Nobel Prizes and gender diversity

[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_column_text]Nature Magazine writes:

“If a woman wins the Nobel Prize in Physics next week, she will be the first to do so in more than 50 years. Over the same period, just one woman has won in chemistry.

This gender imbalance is the subject of increasing criticism, much of which is aimed at the Nobel committees that award the honours. In the awards’ history, women have won only 3% of the science prizes (see ‘Nobel imbalance’), and the overwhelming majority have gone to scientists in Western nations. Some argue simply that the prizes tend to recognize work from an era when the representation of women and non-Western researchers in science was even lower than it is today. But studies repeatedly show that systemic biases remain in the sciences, and the slow pace of progress was especially evident in 2017, when there were no female laureates for the second year in a row.”[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_single_image image=”5148″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” qode_css_animation=””][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]Alfred Nobel laid down the basic rules that govern the prize terms in his will, and statutes based on these guide the awarding of each honour. Winners are chosen by different bodies — the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awards the prizes in chemistry, physics and economics, and the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm awards the physiology or medicine prize — which form a committee for each prize. The committees invite eminent scientists to nominate people, from which they generate a shortlist. Many nominators are dictated by the statutes, by virtue of their academic positions or membership of national academies, but a small fraction are chosen by the bodies themselves.

The organizations that award the science prizes have now begun tweaking their nomination processes to encourage gender and geographic diversity among prize nominees and, they hope, winners. But it’s unclear how soon the effects of these efforts will be felt.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”12px”][vc_column_text]Read the full article.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]