The main focus of the paper is innovativeness and creativity in gender perspective. The question asked is about the relation between gender, research and innovation. The paper is based on the data from European Patent Office (EPO) for years 1999-2013 concerning creative activities by women and men in business sector. For the purpose of the analysis, leading countries have been selected in terms of patent activities, which were then divided into two groups –10 leading countries from the EU, and three leading countries from the transition economies. The main objective of the paper is to compare the dynamics of three variables: R&D expenditures, number of women and men employed as R&D personnel or researchers in business enterprise sector, number of women and men recognized in EPO database as inventors of patents that are employed in business sector.