Monday 26 July 2010

honours for women

so i recently got the email below from the ministry of women's affairs. it seems that the last honours list was pretty obviously lacking women, particularly at the top. i'm not particularly impressed with the changed honours system, which i wrote about last year here. nonetheless, there are plenty of wonderful women out there making a huge difference to their communities and their professions. so if you know of someone, feel free to encourage them. i helped someone through the process a few years ago and it was great to see her successfully awarded.


The Ministry of Women’s Affairs is seeking your assistance to identify and nominate women for the 2011 New Year Honours List.

In the 2010 Queen’s Birthday Honours List, only 31 percent of the 172 recipients were women (53 women). It is important that worthy women are brought to the attention of the Appointments and Honours Committee who decide on the list, and so we are asking for your assistance.

How you can help If you know of a woman deserving of an Honour, please submit a nomination form identifying her to the Honours Secretariat. You can find everything you need to know about the nominating process here.

From the Honours Secretariat website: “It is important that you provide as much information as possible about your nominee and the reasons for which recognition is sought. You should state how your nominee has contributed to the community and explain how they have made a difference to their community or field of work, whether they have demonstrated innovation or entrepreneurship, improved the lives of others, or exemplified selfless voluntary service.”

It is important that you, or someone even closer to the nominee, fills out the nomination form. The Ministry of Women’s Affairs can only provide publicly available information at best, which does not always give a complete enough picture of the nominee to be awarded an Honour.

The closing date for nominations for the 2011 New Year Honours List is 1 August 2010. We realise this deadline is not far away, but applications submitted after this date will be considered for the 2011 Queen’s Birthday Honours List. More information on Women on Boards is on our website.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about our own Anne Else for her fearless services to and advocacy for woman of all ages, sizes and classes?

Anonymous said...

I'd second that....

Boganette said...

I'd third it!

stargazer said...

me too. what it will take is for someone who knows anne to nominate her (with her consent), and then there's a bit of work involved in getting the references etc required. unfortunately i don't personally know anne, though admire her work, but if anyone else does then best to discuss it with her.

Anonymous said...

It may be a good idea to first check the Honours website to see if Anne has received an Honour.

If she hasn't, then you don't need to seek the person's permission to nominate them. In fact, the website suggests that the nominee shouldn't know about the fact they're being nominated - though I expect in many cases they do!

Julie said...

I believe the wonderful Anne does already have an MNZM at least :-) Not to say she shouldn't be honoured further!

Thanks for this info Anjum, I have been thinking for years about trying to nominate a woman of my acquaintance for an honour and now I might actually do it.