List of female Nobel laureates facts for kids

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."

As of 2021, 59 Nobel Prizes have been awarded to 58 women. Unique Nobel Prize laureates include 885 men, 58 women, and 25 organizations.

The distribution of Nobel prizes awarded to women is as follows:

• eighteen women have won the Nobel Peace Prize (16.5% of 109 awarded);
• sixteen have won the Nobel Prize in Literature (13.6% of 118 awarded);
• twelve have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (5.4% of 224 awarded);
• seven have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (3.7% of 188 awarded);
• four have won the Nobel Prize in Physics (1.8% of 219 awarded);
• and two, Elinor Ostrom and Esther Duflo, have won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2.2% of 89 awarded).

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. 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.

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 Maria Ressa for Peace (2021), Louise Glück in Literature, Andrea M. Ghez in Physics, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna in Chemistry (2020), Esther Duflo in Economics (2019), Donna Strickland in Physics, Frances Arnold in Chemistry, Nadia Murad for Peace, and Olga Tokarczuk in Literature (2018).

Female laureates

Year	Image	Laureate	Country	Category	Rationale
1903		Curie, Marie SkłodowskaMarie Skłodowska Curie (shared with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel)	Poland and France	Physics	"in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel."
1905		Suttner, Bertha vonBertha von Suttner	Austria-Hungary	Peace	"for her audacity to oppose the horrors of war."
1909		Lagerlof, SelmaSelma Lagerlöf	Sweden	Literature	"in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings"
1911		Curie, Marie SkłodowskaMarie Skłodowska Curie	Poland and France	Chemistry	"for her discovery of radium and polonium"
1926		Deledda, GraziaGrazia Deledda	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		Undset, SigridSigrid Undset	Norway	Literature	"principally for her powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages"
1931		Addams, JaneJane Addams (shared with Nicholas Murray Butler)	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 in the whole of mankind."
1935		Joliot-Curie, IreneIrène Joliot-Curie (shared with Frédéric Joliot-Curie)	France	Chemistry	"for their synthesis of new radioactive elements"
1938		Buck, Pearl S.Pearl S. Buck	United States	Literature	"for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces"
1945		Mistral, GabrielaGabriela 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		Balch, Emily GreeneEmily Greene Balch (shared with John Raleigh Mott)	United States	Peace	Formerly Professor of History and Sociology; Honorary International President, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
1947		Cori, Gerty TheresaGerty Theresa Cori (shared with Carl Ferdinand Cori and Bernardo Houssay)	United States	Physiology or Medicine	"for their discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen"
1963		Goeppert-Mayer, MariaMaria Goeppert-Mayer (shared with J. Hans D. Jensen and Eugene Wigner)	United States	Physics	"for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure"
1964		Hodgkin, Dorothy CrowfootDorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin	United Kingdom	Chemistry	"for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances"
1966		Sachs, NellyNelly Sachs (shared with Samuel Agnon)	Sweden and Germany	Literature	"for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel's destiny with touching strength"
1976		Williams, BettyBetty Williams	United Kingdom	Peace	"for the courageous efforts in founding a movement to put an end to the violent conflict in Northern Ireland."
		Maguire, MaireadMairead Maguire
1977		Sussman Yalow, RosalynRosalyn Sussman Yalow (shared with Roger Guillemin and Andrew Schally)	United States	Physiology or Medicine	"for the development of radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones"
1979		Teresa, MotherMother Teresa	India and Yugoslavia	Peace	"for her work for bringing help to suffering humanity."
1982		Myrdal, AlvaAlva Myrdal (shared with Alfonso García Robles)	Sweden	Peace	"for their work for disarmament and nuclear and weapon-free zones."
1983		McClintock, BarbaraBarbara McClintock	United States	Physiology or Medicine	"for her discovery of mobile genetic elements"
1986		Levi-Montalcini, RitaRita Levi-Montalcini (shared with Stanley Cohen)	Italy and United States	Physiology or Medicine	"for their discoveries of growth factors"
1988		Elion, Gertrude B.Gertrude B. Elion (shared with James W. Black and George H. Hitchings)	United States	Physiology or Medicine	"for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment"
1991		Gordimer, NadineNadine Gordimer	South Africa	Literature	"who through her magnificent epic writing has - in the words of Alfred Nobel - been of very great benefit to humanity"
