A Study Finds That Prizes Named After Men Are Likely To Have Fewer Women Recipients
Women are achieving heights in whatever career paths they choose for themselves. They are also getting recognition for the same and being awarded in every field of accomplishment. However, there is a study that revealed something that’s making me ponder a lot about the statement I just made. What’s more, I would never have ever imagined that someone would want to research something so specific but I am glad that they did! A study was conducted on 9000 recipients of approximately 350 awards in the disciplines of Earth and environmental sciences and cardiology. It also included the awards that were given by the national scientific body in the UK and US. And the research revealed that women are more likely to receive awards that have not been named after a man. Yes, it will take some time to process this finding. However, the research has not been published yet.
The study was presented on May 25 in Vienna at the European Geoscience Union (EGU) general assembly. It was found in the research that for the 214 awards that were named after a man, 12% of recipients were women, however, for the 93 awards which were not named after anyone, the percentage of women winners shot up to 24. Stefan Krause, an Earth and environmental scientist at Birmingham, said that this has been a consistent trend. He was the one to present the research at the meeting. Stefan Krause also added that prizes with no name are more balanced in terms of their distribution across the genders.
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As per the scientific journal Nature, the study conducted on the 345 honours awarded for science also revealed that only 15.4% of winners were women and that females have a higher chance of receiving awards that are named after women. Women received 32% of the 12 awards named after both a man and a woman, and 47% of the 26 prizes named after a woman, according to the study. Women also win a higher percentage of awards for services to science, such as mentoring or promoting diversity, than awards for scientific findings, according to the data. Stefan Krause in his presentation also suggested that societies should think about how awards are named since awards play a major role in deciding one’s professional promotions and tenure.
I guess none of us would have ever imagined what this study has revealed. Now that it has been proven, I hope the makers should consider this, so a woman’s career is not at stake because an award was named after a man!
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