Objective: This research examines women and intellectual property (IP) commercialisation in Sri Lanka. It identifies the root causes for the under-representation of women in patenting and IP commercialisation, in general, and in both academic and business sectors, in particular. Finally, it recommends incentives and best practices to address this imbalance. Background: Sri Lanka has a population of 21 million, approximately 50.7% of whom are women.1 Compared with women in South Asian countries, Sri Lankan women have a high life expectancy (80.6 years) and high literacy rate (91.7%).2 Although both women and men in Sri Lanka generally have equal access to opportunities such as health and education, the country’s overall level of female empowerment is below that of other developing countries.3 For example, the proportion of women participating in Sri Lanka’s workforce has declined, from 41% in 2010 to 34% in 2017, which is a significantly lower proportion than for men.4 The female labour force participation rates in other Asian countries, particularly Singapore, Japan, Thailand, China and Bangladesh, remain in the range of approximately 50–65%.5 In 2017, Sri Lanka ranked 109 out of 144 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI), which places it among those countries with the largest gender gap in the labour force.6 In Sri Lanka, a large gender gap is also found in the proportion of women who are unpaid family workers, accounting for 20.4% of women compared to 3% of men.7 The estimated economically active population was about 8.5 million in the third quarter of 2017; however, from this population, only 33.4% of women contributed to the national economy.8