Women Nobel Prize Winners – Women Who Won Nobel Prize

There is no other prize in the intellectual realm replicating the prestige of the Nobel Prizes. In 1901, the first-ever Nobel Prizes begin. Between the years 1901 and 2020, the Nobel Prizes and the Prize in Economic Sciences has been awarded 603 times to 962 people and organizations. In the first year, no women won with this great award. As of 2020, only 57 women won the Nobel Prize, and a total of 58 Nobel Prizes are presented to women. About one in every 20 years!

The First Female Nobel Prize Winner – Madame Marie Curie

The first-ever woman Nobel Prize winner was Marie Curie, who won the prize in Physics in 1903.

‘Madame’ Marie Curie was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist, who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She is also the only woman who has won it twice. She won once in physics (1903) and once in chemistry (1911). Adding more to her pockets, her daughter Irène Joliot-Curie won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935. This made the two the ‘only mother-daughter pair’ to have won Nobel Prizes.

Why Are There So Few Women Nobel Prize Winners?

In the history there have been very less women Nobel Prize winners when compared to men. Göran Hansson, Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Nobel Foundation said, “We are very proud of the laureates who were awarded the prize this year. But we are disappointed looking at the larger perspective that more women have not been awarded. Part of it is that we go back in time to identify discoveries. We have to wait until they have been verified and validated before we can award the prize. There was an even larger bias against women then. There were far fewer women scientists if you go back 20 or 30 years.”

He also added, “If you look at the Nobel Prize committees, there are women chairing three of the six committees. There are female scientists on all the committees. So, I don’t think there is any substantial, er, male chauvinist bias in the committees.” to his justification.

However, 2009 was memorable because most women won Nobel Prizes in that year. This year five women became laureates in four different categories. These women Nobel Prize winners certainly opened up the path for many others who are to come after them.

Women Who Won Nobel Prize

There are few women Nobel Prize winners but they have done extraordinary work in their respective fields. We have listed down the names of these women and their achievements.

Women today and in history have been part of outstanding breakthroughs. They reshaped the landscape of science, only a few get to hold the Nobel Prize. Whether conscious or unconscious, biases affect the prospect of women getting recognition for their skills and hard work. There are various ways and steps that can improve this situation. Like in the UK, they select a candidate from an under-represented group. Hopefully, we will see more women Nobel Prize winners in the future.