employees' ideas yielded better results. The company analyzed 23,000 internal invention submissions from the prior decade before designing the program.
The analysis revealed that submissions involving an experienced inventor were twice as likely to succeed compared to those with only first-time applicants. Since the program's inception, the number of women inventors on Cisco's original U.S. patent filings has risen over 30 percent. The share of approved submissions with at least one woman inventor has jumped 67 percent.
Cisco's leadership noted that the program opened access to processes that had traditionally been unclear. Experienced mentors guided new inventors in avoiding common pitfalls that often stall first-time applicants. Research indicates that mentorship generally leads to improved career outcomes, attitude, and motivation.