Project description

The proportion of female employees in the field of medical research has been increasing for years. Nevertheless, prizes and awards in this field are given to women with below-average frequency. This disproportion is of crucial relevance, since prizes and awards - along with citation-based evaluation indices, third-party funding and leadership responsibility - are regarded as central indicators of professional achievements in research and have a significant impact on the further course of a professional career. Awards contribute to the recipient's visibility in the scientific community as well as in the public perception and for external funders. Recent studies suggest that it is not (only) the quantity of scientific awards that hinders the visibility of women in the recognition cultures of medicine, but especially the discrimination in the awarding of prestigious and career-enhancing prizes.

The aim of this project is to find out to what extent a "gender award gap" (analogous to already known phenomena such as the gender pay gap or the gender citation gap) is present in recognition cultures of medicine in Germany. Furthermore, strategies to increase the visibility of women in scientific recognition processes in medicine will be developed.

Analysis of a possible gender award gap (work packages [WP] 1 and 2).

• Quantitative analysis of all medical societies' awards (n=685) in Germany for the period 2000-2020. Survey of the gender proportion with regard to different award types (honors, competitive awards, young scientists' awards/scholarships, "women's awards") (WP 1)
• Qualitative analysis of the award cultures of selected medical societies with a) above-average or b) below-average proportion of female awardees among prestigious awards (WP 1)
• Survey of members of medical societies via online questionnaire on their perception of award procedures (WP 2)
• Semi-structured individual interviews with key players on the topic of award procedures (WP 2)

Strategies for increasing the visibility of women in medical recognition cultures (WP 3) (planned)

• Dissemination of project results via own website and own Twitter account
• Conception of a workshop "How do I get an award?" for female scientists as an advanced training offer at the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf
• Creation of a handout for mentors on the formulation of nominations and letters of recommendation for women scientists
• Creation of a handout for medical societies to support equal-opportunity awarding processes for female and male aspirants

Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Funding code 01FP21089)