January_February_2022_AMP_Digital

HIGHL IGHTS A D V A N C E D M A T E R I A L S & P R O C E S S E S | J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 2 4 3 I ntentional efforts to boost the number of women nom- inated for ASM awards and recognitions over the past seven years have found success. Starting with the former Women in Materials Engineering (WiME) Committee in 2014 and continuing with the recently established Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Awareness (IDEA) Committee, a team of volunteer members has been encouraging and support- ing nominations of highly qualified women for ASM Inter- national awards. The effort has paid off in increasing the number of qualified applications, and thereby the number of women awardees. Prior to 2014, there were multiple years when the Soci- ety received only one or two award nominations for women. To repeat, as this point cannot be overemphasized, only one or twonominations forwomenweresubmitted insomeyears for the entire Society’s membership across all the award opportunities (Fig. 1). One of WiME’s first initiatives was to identify highly qual- ified women for ASM International awards. A consistent increase in the num- ber of award nomi- nations can be seen in 2016 and beyond, corresponding to an increase in awar- dees. This increase is a result of inten- tionally reaching out to deserving women, letting them know their contributions to the field are valued, and taking time to put forth nomi- nation packages. A similar trend can also be seen for nom- inations and selections for the distinguished recognition of ASM International Fellow (Fig. 2). The increase in number of awards, while small, is signif- icant as each individual awarded for their accomplishments is a model for others and a step toward increased recognition of the contributions of women to the pro- fession. To some in the ASM Inter- national commu- nity, an intentional effort to increase the number of nominations of women for awards may make perfect sense. Others may question why we are bothering with such a focused effort; why not let highly qualified applicants apply and allow the award review process to play out? Unfortunately, there is a strong gender bias in engi- neering fields. While the number of women graduating with engineering degrees is comparable to men, the reten- tion rate of women remaining in the engineering profes- sion drops over time. 1 Many reasons that contribute to Increasing Representation of Women Awardees Elizabeth Hoffman, FASM, Marissa Reigel, Christine Hoover, and Vicki Burt Fig. 1 — ASM International award nominations vs. selections for women applicants between 2006 and 2021. Lesley D. Frame received the Bronze Award in 2017. Beth Snipes was welcomed into the 2018 Class of Fellows. WOMEN NOMINEES