The awards covered here are not exhaustive. The emphasis has been placed on honours for journal and book contributions, lifetime awards and postgraduate or early career researcher (ECR) accolades. These awards offered the most direct link to understanding the status of women in the discipline of sociology and perceptions of excellence. An audit of recipients of these awards was undertaken using information collected from professional associations’ websites. Identifying recipients required detailed tracking of recipients in university websites and other publications. Information on awards that celebrated the contribution of women and feminist scholarship are detailed as appropriate.

The Australian Sociological Association (TASA)

The Australian Sociological Association confers various awards including those that celebrate excellence in books, articles, doctoral theses, and contributions to sociology and to the association. An audit of the Stephen Crook Memorial Prize, awarded since 2003 to the best authored book, shows that women represented 42 per cent of recipients of this prize. An important award is the TASA Prize for the best paper in the Journal of Sociology. Since its launch in 1995, 40 per cent of recipients have been women.

Women are well represented among prizes for early career scholars. They are 67 per cent of recipients of the Jean Martin Award, launched in 1980 for the best doctoral thesis in social science disciplines. The Raewyn Connell Prize, awarded biennially and celebrating the best first book in Australian sociology was launched in 2010: this award has recognised seven sociologists, four of whom are women. The Early Career Researcher - Best Paper Prize for the most distinguished peer-reviewed article published by an early career researcher has been awarded five times since its inception in 2017: four of those recipients are women.

The TASA award for outstanding service to the Association has been awarded three times since 2010, twice to women. Another important lifetime award is the prize for Distinguished Service to Australian Sociology. Since the inaugural award in 1996, women account for 55 per cent of recipients. Some of those granted this honour include Lois Bryson (1996), Cora Baldock (2000), Katy Richmond (2004) and Raewyn Connell (2007).

Figure 1. Distribution of The Australia Sociology Association awards by gender, 2020

Source: GESS researchers’ calculations, data collected from TASA website (accessed January 2021).

Canadian Sociological Association

The Canadian Sociological Association awards a variety of prizes covering books, articles and contributions to sociology and students’ contribution. Launched in 2012 the Canadian Review of Sociology ‘Best Article Award’ is for an article published in the journal. More than half of the authors honoured have been women. The John Porter Tradition of Excellence Book Award, awarded since 1983, has had fewer women recipients at 33 per cent. The Outstanding Contribution Award was set up in 1990 to honour those that have made an academic contribution to the discipline in Canada and 28 per cent of those honoured have been women.

Women are better represented among the category of students and early career academics. The Early Investigator Award, established in 2013 to acknowledge contributions of emerging economists, has 50 per cent of all award recipients listed as women. Similarly, half of all awardees for the Best Student Paper at the CSA annual conference are women.

Women also represent 43 per cent of recipients for the award for outstanding service to the Association.

Figure 2. Distribution of Canadian Sociological Association awards by gender, 2020

Source: Authors’ calculations, data collected from CSA website (accessed July 2017).

British Sociological Association

A range of awards have been established to recognise contributions to the discipline of sociology in the United Kingdom covering book, journal and lifetime contributions. The Philip Abrams Memorial Prize honours the best first and sole-authored book within the discipline. Since 1989, 53 per cent of all recipients of this honour have been women. Since 2002 book contributions to the sociology of health and illness have been recognised with an award from the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness. Over 65 per cent of all recipients have been women. Another important award is the SAGE prize for Innovation and Excellence which recognises one paper in each of the journals Sociology, Cultural Sociology; Sociological Research Online; and Work, Employment and Society. Women have received half of all SAGE prizes in total, ranging from 71 per cent of awards for the journal to 36 per cent for Cultural Sociology.

The Distinguished Service to British Sociology Award was launched in 2012 to recognise significant contributions to the discipline. Nine sociologists have been honoured with this accolade, four of whom are women.

Figure 3. Distribution of British Sociological Association awards by gender, 2020

Source: GESS researchers’ calculations, data collected from British Sociological Association (accessed January 2021).

American Sociological Association (ASA)

The American Sociological Association has overseen the launch of various awards including those covering doctoral theses, books and contributions to sociology. While women have come to represent more than half of all recipients of dissertation awards, they remain deeply under-represented in the most important accolades for research and academic contributions to the discipline.

The W.E.B. Du Bois Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award, recognises important contributions to the profession and cumulative contributions to the discipline. Since it was first launched in 1980, only 14 per cent of awardees have been women. Another important lifetime award is the Distinguished Career Award set up in 1986 to honour contributions to sociological practice: 26 per cent of all recipients of this honour have been women. The Distinguished Scholarly Book Award recognises the best single book published in the preceding two calendar years: 33 per cent of all recipients have been women authors. The Cox-Johnson-Frazier Award recognises scholarship in the field of social justice, human rights, activism and disadvantaged communities. Surprisingly, women have only been 21 per cent of recipients of this award.

The Jessie Bernard Award was launched in 1979 to recognise lifetime contributions to the inclusion of the role of women in society in the study of sociology. Only two men have won this award. Australian scholar Raewyn Connell was the 2017 recipient of the Jessie Bernard award.

Figure 4. Distribution of American Sociological Association awards by gender, 2020

Source: GESS researchers’ calculations, data collected from ASA website (accessed January 2021).