List of female Nobel laureates
All Nobel Prizes won by women (1901–2023)
The Nobel Prizes are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to Mankind." Additionally, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel was established by Sveriges Riksbank in 1968 and awarded to a "person or persons in the field of economic sciences who have produced work of outstanding importance."
As of 2023, 65 Nobel Prizes and the Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences have been awarded to 64 women.[1] [3] Unique Nobel Prize laureates include 894 men, 64 women, and 27 organizations.[4]
The distribution of Nobel prizes awarded to women is as follows:
nineteen women have won the Nobel Peace Prize (16.3% of 110 awarded);[5]
seventeen have won the Nobel Prize in Literature (14.28% of 119 awarded);[6]
thirteen have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (5.6% of 230 awarded);[7]
eight have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (4.1% of 191 awarded);[8]
five have won the Nobel Prize in Physics (1.8% of 224 awarded);[9]
and three (Elinor Ostrom , Esther Duflo and Claudia Goldin ) have won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2.17% of 92 awarded).[10]
The first woman to win a Nobel Prize was Marie Curie , who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 with her husband, Pierre Curie , and Henri Becquerel .[11] [12] Curie is also the first person and the only woman to have won multiple Nobel Prizes; in 1911, she won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Curie's daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie , won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935, making the two the only mother–daughter pair to have won Nobel Prizes[11] and of Pierre and Irène Curie the only father-daughter pair to have won Nobel Prizes by the same occasion, whilst there are 6 father-son pairs who have won Nobel Prizes by comparison.[13]
The most Nobel Prizes awarded to women in a single year was in 2009, when five women became laureates in four categories.
The most recent women to be awarded a Nobel Prize were Claudia Goldin in Economics, Narges Mohammadi for Peace, Anne L'Huillier in Physics and Katalin Karikó in Physiology or Medicine (2023), Annie Ernaux in Literature and Carolyn R. Bertozzi for Chemistry (2022), Maria Ressa for Peace (2021), Louise Glück in Literature, Andrea M. Ghez in Physics, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna in Chemistry (2020), and Esther Duflo in Economics (2019).
Female laureates
Physiology or Medicine
No.
Year
Portrait
Name
Born
Died
Rationale
1
1947
Gerty Radnitz-Cori
15 August 1896 Prague , Czechia
26 October 1957 Glendale, Missouri , United States
""for their discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen ."[14] (shared with Carl Ferdinand Cori and Bernardo Houssay )
2
1977
Rosalyn Yalow
19 July 1921 New York City , New York, United States
30 May 2011 The Bronx , New York, United States
"for the development of radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones ."[15] (shared with Roger Guillemin and Andrew Schally )
3
1983
Barbara McClintock
16 June 1902 Hartford , Connecticut, United States
2 September 1992 Huntington, New York , United States
"for her discovery of mobile genetic elements ."[16]
4
1986
Rita Levi-Montalcini
22 April 1909 Turin , Italy
30 December 2012 Rome , Italy
"for their discoveries of growth factors ."[17] (shared with Stanley Cohen )
5
1988
Gertrude Belle Elion
23 January 1918 New York City , New York, United States
21 February 1999 Chapel Hill, North Carolina , United States
"for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment ."[18] (shared with James W. Black and George H. Hitchings )
6
1995
Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard
20 October 1942 Magdeburg , Saxony-Anhalt , German Empire
—
"for their discoveries concerning the genetic control of early embryonic development ."[19] (shared with Edward B. Lewis and Eric F. Wieschaus )
7
2004
Linda Buck
29 January 1947 Seattle , Washington, United States
—
"for their discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system "[20] (shared with Richard Axel )
8
2008
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi
30 July 1947 Paris , France
—
"for their discovery of HIV, human immunodeficiency virus ."[21] (shared with Harald zur Hausen and Luc Montagnier )
9
2009
Elizabeth Blackburn
26 November 1948 Hobart , Tasmania , Australia
—
"for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase ."[22] (shared with Jack W. Szostak )
10
Carolyn Greider
15 April 1961 San Diego, California , United States
—
11
2014
May-Britt Moser
4 January 1963 Fosnavåg , Norway
—
"for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain."[23] (shared with Edvard Moser and John O'Keefe )
12
2015
Tú Yōuyōu
30 December 1930 Ningbo, Zhejiang , China
—
"for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against malaria ."[24] (shared with William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura )
13
2023
Katalin Karikó
17 January 1955 Szolnok , Hungary
—
"for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 ."[25] (shared with Drew Weissman )
Physics
No.
