Gender, Creativity, and Intellectual Property Law in the Global Fashion Industry: Bridging The Leadership Gap

Itanyi, Nkem (2026) Gender, Creativity, and Intellectual Property Law in the Global Fashion Industry: Bridging The Leadership Gap. In: Women’s Human Rights in Nigeria: Law, Theory, and Practice: A Festschrift for Professor Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, SAN, OON. UNN Press. (In Press)

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Abstract

The fashion industry is projected to be the highest-earning industry by 2030, far ahead of the technology and oil and gas sectors. Throughout human history, fashion has stood as a way of life, and the economy it represents continues to develop various tools to spur its advancement. Today, fashion has transcended history and is now driven by gender, environmental, cultural, and religious notions. At the forefront of factors driving trends in the industry is the female gender. Interestingly, however, the industry does not reflect a balanced distribution of management roles between men and women. The background of this paper is anchored in the unprecedented growth of the fashion industry today, which has been spurred by fashion designs that mimic female lifestyles and creativity. This paper posits that there is a dearth in the number of females managing the fashion industry. The background of this paper is also based on the notion that Intellectual Property (IP) rights arise from the wealth of creativity and innovation in the fashion industry and that, to fully explore the benefits of IP, one must ensure equal representation of women to ultimately spur creativity. This paper analyses the problems of inequality in the industry and explores how this imbalance affects the growth of the industry and its maximisation of IP benefits. The paper explores diverse IP rights that could be utilised to enhance the fashion industry and highlights women who are changing it through their fashion brands and IP. This paper aims to enable readers to appreciate, on the one hand, the need for the inculcation of females in the management of fashion brands and, on the other hand, how this translates into a better exploration of IP benefits. The paper offers recommendations to achieve this goal and is followed by a conclusion.

Item Type:	Book Section
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Law
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	23 Feb 2026 12:30
Last Modified:	23 Feb 2026 12:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/102011
DOI:

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