Nominations for the She Inspires Awards 2026 closed on 31st March, and as always, we ask for a couple of weeks before nominee notifications go out. It’s a question I know people sometimes wonder about, why does it take that long?
The truth is, this is the part that isn’t seen.
Because what comes in is not just a clean list of names and details. It is layered, human, imperfect, and at times, quite fascinating.
When you begin to go through thousands of nominations, you start to notice patterns. One of the most striking ones is when a single individual is nominated across eight, sometimes even ten categories. It speaks volumes about how that person is perceived, their visibility, their contribution, the many ways in which people experience their work. And in those cases, we will send notifications for each of those categories, because every nomination deserves to be acknowledged.
But we do guide nominees to choose carefully. Preferably one category, the one where their impact is strongest, and at most two. It is not our role to decide where someone’s impact lies. That belongs to them. Our role is simply to ensure that every nomination is treated with the respect it deserves, and then to step back and allow people to align themselves with what feels most true.
Alongside that, there are other patterns that emerge. The same person nominated multiple times, sometimes by the same individual, sometimes by several people, each with slightly different details. Different email addresses, different spellings, different ways of entering the same person into the system. And then there are the small details that carry big consequences, email addresses missing, replaced with “I don’t know,” typed with a space that makes them invalid, or quite simply, the nominator’s email entered instead of the nominee’s.
Even with required fields in place, people find their way around them. And while there is something almost creative in that, it does mean that we are left with entries that cannot move forward unless we intervene.
So we go back.
We look at the source of the nomination.
We reach out.
We ask for clarification.
Because without a correct email address, we cannot contact the nominee, and without that, the nomination simply sits there, unable to take its next step.
There are also moments that stop you in your tracks. This year, for instance, when we reached out to someone who had supposedly submitted a nomination, only to be told they had not nominated that person at all, in fact, they didn’t even know them. It’s rare, but it happens, and it reminds you that behind every system, there are human variables you cannot always predict.
And then there is another layer to this process, one that speaks directly to the integrity of the awards. Our judges, who are the backbone of She Inspires, are often nominated themselves. And rightly so. They are exceptional individuals, respected in their fields, and visible in their impact. It is only natural that their names come through the nomination process as well.
But this creates an important decision point.
Every time a judge is nominated, we go back to them and ask a simple but significant question, would you like to accept the nomination? Because if they do, they cannot remain on the judging panel. There can be no conflict of interest. That line has to remain clear. And what follows is always thoughtful. Some choose to step forward as nominees, allowing their work to be recognised in that way. Others choose to step back from the spotlight and remain as judges, contributing to the process instead. There is no right or wrong choice, but the choice must be given.
And so the work continues.
All of this is part of what sits behind those two to three weeks.
It would be far easier to remove incomplete entries, to ignore inconsistencies, to move quickly and keep things streamlined. But that has never been the ethos here. If someone has taken the time to nominate, if there is even a possibility that a story sits behind that entry, we feel a responsibility to at least try and give it a fair chance.
So this period, between nominations closing and notifications going out, is not a delay. It is a deliberate, careful sift through everything that has come in, making sure that what moves forward is as accurate and as fair as it can be. We are still working through it. Still deep in the data, still connecting dots, still making sense of it all. And while it is fresh, it felt important to share, because these are the unseen layers of what it takes to hold a process like this with integrity.
If you are waiting to hear, thank you for your patience. It does not go unnoticed.
And if you have nominated someone, know that your intention has landed. We see it, we honour it, and we are doing our best to carry it forward with care.
Gulnaz Brennan