Year
Portrait
Name
Born
Died
Rationale
1
1903
Marie Skłodowska-Curie
7 November 1867 Warsaw , Poland Poland
4 July 1934 Passy, Haute-Savoie , France
"in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel "[26] (shared with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel )
2
1963
Maria Göppert Mayer
28 June 1906 Katowice , Poland
20 February 1972 San Diego, California , United States
"for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure ."[27] (shared with J. Hans D. Jensen and Eugene Wigner )
3
2018
Donna Strickland
27 May 1959 Guelph, Ontario , Canada
—
"for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses ."[28] (shared with Gérard Mourou )
4
2020
Andrea Mia Ghez
16 June 1965 New York City , New York United States
—
"for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy ."[29] (shared with Reinhard Genzel )
5
2023
Anne L’Huillier
16 August 1958 Paris , France
—
"for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter ."[30] (shared with Pierre Agostini and Ferenc Krausz )
Chemistry
No.
Year
Portrait
Name
Born
Died
Rationale
1
1911
Marie Skłodowska-Curie
7 November 1867 Warsaw , Poland
4 July 1934 Passy, Haute-Savoie , France
"for her discovery of radium and polonium "[31]
2
1935
Irène Joliot-Curie
12 September 1897 Paris , France
17 March 1957 Paris , France
"for their synthesis of new radioactive elements"[32] (shared with Frédéric Joliot-Curie )
3
1964
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin
12 May 1910 Cairo , Egypt
29 July 1994 Ilmington , Warwickshire , United Kingdom
"for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances"[33]
4
2009
Ada Yonath
22 June 1939 Jerusalem , Israel
—
"for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome ."[34] (shared with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas A. Steitz )
5
2018
Frances Arnold
25 July 1956 Edgewood, Pennsylvania , United States
—
"for the directed evolution of enzymes "[35] (shared with Gregory Winter and George Smith )
6
2020
Emmanuelle Charpentier
11 December 1968 Juvisy-sur-Orge , Essonne , France
—
"for the development of a method for genome editing ."[36]
7
Jennifer Doudna
19 February 1964 Washington, D.C. United States
—
8
2022
Carolyn Bertozzi
10 October 1966 Boston , Massachusetts, United States
—
"for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry ."[37] (shared with Morten P. Meldal and Karl Barry Sharpless )
Literature
No.
Year
Portrait
Name
Born
Died
Rationale
1
1909
Selma Lagerlöf
20 November 1858 Sunne , Värmland , Sweden
16 March 1940 Sunne , Värmland , Sweden
"in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings."[38]
2
1926
Grazia Deledda
27 September 1871 Nuoro , Sardinia , Italy
15 August 1936 Rome , Italy Italy
"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."[39]
3
1928
Sigrid Undset
20 May 1882 Kalundborg , Norway
10 June 1949 Lillehammer , Norway
"principally for her powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages."[40]
4
1938
Pearl Buck
26 June 1892 Hillsboro, West Virginia , United States
6 March 1973 Danby, Vermont , United States
"for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces."[41]
5
1945
Gabriela Mistral
7 April 1889 Vicuña , Chile
10 January 1957 Hempstead, New York , United States
"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."[42]
6
1966
Nelly Sachs
10 December 1891 Berlin , German Empire
12 May 1970 Stockholm , Sweden
"for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel's destiny with touching strength."[43] (shared with Shmuel Yosef Agnon )
7
1991
Nadine Gordimer
20 November 1923 Springs, Gauteng , South Africa
13 July 2014 Johannesburg , Gauteng, South Africa
"who through her magnificent epic writing has - in the words of Alfred Nobel - been of very great benefit to humanity."[44]
8
1993
Toni Morrison
18 February 1931 Lorain, Ohio , United States
5 August 2019 New York City , New York, United States
"who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality."[45]
9
1996
Wisława Szymborska
2 July 1923 Kórnik , Poland
1 February 2012 Kraków , Poland
"for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality."[46]
10
2004
Elfriede Jelinek
20 October 1946 Mürzzuschlag , Styria , Austria
—
"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."[47]
11
2007
Doris Lessing
22 October 1919 Kermanshah , Iran
17 November 2013 London , United Kingdom
"that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny."[48]
12
2009
Herta Müller
17 August 1953 Nițchidorf , Romania
—
"who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed."[49]
13
2013
Alice Munro
10 July 1931 Wingham, Ontario , Canada
13 May 2024 Port Hope, Ontario , Canada
"master of the contemporary short story"[50]
14
2015
Svetlana Alexievich
31 May 1948 Ivano-Frankivsk , Soviet Union
—
"for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time."[51]
15
2018
Olga Tokarczuk
29 January 1962 Sulechów , Poland
—
"for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life."[52]
16
2020
Louise Glück
22 April 1943 New York City , New York, United States
13 October 2023 Cambridge, Massachusetts , United States
"for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal."[53]
17
2022
Annie Ernaux
1 September 1940 Lillebonne , Seine-Maritime , France
—
"for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory."[54]
Peace
No.
