List of female Nobel laureates facts for kids

All Nobel Prizes won by women (1901–2023)

The Nobel Prizes are super important awards given each year. They were created by Alfred Nobel, a Swedish inventor, who wanted to honor people who had done the "greatest benefit to Mankind." There are five main Nobel Prizes. Also, there's a special award for economics, called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, which started in 1968.

As of 2023, 64 different women have won 65 Nobel Prizes or the Economics Prize. Overall, 894 men, 64 women, and 27 organizations have received these famous awards.

Here's how the prizes are split among women:

• The Nobel Peace Prize has been won by 19 women.
• The Nobel Prize in Literature has been won by 17 women.
• The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been won by 13 women.
• The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been won by 8 women.
• The Nobel Prize in Physics has been won by 5 women.
• The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences has been won by 3 women: Elinor Ostrom, Esther Duflo, and Claudia Goldin.

The very first woman to win a Nobel Prize was Marie Curie. She won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 with her husband, Pierre Curie, and Henri Becquerel. Marie Curie is also the only woman to have won two Nobel Prizes! She won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911. Her daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, also won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935. This makes them the only mother-daughter team to win Nobel Prizes.

The year 2009 saw the most women win Nobel Prizes in a single year, with five women receiving awards in four different areas.

Some of the most recent women to win Nobel Prizes include Claudia Goldin (Economics), Narges Mohammadi (Peace), Anne L'Huillier (Physics), and Katalin Karikó (Medicine) in 2023. In 2022, Annie Ernaux won for Literature and Carolyn R. Bertozzi for Chemistry. Maria Ressa won for Peace in 2021. In 2020, Louise Glück won for Literature, Andrea M. Ghez for Physics, and Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna for Chemistry. Finally, Esther Duflo won for Economics in 2019.

Meet the Amazing Women Nobel Laureates

This section lists the incredible women who have won Nobel Prizes in different fields.

