Race and gender inequity in awards and recognition

Study of the Lasker Awards illustrates deep and persistent problems in academiaWhat stands as evidence of discrimination or bias, particularly when it comes to complex decisions that are inherently multifactorial and largely subjective, such as who gets certain high profile awards? In a linked study (doi:10.1136/bmj-2023-074968), Jacobs and colleagues examined inequities in the gender and ethnic group of Lasker Award winners from 1946 to 2022 and found that only 8% (31/397) of awardees were women and 4% (17/397) were from non-white minority groups (categorised as racialised in the study). Over the past 77 years, the Lasker Award—sometimes referred to as America’s Nobels because 95 of 397 Lasker laureates also received a Nobel prize—was given to only one non-white woman. The authors also found that the proportion of women among awardees did not improve significantly between the first and the last decade (15.6% in 2013-22 v 12.9% in 1946-55).1These findings are shockingly consistent with previous reports on other high profile scientific awards such as Nobel prizes.234 Like most