Another day, another sobering statistic about the gender gap in the workplace.

Although women have more than quintupled their representation among patent holders since 1977, only 7.7% of more than 520,000 patents were applied for by a female inventor in 2010 (the most recent year gender was tracked by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Image: Barbara S. Askins via Wikimedia Commons; Josephine G. Cochran Dishwashing Machine, US 355139 A