Physiology or Medicine
No.	Year	Laureate	Name	Born	Died	Why They Won
1	1947		Gerty Radnitz-Cori	15 August 1896 Prague,  Austria-Hungary	26 October 1957 Glendale, Missouri,  United States	""for their discovery of how glycogen changes in the body." (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 creating a way to measure tiny amounts of peptide hormones." (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 finding mobile genetic elements (jumping genes)."
4	1986		Rita Levi-Montalcini	22 April 1909 Turin,  Italy	30 December 2012 Rome,  Italy	"for discovering growth factors." (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 finding important rules for how medicines work." (shared with James W. Black and George H. Hitchings)
6	1995		Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard	20 October 1942 Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt,  German Empire	N/A	"for finding the genes that control early embryo development." (shared with Edward B. Lewis and Eric F. Wieschaus)
7	2004		Linda Buck	29 January 1947 Seattle, Washington,  United States	N/A	"for discovering receptors that help us smell." (shared with Richard Axel)
8	2008		Françoise Barré-Sinoussi	30 July 1947 Paris,  France	N/A	"for discovering the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)." (shared with Harald zur Hausen and Luc Montagnier)
9	2009		Elizabeth Blackburn	26 November 1948 Hobart, Tasmania,  Australia	N/A	"for finding out how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and an enzyme called telomerase." (shared with Jack W. Szostak)
10			Carolyn Greider	15 April 1961 San Diego, California,  United States	N/A
11	2014		May-Britt Moser	4 January 1963 Fosnavåg,  Norway	N/A	"for discovering cells in the brain that act like a GPS system." (shared with Edvard Moser and John O'Keefe)
12	2015		Tú Yōuyōu	30 December 1930 Ningbo, Zhejiang,  China	N/A	"for finding a new treatment (artemisinin) for Malaria." (shared with William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura)
13	2023		Katalin Karikó	17 January 1955 Szolnok,  Hungary	N/A	"for discoveries about mRNA that helped create effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19." (shared with Drew Weissman)
Physics
No.	Year	Laureate	Name	Born	Died	Why They Won
1	1903		Marie Skłodowska-Curie	7 November 1867 Warsaw, Poland  Poland	4 July 1934 Passy, Haute-Savoie,  France	"for her amazing work on radiation with her husband." (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 her discoveries about the structure of atomic nuclei." (shared with J. Hans D. Jensen and Eugene Wigner)
3	2018		Donna Strickland	27 May 1959 Guelph, Ontario,  Canada	N/A	"for creating a way to make very strong, very short laser pulses." (shared with Gérard Mourou)
4	2020		Andrea Mia Ghez	16 June 1965 New York City, New York  United States	N/A	"for discovering a giant, super-heavy object at the center of our galaxy." (shared with Reinhard Genzel)
5	2023		Anne L’Huillier	16 August 1958 Paris,  France	N/A	"for experiments that create super-fast light pulses to study how electrons move in matter." (shared with Pierre Agostini and Ferenc Krausz)
Chemistry
No.	Year	Laureate	Name	Born	Died	Why They Won
1	1911		Marie Skłodowska-Curie	7 November 1867 Warsaw,  Poland	4 July 1934 Passy, Haute-Savoie,  France	"for discovering the elements radium and polonium."
2	1935		Irène Joliot-Curie	12 September 1897 Paris,  France	17 March 1957 Paris,  France	"for making new radioactive elements." (shared with Frédéric Joliot-Curie)
3	1964		Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin	12 May 1910 Cairo,  Egypt	29 July 1994 Ilmington, Warwickshire,  United Kingdom	"for figuring out the shapes of important chemicals using X-rays."
4	2009		Ada Yonath	22 June 1939 Jerusalem,  Israel	N/A	"for studying the structure and function of the ribosome." (shared with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas A. Steitz)
5	2018		Frances Arnold	25 July 1956 Edgewood, Pennsylvania,  United States	N/A	"for guiding the evolution of enzymes." (shared with Gregory Winter and George Smith)
6	2020		Emmanuelle Charpentier	11 December 1968 Juvisy-sur-Orge, Essonne,  France	N/A	"for creating a method to edit genes (CRISPR)."
7			Jennifer Doudna	19 February 1964 Washington, D.C.  United States	N/A
8	2022		Carolyn Bertozzi	10 October 1966 Boston, Massachusetts,  United States	N/A	"for developing 'click chemistry' and 'bioorthogonal chemistry'." (shared with Morten P. Meldal and Karl Barry Sharpless)
Literature
No.	Year	Laureate	Name	Born	Died	Why They Won
1	1909		Selma Lagerlöf	20 November 1858 Sunne, Värmland,  Sweden	16 March 1940 Sunne, Värmland,  Sweden	"for her inspiring stories, vivid imagination, and deep understanding."
2	1926		Grazia Deledda	27 September 1871 Nuoro, Sardinia,  Italy	15 August 1936 Rome, Italy	"for her beautiful writings that show life on her island and human problems."
3	1928		Sigrid Undset	20 May 1882 Kalundborg,  Norway	10 June 1949 Lillehammer,  Norway	"for her strong descriptions of life in Northern Europe during the Middle Ages."
4	1938		Pearl Buck	26 June 1892 Hillsboro, West Virginia,  United States	6 March 1973 Danby, Vermont,  United States	"for her rich and epic stories about farm life in China and her amazing biographies."
5	1945		Gabriela Mistral	7 April 1889 Vicuña,  Chile	10 January 1957 Hempstead, New York,  United States	"for her poetry that shows strong feelings and represents the hopes of Latin America."
