Mary K. Bonsteel Tachau Gender Equity Award

Mary K. Bonsteel Tachau Gender Equity Award

Nomination Form I Criteria (Word) I Past Tachau Award Recipients

Nominations are invited for the Mary K. Bonsteel Tachau Gender Equity Award which will be presented to a member of the UofL community--broadly defined to include all of those, past and present, who have some affiliation with the University of Louisville -- whose work has directly furthered gender equity. The prestigious award will be announced by the UofL Women’s Center and the UofL Commission on the Status of Women, at the Women’s Center virtual Empowerment Program March 21, 2023.Examples of projects consistent with the scope of the Women’s Center, the Commission, and the focus on women’s rights which characterized Dr. Tachau’s life include, but are not limited to:  

Work that promotes women’s equality and gender equity by:  

  • creating institutional and/or structural change (for example, to ensure pay equity or to monitor affirmative action goals with respect to gender);  
  • performing institutional work to address an issue of particular concern to women (such as violence against women on campus or in the community; the availability of scholarship funds for women; or the status of women athletes at the university);  
  • using one’s own position within the institution to work strategically on behalf of other women (for example, by establishing an organized mentoring program; or working to ensure that women move into organizational positions of decision-making authority) 

Work that increases women’s self-reliance by: 

  • expanding educational opportunity for women (for example, recruiting women students for traditionally male dominated professions & supporting their continued professional development in those professions; or working to ensure adequate funding for, and appropriate financial support of traditionally female occupations such as nursing, education, and social work); 
  • addressing women’s ongoing professional development (such as creating scholarships and/or professional internships for women in order to address ongoing professional development issues) 
  • documenting the negative effects of gender on women’s career paths and/or creating programs which address the barriers created by gender  

Work that highlights women’s contributions to all cultures and societies by:  

  • work in the arts which opens new paths of gender equity for women artists or which explicitly addresses “art as a vehicle for social change” 
  • work which particularly recognizes diversity (by race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, socio-economic class, religion, or country of origin, etc.) in the women’s movement 
  • exceptional accomplishments of women who are historically “firsts” in some area of their lives (first woman provost, CEO, mayor, etc.) 

Nomination Procedure 

Nominations are welcome from any person familiar with the nominee’s achievements.  

To nominate someone, please submit: 

  1. The nomination form: https://forms.office.com/r/SSZWgyp6hf
  2. A brief letter explaining the nominee’s connection to the University of Louisville and work on behalf of gender equity.  Letters of nomination will normally be 500-1000 words in length. 

Nomination Deadline is Friday, February 17th, 2023 by 5:00 p.m. 

The Mary K Tachau Gender Equity Award is intended to honor the memory of Dr. Mary K. Tachau, “a women’s rights activist, nationally recognized constitutional historian and member of the [UofL] history department [who] became the first female chair of the [UofL] history department, and the [UofL] faculty senate.” Dr. Tachau’s other university service included membership on the Steering Committee on Women's Studies, and the Affirmative Action Committee. She received the Distinguished Teaching Award in 1988. Dr. Tachau’s papers are housed in the Women's History Collection at the University Archives as part of the Women’s Manuscripts Collection Project.   

The Women’s Center expects that the recipient will be available to be recognized for their award during the Empowerment Program on Tuesday, March 27, 2024.  

Additional questions may be addressed to: Committee Chair, Emily Spoden, Emily.spoden@louisville.edu, Commission on the Status of Women. 

Sponsored by the Commission on the Status of Women.