		Suu Kyi, Aung SanAung San Suu Kyi	Burma	Peace	"for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights"
1992		Menchu, RigobertaRigoberta Menchú	Guatemala	Peace	"in recognition of her work for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples"
1993		Morrison, ToniToni Morrison	United States	Literature	"who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality"
1995		Nusslein-Volhard, ChristianeChristiane Nüsslein-Volhard (shared with Edward B. Lewis and Eric F. Wieschaus)	Germany	Physiology or Medicine	"for their discoveries concerning the genetic control of early embryonic development"
1996		Szymborska, WislawaWisława 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		Williams, JodyJody Williams (shared with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines)	United States	Peace	"for their work for the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines"
2003		Ebadi, ShirinShirin Ebadi	Iran	Peace	"for her efforts for democracy and human rights. She has focused especially on the struggle for the rights of women and children"
2004		Jelinek, ElfriedeElfriede 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"
		Maathai, WangariWangari Maathai	Kenya	Peace	"for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace"
		Buck, Linda B.Linda B. Buck (shared with Richard Axel)	United States	Physiology or Medicine	"for their discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system"
2007		Lessing, DorisDoris Lessing	United Kingdom	Literature	"that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny"
2008		Barre-Sinoussi, FrancoiseFrançoise Barré-Sinoussi (shared with Harald zur Hausen and Luc Montagnier)	France	Physiology or Medicine	"for their discovery of HIV, human immunodeficiency virus"
2009		Blackburn, ElizabethElizabeth Blackburn (shared with Jack W. Szostak)	Australia and United States	Physiology or Medicine	"for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase"
		Greider, Carol W.Carol W. Greider (shared with Jack W. Szostak)	United States
		Yonath, Ada E.Ada E. Yonath (shared with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas A. Steitz)	Israel	Chemistry	"for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome"
		Muller, HertaHerta Müller	Germany and Romania	Literature	"who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed"
		Ostrom, ElinorElinor Ostrom (shared with Oliver E. Williamson)	United States	Economics	"for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons"
2011		Johnson Sirleaf, EllenEllen 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"
		Gbowee, LeymahLeymah Gbowee
		Karman, TawakkolTawakkol Karman	Yemen
2013		Munro, AliceAlice Munro	Canada	Literature	"master of the contemporary short story"
2014		Moser, May-BrittMay-Britt Moser (shared with Edvard Moser and John O'Keefe)	Norway	Physiology or Medicine	"for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain"
		Yousafzai, MalalaMalala Yousafzai (shared with Kailash Satyarthi)	Pakistan	Peace	"for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education".
2015		Youyou, TuTu Youyou (shared with William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura)	China	Physiology or Medicine	"for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria (artemisinin)"
		Alexievich, SvetlanaSvetlana Alexievich	Belarus	Literature	"for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time"
2018		Strickland, DonnaDonna Strickland (shared with Gérard Mourou and Arthur Ashkin)	Canada	Physics	"for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses"
		Arnold, FrancesFrances Arnold (shared with Gregory Winter and George Smith)	United States	Chemistry	"for the directed evolution of enzymes"
		Murad, NadiaNadia Murad (shared with Denis Mukwege)	Iraq	Peace	"for their efforts to end the use of violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict"
		Tokarczuk, OlgaOlga Tokarczuk	Poland	Literature	"for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life"
2019		Duflo, EstherEsther Duflo (shared with Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer)	France and United States	Economics	"for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty"
2020		Ghez, Andrea M.Andrea M. Ghez (shared with Reinhard Genzel and Roger Penrose)	United States	Physics	"for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy"
		Charpentier, EmmanuelleEmmanuelle Charpentier (shared with Jennifer Doudna)	France	Chemistry	"for the development of a method for genome editing"
		Doudna, JenniferJennifer Doudna (shared with Emmanuelle Charpentier)	United States	Chemistry	"for the development of a method for genome editing"
		Glück, LouiseLouise Glück	United States	Literature	"for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal"
2021		Ressa, MariaMaria Ressa (shared with Dmitry Andreyevich Muratov)	Philippines	Peace	"for their effort to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace

See also

In Spanish: Anexo:Ganadoras del Premio Nobel para niños