Women Who Changed the World: A Look at the 60 Women Nobel Prize Laureates
The Nobel Prizes are a set of prestigious awards given annually to individuals or organizations that have made significant contributions to humanity. Established by Alfred Nobel in 1895, the prizes recognize those who have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind in fields ranging from literature and peace to medicine and economics. Over the years, women have made remarkable strides in academia and research, and as of 2022, a total of 61 Nobel Prizes have been awarded to 60 women.
The number of women Nobel laureates still remains disproportionately low compared to men. The distribution of Nobel Prizes awarded to women is as follows:
- 18 women have won the Nobel Peace Prize, which is 16.3% of the 110 Nobel Peace Prizes awarded.
- 17 women have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, which is 14.28% of the 119 Nobel Literature Prizes awarded.
- 12 women have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which constitutes only 5.3% of the 225 Nobel Medicine Prizes awarded.
- 8 women have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which is only 4.1% of the 191 Nobel Chemistry Prizes awarded.
- 4 women have won the Nobel Prize in Physics, which is a mere 1.8% of the 221 Nobel Physics Prizes awarded.
- 2 women, Elinor Ostrom and Esther Duflo, have won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, which is 2.17% of the 92 awarded.
These numbers illustrate the need for greater representation of women in the highest levels of research and academia. Despite the challenges faced by women in these fields, the Nobel laureates serve as shining examples of the groundbreaking work being done by women in various fields.
Below is a list of all the female Nobel laureates, along with their respective countries of origin and the fields for which they were awarded the Nobel Prize.
1903 — Marie Salomea Skłodowska Curie — Poland
Physics
“in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel”
1911
Chemistry
“for her discovery of radium and polonium”
1905 — Bertha von Suttner — Austria
Peace
“for her audacity to oppose the horrors of war”
1909 — Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf — Sweden
Literature
“in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings”
1926 — Grazia Maria Deledda Madesani — Italy
Literature
“for her idealistically inspired writings which with plastic clarity picture the life on her native island and with depth and sympathy deal with human problems in general”
1928 — Sigrid Undset — Norway
Literature
“principally for her powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages”
1931 — Jane Addams — United States
Peace
“for their assiduous effort to revive the ideal of peace and to rekindle the spirit of peace in their own nation and the whole of mankind”
1935 — Irène Joliot-Curie — France
Chemistry
“for their synthesis of new radioactive elements
1938 — Pearl Sydenstricker Buck — USA
Literature
“for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces”
1945 — Lucila Godoy Alcayaga (pen name: Gabriela Mistral) — Chile
Literature
“for her lyric poetry which, inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world”
1946 — Emily Greene Balch — United States
Peace
“for her lifelong work for the cause of peace”
1947 — Gerty Cori — United States
Physiology or Medicine
“for their discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen”
1963 — Maria Göppert Mayer — Poland
Physics
“discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure”
1964 — Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin — Egypt
Chemistry
“for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances”
1966 — Leonie [Nelly] Sachs — Germany
Literature
“for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel’s destiny with touching strength”
1976 — Betty Williams — Northern Ireland
Peace
“for the courageous efforts in founding a movement to put an end to the violent conflict in Northern Ireland”
1976 — Mairead Corrigan — Northern Ireland
Peace
“for the courageous efforts in founding a movement to put an end to the violent conflict in Northern Ireland”
1977 — Rosalyn Yalow — United States
Physiology or Medicine
“for the development of radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones”
1979 — Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu (Mother Teresa) — Macedonia
Peace
“for her work for bringing help to suffering humanity”
1982 — Alva Myrdal — Sweden
Peace
“for their work for disarmament and nuclear and weapon-free zones”
1983 — Barbara McClintock — United States
Physiology or Medicine
“for her discovery of mobile genetic elements”
1986 — Rita Levi-Montalcini — Italy
Physiology or Medicine
“for their discoveries of growth factors”
1988 — Gertrude Elion — United States
Physiology or Medicine
“for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment”
1991 — Aung San Suu Kyi — Myanmar
Peace
“for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights”
1991 — Nadine Gordimer — South Africa
Literature
“who through her magnificent epic writing has — in the words of Alfred Nobel — been of very great benefit to humanity”
1992 — Rigoberta Menchu Tum — Guatemala
Peace
“in recognition of her work for social justice and ethnocultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples”
1993 Chloe [Toni] Morrison — USA
Literature
“who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality”
1995 — Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard — Germany
Physiology or Medicine
“for their discoveries concerning the genetic control of early embryonic development”
1996 — Maria Wisława Szymborska — Poland
Literature
“for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality”
1997 — Jody Williams, United States
Peace
“for their work for the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines”
2003 — Shirin Ebadi — Iran
Peace
“for her efforts for democracy and human rights, focusing especially on the struggle for the rights of women and children”
2004 — Wangari Maathai — Kenya
Peace
“for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace”
2004 Elfriede Jelinek — Austria
Literature
“for her musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that with extraordinary linguistic zeal reveal the absurdity of society’s clichés and their subjugating power”
2004 — Linda B. Buck — United States
Physiology or Medicine
“for their discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system”
2007 - Doris Tayler-Lessing — Iran
Literature
“that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny”
2008 — Françoise Barré-Sinoussi — France
Physiology or Medicine
“for their discovery of HIV, human immunodeficiency virus”
2009 - Herta Müller - Romania
Literature
“who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed”
2009 — Ada Yonath — Israel
Chemistry
“for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome”
2009 — Elinor Ostrom — USA
Economic Science
“for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons”
2009 — Elizabeth H. Blackburn — United States
Physiology or Medicine
“for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase”
2009 — Carol W. Greider — United States
Physiology or Medicine
“for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase”
2011 — Ellen Johnson Sirleaf — Liberia
Peace
“for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work”
2011 — Leymah Gbowee — Liberia
Peace
“for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work”
2011 — Tawakkul Karmān — Yemen
Peace
“for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work”
2013 — Alice Munro — Canada
Literature
“master of the contemporary short story”
2014 — Malala Yousafzai — Pakistan
Peace
“for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education”
2014 — May-Britt Moser — Norway
Physiology or Medicine
“for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain”
2015 — Svetlana Alexievich — Ukraine
Literature
“for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time”
2015 — Youyou Tu — China
Physiology or Medicine
“for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy (artemisinin) against Malaria”
2018 — Olga Tokarczuk-Fingas — Poland
Literature
“for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life”
2018 — Donna Strickland — Canada
Physics
“for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses”
2018 — Frances Arnold — USA
Chemistry
“for the directed evolution of enzymes”
2018 — Nadia Murad — Iraq
Peace
“for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict”
2019 — Esther Duflo — France
Economic Science
“for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty”
2020 — Dr. Andrea Mia Ghez — USA
Physics
“for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy
2020 — Emmanuelle Charpentier — France
Chemistry
“for the development of a method for genome editing”
2020 — Jennifer Doudna — USA
Chemistry
“for the development of a method for genome editing”
2020 — Louise Glück — USA
Literature
“for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal”
2021 — Maria Ressa — Philippines
Peace
“for their effort to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace”
2022 — Carolyn Bertozzi — USA
Chemistry
“for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry”
2022 — Annie Ernaux — France
Literature
“for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory”