Nominating women in STEMM for awards

Source: Vox [1]

Awards and professional honors are important for visibility and career advancement.  We can’t win awards if we’re not nominated.  So let’s make that happen. 

By Janet G. Hering and Patricia A. Maurice

25 June 2024

2019 was an especially bad year for the recognition of women in science.  In that year, not a single women was awarded a Nobel Prize in the fields of chemistry, physics, or medicine/physiology.  This inspired an article in Vox [1], illustrated with the graphic above.  After another bad Nobel year for women in 2021, a study highlighted the low representation of women among nominees – only 13% for the physiology or medicine prize and 7% to 8% for the chemistry prize [2].  Nomination is particularly important since, once nominated, women have at least as good (if not better) odds than male nominees of being selected for Nobel prizes in chemistry or physiology or medicine [3].  Just recently, a senior female academic in hydrology reported that, in response to her query about all male medalists at two prestigious conferences in 2023, she “was told that of the hundreds of applications received, not a single woman applied” [4].    

There are also positive trends.  An all-female team won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the first time in 2020.  A very strong stand was taken in 2021, when a section of the American Geophysical Union declined to forward any of the nominees for AGU Fellow (who were all white men) to the Union level [5].  Understanding and improving the representation of women among those selected for awards and honors requires a closer look at the system and processes involved.  In the following discussion,

we use the term “awards” to refer to a one-time recognition that is granted by a professional society, foundation, or other entity and the term “honors” to refer to election to an honorary professional society, recognizing that there can be overlap between these terms.

Why awards and honors are important

Outside of a small circle of expert colleagues in our own (sub)discipline, it is unlikely that people will take the time to read through our scientific output and even less likely that they could evaluate our work on its merits.  Awards and honors are a tangible and concrete signal of an individual’s reputation in her field and of the value placed on her work by her professional colleagues; thus they can play an important role in promotion and career development.  Women often suffer from ‘imposter syndrome’ and an award can boost a woman’s self-confidence leading to even more success.  Often, awards are stepping stones to honors including election as a fellow by a professional society or as a member of an academy.  There are, however, political aspects to the granting of awards and honors that we address explicitly below.          

A very high profile award or honor such as a Nobel Prize, a MacArthur ‘genius’ award, or even a national honor such as an Order of the British Empire, a French Merit of Honor or a US Presidential Medal of Freedom is highly publicized and, when attained by women, can help to inspire young women and girls to pursue careers in STEMM. They also send a signal to society at large that women are capable of distinction in STEMM at the highest levels. Many less high-profile awards and honors are publicized on university web pages, and some picked up by local or national news media; this can also be inspirational. An award granted to a recipient from a small and/or developing country can boost national pride and even lead to more resources being devoted to universities and STEMM.

Nomination processes

The granting of awards and honors almost always starts with a nomination process.  These can vary in many respects, including who can make a nomination, whether self-nominations are allowed, whether the nominee can even be informed about the nomination, and what type of materials (which may include supporting letters) are needed for the nomination.  Whether we are potential nominators or nominees (or both), a first important step is to familiarize ourselves with the nomination processes for the awards and honors for which we would be eligible.  A good place to start this search are webpages of leading figures in our field (as role models to see what awards and honors they have received).  Relevant information may also be available through our home institutions.      

Being nominated and nominating others

A key aspect of nominations is that they can take a considerable amount of time and effort on the part of the nominator.  This is especially true when the nominee is not allowed to participate in (or even to be informed of) the nomination.  The nomination process can be made less burdensome if potential nominees invest the time to ensure that their professional information is always up to date and easily available, ideally through a page on the website of their home institution [6].  Web-accessible information should include: an up-to-date biographical sketch, short CV, and full CV as downloadable pdf files. Any name changes should be clearly noted in your CV, which should also include your ORCID persistent digital identifier [7].

We should encourage potential nominees (including ourselves) not to shy away from self-nominations.  We can speak out against the “perceived stigma of self-nominations” [8].  Even for awards that do not allow self-nominations, there is nothing wrong with reminding friendly, trusted potential nominators of relevant upcoming deadlines.    

