Do you deserve an award?
The Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Institute (WISELI) was developed under an NSF ADVANCE program at University of Wisconsin. It provides outstanding resources for people trying to be fair in hiring practices, to diversify their faculties, to warm up campus climate, and to assess how they are doing. One free resource on their website is a brochure about awards. Because we've discussed the issue of few awards for women, I wanted to quote a few salient parts of this brochure here.
First, why should you want an award? Some of their reasons are: for visibility, to become recognized as an authority in your field, to facilitate raises and promotions at your home institution, to become a role model for young women in science. Second, how can you prepare to be considered for an award? This is how: know what awards would be appropriate for you (research awards on the internet), think about who would be effective nominators for each of these awards and ask if these contacts would be willing to nominate you, and polish up your CV so it highlights particularly relevant achievements.
The pdf on the WISELI website is free, and you can find it in the blue sidebar at the left: the submenu Resources / Brochures / "Advancing your Career through Awards and Recognition". I encourage all of you to try this. We surely deserve more awards than we've been receiving.
A collection of CVs for women in science is really a good idea, Female Biology Professor. I would encourage every woman scientist to post her CV on her web site. But I wonder if there is a collection of CVs out there for people who are looking for departmental reviewers, to recruit specific department members, to nominate women for awards? I wrote a short article for The Scientist a couple of years ago in which I offered to help searches find a woman to consider if the chair would email me. I got about 10 emails over the next two months, and each time I was able to find them a candidate by networking with women I knew in their fields. Sounds like a service someone could set up on a continuing basis (specialty search firm?)
cheers,
Laura
I did this not too long ago (asked someone to nominate me for an award), and my friend ( a woman) was surprised at how many good papers I'd published. Made me think I'm not as "out there" as I thought. She didn't seem to mind nominating me at all. I'd say, go for it. We could all be suffering from a bit of 'draw a scientist' hidden sexism here. It would be great if we knew more about the cvs of other women. I wonder if anyplace collects CVs of women in science?
FBP
Hi Wary and Awkward,
I would suggest this. Research awards you might be a candidate for, including finding out who won last year and checking them out on the internet. If you feel you have comparable qualifications (I'm pretty sure some of you do!) then ask a friend in science to nominate you. One of my female friends asked me to do this recently, and I really enjoyed finding out more about her great research.
cheers,
Laura
Strange to nominate yourself. Is that how these things usually happen? I always wondered how that kind of thing gets started. Seems as though once you win one, then people keep thinking of you for more and more.
Okay, I read it. I always thought others should nominate me for an award if I really deserved it. Am I wrong?