Year
Portrait
Name
Born
Died
Rationale
1
1905
Bertha von Suttner
9 June 1843 Prague , Czechia
21 June 1914 Vienna , Austria-Hungary
"for her audacity to oppose the horrors of war."[55]
2
1931
Jane Addams
6 September 1860 Cedarville, Illinois , United States
21 May 1935 Chicago , Illinois, United States
"for their assiduous effort to revive the ideal of peace and to rekindle the spirit of peace in their own nation and in the whole of mankind."[56] (shared with Nicholas Murray Butler )
3
1946
Emily Greene Balch
8 January 1867 Boston , Massachusetts, United States
9 January 1961 Cambridge , Massachusetts, United States
"for her lifelong work for the cause of peace."[57] (shared with John Raleigh Mott )
4
1976
Betty Williams
22 May 1943 Belfast , Northern Ireland , United Kingdom
17 March 2020 Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
"for the courageous efforts in founding a movement to put an end to the violent conflict in Northern Ireland ."[58]
5
Mairead Maguire
27 January 1944 Belfast , Northern Ireland , United Kingdom
—
6
1979
Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu (rel. name : Mother Teresa)
26 August 1910 Skopje , Ottoman Empire
5 September 1997 Kolkata , West Bengal, India
"for her work for bringing help to suffering humanity."[59]
7
1982
Alva Myrdal
31 January 1902 Uppsala , Sweden
1 February 1986 Danderyd , Sweden
"for their work for disarmament and nuclear and weapon-free zones ."[60] (shared with Alfonso García Robles )
8
1991
Aung San Suu Kyi
19 June 1945 Yangon , Myanmar
—
"for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights ."[61]
9
1992
Rigoberta Menchú
9 January 1959 Laj Chimel , Quiché , Guatemala
—
"in recognition of her work for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples ."[62]
10
1997
Jody Williams
9 October 1950 Rutland, Vermont , United States
—
"for their work for the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines ."[63] (shared with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines )
11
2003
Shirin Ebadi
21 June 1947 Hamadan , Iran
—
"for her efforts for democracy and human rights , focusing especially on the struggle for the rights of women and children."[64]
12
2004
Wangarĩ Maathai
1 April 1940 Tetu , Nyeri , Kenya
25 September 2011 Nairobi , Kenya
"for her contribution to sustainable development , democracy and peace."[65]
13
2011
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
29 October 1938 Monrovia , Liberia
—
"for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work."[66]
14
Leymah Gbowee
1 February 1972 Monrovia , Liberia
—
15
Tawakkol Karman
7 February 1979 Shara'b As Salam , Taiz , Yemen
—
16
2014
Malala Yousafzai
12 July 1997 Mingora , Swat , Pakistan
—
"for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education ."[67] (shared with Kailash Satyarthi )
17
2018
Nadia Murad
10 March 1993 Kocho , Iraq
—
"for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict."[68] (shared with Denis Mukwege )
18
2021
Maria Ressa
2 October 1963 Manila , Philippines
—
"for their effort to safeguard freedom of expression , which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace."[69] (shared with Dmitry Andreyevich Muratov )
19
2023
Narges Mohammadi
21 April 1972 Zanjan , Iran
—
"for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all."[70]
Economic Sciences
See also
References
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General
Further reading
Prizes Laureates
Nominees
Organisations Related 1 Nobel Memorial Prize (not one of the original Nobel Prizes).