6	1966		Nelly Sachs	10 December 1891 Berlin,  German Empire	12 May 1970 Stockholm,  Sweden	"for her powerful poetry and plays that show the fate of Israel." (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 wonderful epic writing, has greatly helped humanity."
8	1993		Toni Morrison	18 February 1931 Lorain, Ohio,  United States	5 August 2019 New York City, New York,  United States	"who, in her novels, brings to life an important part of American reality with great vision and poetry."
9	1996		Wisława Szymborska	2 July 1923 Kórnik,  Poland	1 February 2012 Kraków,  Poland	"for poetry that clearly shows human reality within history and biology."
10	2004		Elfriede Jelinek	20 October 1946 Mürzzuschlag, Styria,  Austria	N/A	"for her musical writing that reveals how silly society's rules and power can be."
11	2007		Doris Lessing	22 October 1919 Kermanshah,  Iran	17 November 2013 London,  United Kingdom	"who, with doubt, passion, and vision, has examined a divided civilization."
12	2009		Herta Müller	17 August 1953 Nițchidorf,  Romania	N/A	"who, with poetic focus and honest prose, describes the lives of people who have lost everything."
13	2013		Alice Munro	10 July 1931 Wingham, Ontario,  Canada	N/A	"master of the modern short story."
14	2015		Svetlana Alexievich	31 May 1948 Ivano-Frankivsk,  Soviet Union	N/A	"for her many-voiced writings, a tribute to suffering and bravery in our time."
15	2018		Olga Tokarczuk	29 January 1962 Sulechów,  Poland	N/A	"for her storytelling that, with great passion, shows how crossing boundaries can be a way of life."
16	2020		Louise Glück	22 April 1943 New York City, New York,  United States	13 October 2023 Cambridge, Massachusetts,  United States	"for her unique poetic voice that, with simple beauty, makes individual life feel universal."
17	2022		Annie Ernaux	1 September 1940 Lillebonne, Seine-Maritime,  France	N/A	"for her bravery and sharp insight in revealing the roots, distances, and group limits of personal memory."
Peace
No.	Year	Laureate	Name	Born	Died	Why They Won
1	1905		Bertha von Suttner	9 June 1843 Prague,  Austria-Hungary	21 June 1914 Vienna,  Austria-Hungary	"for bravely speaking out against the horrors of war."
2	1931		Jane Addams	6 September 1860 Cedarville, Illinois,  United States	21 May 1935 Chicago, Illinois,  United States	"for their strong efforts to bring back peace and spread the spirit of peace in their country and worldwide." (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 dedication to peace." (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 their brave work in starting a movement to end the violent conflict in Northern Ireland."
5			Mairead Maguire	27 January 1944 Belfast, Northern Ireland,  United Kingdom	N/A
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 helping people who were suffering."
7	1982		Alva Myrdal	31 January 1902 Uppsala,  Sweden	1 February 1986 Danderyd,  Sweden	"for their work to reduce weapons and create nuclear-free zones." (shared with Alfonso García Robles)
8	1991		Aung San Suu Kyi	19 June 1945 Yangon,  Myanmar	N/A	"for her peaceful fight for democracy and human rights."
9	1992		Rigoberta Menchú	9 January 1959 Laj Chimel, Quiché,  Guatemala	N/A	"for her work for social justice and bringing different cultures together, respecting the rights of native peoples."
10	1997		Jody Williams	9 October 1950 Rutland, Vermont,  United States	N/A	"for their work to ban and clear anti-personnel mines." (shared with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines)
11	2003		Shirin Ebadi	21 June 1947 Hamadan,  Iran	N/A	"for her efforts for democracy and human rights, especially for women and children."
12	2004		Wangarĩ Maathai	1 April 1940 Tetu, Nyeri,  Kenya	25 September 2011 Nairobi,  Kenya	"for her help in sustainable development, democracy, and peace."
13	2011		Ellen Johnson Sirleaf	29 October 1938 Monrovia,  Liberia	N/A	"for their peaceful fight for women's safety and their right to fully participate in building peace."
14			Leymah Gbowee	1 February 1972 Monrovia,  Liberia	N/A
15			Tawakkol Karman	7 February 1979 Shara'b As Salam, Taiz,  Yemen	N/A
16	2014		Malala Yousafzai	12 July 1997 Mingora, Swat,  Pakistan	N/A	"for their fight against stopping children and young people from learning, and for the right of all children to education." (shared with Kailash Satyarthi)
17	2018		Nadia Murad	10 March 1993 Kocho,  Iraq	N/A	(shared with Denis Mukwege)
18	2021		Maria Ressa	2 October 1963 Manila,  Philippines	N/A	"for their efforts to protect freedom of expression, which is needed for democracy and lasting peace." (shared with Dmitry Andreyevich Muratov)
19	2023		Narges Mohammadi	21 April 1972 Zanjan,  Iran	N/A	"for her fight against the unfair treatment of women in Iran and her work to promote human rights and freedom for everyone."
Economic Sciences
No.	Year	Laureate	Name	Born	Died	Why They Won
1	2009		Elinor Ostrom	7 August 1933 Los Angeles, California,  United States	12 June 2012 Bloomington, Indiana,  United States	"for her study of how people manage shared resources, like common land." (shared with Oliver E. Williamson)
2	2019		Esther Duflo	25 October 1972 Paris,  France	N/A	"for their experimental way to help reduce poverty around the world." (shared with Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer)
3	2023		Claudia Goldin	14 May 1946 New York City, New York,  United States	N/A	"for helping us understand more about women's jobs and earnings."

More to Explore

In Spanish: Anexo:Ganadoras del Premio Nobel para niños

• List of female nominees for the Nobel Prize
• List of female nominators for the Nobel Prize
• List of female Clarivate Citation laureates