• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Zorina Khan

Professor of Economics, Bowdoin College

  • Home
  • Research Publications
  • Blog: Life on the Margin
  • Of Patents and Prizes
  • Podcasts
  • A Few of my Favourite Things

diversity

Old School? Apprenticeships in the 21st Century

April 6, 2022 By Zorina Khan

The word apprentice conjures up visions of sorcerers and medieval guilds (and, in my case, my great-grandmother who learned the goldsmith’s trade through a family apprenticeship).  However, “new collar” apprenticeships seem destined to become the most effective means of  human-capital acquisition for the twenty first century, as they have been for millenia.

Share this...
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest

Filed Under: Economics of/for The Common Good, Life on the Margin Tagged With: diversity, economics, technology, women

In Search of Hetty Green: Self-Made Women Millionaires

March 12, 2022 By Zorina Khan

In 1887, the Los Angeles Times declared, “This is an age not only of millionaires, but of millionairesses as well.” Wealthy women “worth their weight in gold” have existed from the beginning of American history, but these entrepreneurs have often remained invisible to scholarship and to financial history.

Share this...
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest

Filed Under: Life on the Margin, Women in the Republic of Enterprise Tagged With: diversity, finance, gender, women

Banking on Women

March 2, 2022 By Zorina Khan

(Yet another) First Women’s Bank opened in 2021, claiming to be the “nation’s first women-founded, women-owned, and women-led bank dedicated to closing the gender equity gap in access to capital.” But it is easy to demonstrate that the current First Women’s Bank is far from first on each and all of these counts.

Share this...
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest

Filed Under: Life on the Margin, Women in the Republic of Enterprise Tagged With: diversity, economics, finance, women

Notable Women Inventors in Britain

February 14, 2022 By Zorina Khan

Fans of the history of technology can quickly name a dozen significant British inventors, but very few would be able to identify any women with noteworthy discoveries. Women who could circumvent institutional barriers tended to come from rather privileged backgrounds, or to have social connections – patent rosters featured many aristocrats, including a cotillion of countesses, baronesses, and even a duchess or two. However, studies of female patentees demonstrate that individual initiative could be just as potent as wealth, patronage, and self-promotion in generating technological innovation and social change.

Share this...
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest

Filed Under: Life on the Margin, Of Patents and Prizes, Women in the Republic of Enterprise Tagged With: diversity, gender, innovation, intellectual property, patents, technology, women

The Mystery of the Missing Minority Millionairess

October 14, 2021 By Zorina Khan

Usually reputable sources like the Guinness World Record claim that Madam C. J. Walker was the “first self-made millionairess” in the United States. However, Walker was not the first minority businesswoman who acquired enormous wealth. Numerous American Indians, Asians and black women have prospered through their own initiative and entrepreneurship, from the founding of the Republic.

Share this...
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest

Filed Under: Life on the Margin, Women in the Republic of Enterprise Tagged With: diversity, finance, gender, women

Patent Priority: the First Woman Patent Lawyer

September 14, 2021 By Zorina Khan

Who was the first American woman patent lawyer? Novelty and priority in time are central to patent law, and it is especially apt to consider the pioneers who expanded diversity in the field. For those who think they know the answer to this question, this post will be surprising. She was Edith Julia Griswold (1863-1926); […]

Share this...
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest

Filed Under: Life on the Margin, Of Patents and Prizes, Women in the Republic of Enterprise Tagged With: diversity, gender, patents

A Pioneering Black Woman Patent Attorney

September 1, 2021 By Zorina Khan

Like millions of innovative individuals, MIRIAM E. BENJAMIN (1861-1947) was active in multiple inventive markets, as the patentee of two inventions, and assignee on another.  However, an overlooked and unique contribution is that she was the first black woman who practiced as a patent attorney. Miriam E. Benjamin was born in South Carolina to a […]

Share this...
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest

Filed Under: Of Patents and Prizes, Women in the Republic of Enterprise Tagged With: diversity, intellectual property, patents, women

Women and Innovation in Developing Countries

August 2, 2021 By Zorina Khan

Round table discussion of gender, patents, open source, and technology policy in India. Participants include Zorina Khan (the moderator) and leading Indian academics, patentees, entrepreneurs, and innovators.

Share this...
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest

Filed Under: Economics of/for The Common Good, Life on the Margin, Women in the Republic of Enterprise Tagged With: diversity, gender, innovation, open source, patents, technology, women

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Old School? Apprenticeships in the 21st Century April 6, 2022
  • In Search of Hetty Green: Self-Made Women Millionaires March 12, 2022
  • Banking on Women March 2, 2022
  • Notable Women Inventors in Britain February 14, 2022
  • Notable Women Inventors of Maine February 6, 2022
  • Back to School for the “Spring” Semester (1861) January 14, 2022
  • Looking Backward: From 5G to the Telegraph December 1, 2021
  • U.S. Patents: A Play in 10 Million Acts November 21, 2021
  • Thomas Edison and the Bowdoin Inventors November 15, 2021
  • Crypt-ic Tales October 31, 2021
  • Women and Wealth in the New Gilded Age October 23, 2021
  • The Mystery of the Missing Minority Millionairess October 14, 2021
  • Travelling Light October 4, 2021
  • Patent Priority: the First Woman Patent Lawyer September 14, 2021
  • Publish and Perish September 10, 2021
  • A Pioneering Black Woman Patent Attorney September 1, 2021
  • Reading on Location August 27, 2021
  • Copyrighting the Cultural Revolution in China and America August 26, 2021
  • The (New) Cultural Revolution in China August 23, 2021
  • Who was the First U.S. Economics Professor? Samuel Newman, of Bowdoin College August 16, 2021
  • Women and Innovation in Developing Countries August 2, 2021
  • Who’s Afraid of Standard Oil? July 31, 2021
  • Are Patents Monopolies? July 28, 2021
  • Between the Covers July 27, 2021
  • An Essay in Idleness July 27, 2021
  • Patent Waivers (or “Don’t know much about history…”) July 27, 2021

Categories

  • A Few of my Favourite Things
  • Antitrustworthy
  • Economics of/for The Common Good
  • Life on the Margin
  • Of Patents and Prizes
  • Old News: Bowdoin Then and Now
  • Women in the Republic of Enterprise

Tags

antitrust Bowdoin College China constitution copyright diversity economics finance gender innovation intellectual property literary musings monopolies monopsony open source patents predatory pricing Standard Oil technology vaccines waivers women

Copyright© 2022 · research.bowdoin.edu