Don’t forget about awards within your institution

While awards granted by academies and societies are more prestigious, institutional awards within one’s college, university, or research institution can impact a career and help a woman to gain clout with the colleagues with whom she works on a day-to-day basis. They can also signal to other institutions that this woman is respected by her students and colleagues and thus would likely make for a good recruit.  

Serving on an awards committee

Some committees strictly review award nominations; others play a more direct or even indirect role in soliciting nominations.  Serving on an awards committee can help ensure that women are given a fair shot and can help us to understand the nomination and evaluation process so that we can do a better job of nominating.  While such service can be burdensome, it can have a major impact. 

Inherent biases and unfairness

We have probably all been surprised at some point that colleagues whom we greatly respect have just received some specific award or honor when they would have deserved it much earlier in their careers.  There are always some arbitrary elements to recognition.  Those of us who have served on nomination or selection committees are often overwhelmed with the number of deserving candidates, of whom only one (or at best a few) can be recognized.  We may also feel that some awards and honors should do a better job at including different aspects of excellence, ethical aspects, and/or team contributions.   These are changes that we can and should advocate for within the system. 

Is it worth the effort?

There is an important role model aspect to awards and honors for women.  They demonstrate to our younger colleagues that women can reach top levels of professional achievement.  They also benefit our home institutions by signaling that women can be successful in that institutional environment and are thus worth pursuing and hiring.  In this sense, applying for or nominating women for awards and honors is “an act of community service” [4].

Awards focused on junior or mid-career individuals can play an outsized role in career development and can thus be especially worthy of our efforts. Once one award is received, at any level, that award can help lead to other awards and honors.  Thus, our initial nomination efforts can have a snowball effect.  Moreover, once a woman receives a major award, she is likely to find her opinion given more credence by male colleagues so that she can play a more authoritative role in nominations and career evaluations.  However, this can be a double-edged sword as it can lead to more requests for various types of service.

Awards and honors can help us to advance our careers by gaining equitable compensation and access to resources within our home institutions [9] or improving our positioning for a move if that is desirable.  Recognition can make us more viable candidates to lead research consortia, to contribute to important advisory boards, or to speak out on important issues.       

Concluding thoughts and questions

Certainly, too much emphasis can be put on awards and honors, especially if they are pursued as an end in themselves or simply for status.  But awards and honors are a part of the scientific enterprise and should be inclusive of women and under-represented minorities.     

Here are a few questions to stimulate further thought, discussion, and action:

·       Do you think that receiving awards and honors would be important for your career?  Why or why not?       

·       Have you ever nominated a colleague for an award or honor?  If so, what was your motivation?  

·       Have you ever nominated yourself (or participated in your nomination) for an award or honor?  If so, what was your experience? 

Notes, links, and references

[1] Francis, M.R. and Naro, M. (2019) “Why are so few Nobel Prizes awarded to women?” Vox, https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/12/10/21003187/stem-nobel-prize-sexism-women-science

[2] Langin, K. (2021) “One reason men often sweep the Nobels: few women nominees”, SCIENCEINSIDER, DOI: 10.1126/science.acx9351

[3] Mahmoudi, M., Poorman, J.A., and Silver, J.K. (2019) Representation of women among scientific Nobel Prize nominees, The Lancet, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(19)32538-3

[4] Stadnyk, T.A. (2024) “Overstaying our welcome: On the rise of women's seniority in the academy”, Hydrological Processes, 38: e15166, https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.15166

[5] Harvey, C. and E&E News (2021) “Nominees for a Science Award Were All White Men—Nobody Won”, Scientific American, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nominees-for-a-science-award-were-all-white-men-nobody-won/

[6] https://www.voicesofeawag.ch/detail/awards-and-honors-are-part-of-professional-development

[7]  https://orcid.org/

[8]  Gehmlich, K. and Krause, S. (2024) “How we name academic prizes matters” Nature Human Behaviour, 8: 190-193, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01773-9 

[9]  https://www.epistimi.org/blog/the-joys-of-being-a-senior-woman-leader