Who are the Female Nobel Laureates?
The Nobel Prize is a set of awards presented to individuals or organizations for outstanding contributions in the fields of chemistry, physics, physiology or medicine, economic sciences, literature, and peace. The most prestigious awards in the world, The Nobel Prize was initiated in 1901 and since then the prize has been awarded 595 times to 935 individuals or organizations.
Women have made major contributions to society and have been credited with major breakthroughs in science & technology and other fields. As of 2018, 51 women have won Nobel Prize. Of the six Nobel Prize categories, women have won the maximum awards in the field of peace. The Nobel Peace Prize has seen 17 women bagging the award. This is followed by Nobel Prize in Literature, which has been won by 14 women. 12 women have bagged the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Meanwhile, five have bagged the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, three have Nobel Prize in Physics and one have Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.
Marie Skłodowska Curie was the first female to win the Nobel Prize. She bagged the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903 and shared the award with Henri Becquerel and Pierre Curie. A Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist, Marie Curie is known for her extraordinary work on radioactivity. Marie Curie also won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1911 for her discovery of radium and polonium. Irène Joliot-Curie, daughter of Marie Curie, followed in her mother’s footsteps and won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1935. Incidentally, this is the only mother-daughter pair in the history of the Nobel Prize to have bagged the award.
Bertha von Suttner was the first female to have bagged the Nobel Peace Prize. A pacifist, novelist and the Honorary President of the Bern-based Permanent International Peace Bureau, Suttner bagged the award in 1905. Selma Lagerlöf of Sweden, who got the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1909, was the first female to get the award in the field of literature. In 1947, Gerty Theresa Cori of the United States became the first female to win the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was established in 1968 and first awarded in 1969. Elinor Ostrom of the United States is the only woman to have won this award. She received the award along with Oliver E. Williamson in 2009 for her analysis of economic governance.
Below is The List of Women who have won Nobel Prize:
| S.No. | Year | Laureate | Country | Category |
| 1 | 1903 | Marie Skłodowska Curie | Poland and France | Physics |
| 2 | 1905 | Bertha von Suttner | Austria–Hungary | Peace |
| 3 | 1909 | Selma Lagerlöf | Sweden | Literature |
| 4 | 1911 | Marie Skłodowska Curie | Poland and France | Chemistry |
| 5 | 1926 | Grazia Deledda | Italy | Literature |
| 6 | 1928 | Sigrid Undset | Norway | Literature |
| 7 | 1931 | Jane Addams | United States | Peace |
| 8 | 1935 | Irène Joliot-Curie | France | Chemistry |
| 9 | 1938 | Pearl S. Buck | United States | Literature |
| 10 | 1945 | Gabriela Mistral | Chile | Literature |
| 11 | 1946 | Emily Greene Balch | United States | Peace |
| 12 | 1947 | Gerty Theresa Cori | United States | Physiology or Medicine |
| 13 | 1963 | Maria Goeppert-Mayer | United States | Physics |
| 14 | 1964 | Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin | United Kingdom | Chemistry |
| 15 | 1966 | Nelly Sachs | Sweden and Germany | Literature |
| 16 | 1976 | Betty Williams | United Kingdom | Peace |
| 17 | 1976 | Mairead Maguire | United Kingdom | Peace |
| 18 | 1977 | Rosalyn Sussman Yalow | United States | Physiology or Medicine |
| 19 | 1979 | Mother Teresa | India and Yugoslavia | Peace |
| 20 | 1982 | Alva Myrdal | Sweden | Peace |
| 21 | 1983 | Barbara McClintock | United States | Physiology or Medicine |
| 22 | 1986 | Rita Levi-Montalcini | Italy and United States | Physiology or Medicine |
| 23 | 1988 | Gertrude B. Elion | United States | Physiology or Medicine |
| 24 | 1991 | Nadine Gordimer | South Africa | Literature |
| 25 | 1991 | Aung San Suu Kyi | Burma | Peace |
| 26 | 1992 | Rigoberta Menchú | Guatemala | Peace |
| 27 | 1993 | Toni Morrison | United States | Literature |
| 28 | 1995 | Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard | Germany | Physiology or Medicine |
| 29 | 1996 | Wisława Szymborska | Poland | Literature |
| 30 | 1997 | Jody Williams | United States | Peace |
| 31 | 2003 | Shirin Ebadi | Iran | Peace |
| 32 | 2004 | Elfriede Jelinek | Austria | Literature |
| 33 | 2004 | Wangari Maathai | Kenya | Peace |
| 34 | 2004 | Linda B. Buck | United States | Physiology or Medicine |
| 35 | 2007 | Doris Lessing | United Kingdom | Literature |
| 36 | 2008 | Françoise Barré-Sinoussi | France | Physiology or Medicine |
| 37 | 2009 | Elizabeth Blackburn | Australia and United States | Physiology or Medicine |
| 38 | 2009 | Carol W. Greider | United States | Physiology or Medicine |
| 39 | 2009 | Ada E. Yonath | Israel | Chemistry |
| 40 | 2009 | Herta Müller | Germany and Romania | Literature |
| 41 | 2009 | Elinor Ostrom | United States | Economics |
| 42 | 2011 | Ellen Johnson Sirleaf | Liberia | Peace |
| 43 | 2011 | Leymah Gbowee | Liberia | Peace |
| 44 | 2011 | Tawakel Karman | Yemen | Peace |
| 45 | 2013 | Alice Munro | Canada | Literature |
| 46 | 2014 | May-Britt Moser | Norway | Physiology or Medicine |
| 47 | 2014 | Malala Yousafzai | Pakistan | Peace |
| 48 | 2015 | Tu Youyou | China | Physiology or Medicine |
| 49 | 2015 | Svetlana Alexievich | Belarus | Literature |
| 50 | 2018 | Donna Strickland | Canada | Physics |
| 51 | 2018 | Frances Arnold | United States | Chemistry |
| 52 | 2018 | Nadia Murad | Iraq | Peace |
*Marie Curie won the Noble Prize twice in 1903 and 1911.
Related Links:
