The SWIPE Mentor Award pays tribute to women and men who have invested in the professional success of women in the IPE field. Originating in the early 1990s, the Society for Women in International Political Economy (SWIPE) observed that many women in IPE did not have the close mentoring relationships that their male counterparts seemed to benefit from. Indeed, while research across disciplines has shown that mentoring can be key to higher publication rates and successfully achieving tenure, women tend to get less mentoring than men.
Therefore, to recognize excellent mentoring in their field, members created the SWIPE Mentor Award, presenting the first award to Robert Keohane in 1997. Recipients have included scholars, an academic press editor, and deans. In 2009, with the view that many of its original goals had been reached and that other organizations were addressing its concerns, SWIPE disbanded. The award is now administered by the International Political Economy Section (IPE).