NOBEL WOMEN
By Sophie Higgins
Nobel Prize Awarded Women
47
Between 1901 and 2014 the Nobel Prize and Prize in Economic Sciences (not technically a Nobel prize, but often considered as such) have been awarded only 47 times to women.
817 have been awarded to men.
O
ften in the debate of feminism, it is argued that we no longer need feminism and that it’s all exaggerated. I wanted to look at the achievements of female Nobel prize winners as they cover various important fields (medicine, peace etc) and the majority did so, in the face of adversity. The power of the feminist movement is slowly allowing women to become credible voices in their respective fields. It’s important to look back and acknowledge these people, as they are quite often overlooked, and equally important to recognised that even now, some people are being over looked. A woman has not won the Nobel prize for Physics for over 50 years, despite many suitable candidates.
The Nobel Prize in PHYSICS
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1903 Marie Curie, née Sklodowska Born: 7 November 1867, Warsaw, Russian Empire (now Poland) Died: 4 July 1934, Sallanches, France Prize motivation: "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel" 1963 Maria Goeppert Mayer Born: 28 June 1906, Kattowitz (now Katowice), Germany (now Poland) Died: 20 February 1972, San Diego, USA Affiliation at the time of the award: University of California, La Jolla, USA Prize motivation: “for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure”
Discovered Polonium and Radium The 1897 discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel inspired Marie and Pierre Curie to investigate further this phenomenon. They examined several substances and minerals for radioactivity. They found that the mineral pitchblende was more active than uranium and concluded that it must contain other radioactive substances. They managed to extract two previously unknown elements: polonium and radium, both of them more radioactive than uranium.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry
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1964 Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin Born: 12 May 1910, Cairo, Egypt. Died: 29 July 1994, Shipston-onStour, United Kingdom Affiliation at the time of the award: University of Oxford, Royal Society, Oxford, United Kingdom Prize motivation: "for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances"
2009 Ada E. Yonath Born: 22 June 1939, Jerusalem, British Mandate of Palestine Affiliation at the time of the award: Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel Prize motivation: “for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome�
1935 Irène Joliot-Curie Born: 12 September 1897, Paris, Died: 17 March 1956, Paris, Affiliation at the time of the award: Institut du Radium, Paris, France Prize motivation: "in recognition of their synthesis of new radioactive elements"
1911 Marie Curie, nĂŠe Sklodowska Born: 7 November 1867, Warsaw, Russian Empire (now Poland) Died: 4 July 1934, Sallanches, France Affiliation at the time of the award: Sorbonne University, Paris, France Prize motivation: "in recognition of her services to the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element"
Alfred Nobel 1833-1896 Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on October 21, 1833. His family was descended from Olof Rudbeck, the best-known technical genius in Sweden in the 17th century, an era in which Sweden was a great power in northern Europe. Nobel was fluent in several languages, and wrote poetry and drama. Nobel was also very interested in social and peace-related issues, and held views that were considered radical during his time. Alfred Nobel’s interests are reflected in the prize he established. Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been honoring men and women from all corners of the globe for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and for work in peace. The foundations for the prize were laid in 1895 when Alfred Nobel wrote his last will, leaving much of his wealth to the establishment of the Nobel Prize.
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The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
2014 May-Britt Moser
2009 Elizabeth H. Blackburn
Born: 4 January 1963, Fosnavåg, Norway Affiliation at the time of the award: Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway
Born: 26 November 1948, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia Affiliation at the time of the award: University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
Prize motivation: “for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain”
Prize motivation: "for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase"
2009 Carol W. Greider Born: 15 April 1961, San Diego, CA, USA Affiliation at the time of the award – Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA Prize motivation: "for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase"
2008 Françoise Barré-Sinoussi Born: 30 July 1947, Paris, France Affiliation at the time of the award: Regulation of Retroviral Infections Unit, Virology Department, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France Prize motivation: "for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus"
2004 Linda B. Buck Born: 29 January 1947, Seattle, WA, USA Affiliation at the time of the award: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA Prize motivation: "for their discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system"
1995 Christiane N端sslein-Volhard Born: 20 October 1942, Magdeburg, Germany Affiliation at the time of the award: Max-Planck-Institut f端r Entwicklungsbiologie, T端bingen, Federal Republic of Germany Prize motivation: "for their discoveries concerning the genetic control of early embryonic development"
1988 Gertrude B. Elion Born: 23 January 1918, New York, NY, USA Died: 21 February 1999, Chapel Hill, NC, USA Affiliation at the time of the award: Wellcome Research Laboratories, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA Prize motivation: "for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment"
1986 Rita Levi-Montalcini Born: 22 April 1909, Turin, Italy Died: 30 December 2012, Rome, Italy Affiliation at the time of the award: Institute of Cell Biology of the C.N.R., Rome, Italy Prize motivation: "for their discoveries of growth factors"
1983 Barbara McClintock Born: 16 June 1902, Hartford, CT, USA Died: 2 September 1992, Huntington, NY, USA Affiliation at the time of the award: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA Prize motivation: "for her discovery of mobile genetic elements"
1977 Rosalyn Yalow Born: 19 July 1921, New York, USA Died: 30 May 2011, New York, USA Affiliation at the time of the award: Veterans Administration Hospital, Bronx, NY, USA Prize motivation: "for the development of radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones"
1947 Gerty Theresa Cori, née Radnitz Born: 15 August 1896, Prague, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic) Died: 26 October 1957, St. Louis, MO, USA Affiliation at the time of the award: Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA Prize motivation: “for their discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen”
The Nobel Prize in LITERATURE
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2013 Alice Munro Born: 10 July 1931, Wingham, Canada Residence at the time of the award: Canada Prize motivation: "master of the contemporary short story" Field: prose Language: English
Depicts Everyday Life Alice Munro is a Canadian English-language writer. She began writing stories as a teenager, but her debut in book form took place only in 1968 with the story collection ‘Dance of the Happy Shades’. Munro has been appreciated for her finely tuned storytelling, characterized by clarity and psychological realism. Her stories are often set in small town environments, where people’s struggle for a decent life often result in difficult relationships and moral conflicts.
2009 Herta M端ller Born: 17 August 1953, Nitzkydorf, Banat, Romania Residence at the time of the award: Germany Prize motivation: "who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed" Field: prose Language: German
A Life under Dictatorship Herta M端ller is a German-Romanian writer. In her twenties, she worked as a translator in a machine factory, but had to stop when the Romanian secret police wanted her as a spy. Her first book 'Niederungen' (1982, English title: 'Nadirs') dates from this period, but was censored in Romania. In 1987 she emigrated to Germany. Herta M端ller writes short stories, novels, poems and essays, but all her work deals with the experience of oppression, of exile and of conforming to family and state.
2007 Doris Lessing
1996 Wislawa Szymborska
Born: 22 October 1919, Kermanshah, Persia (now Iran) Died: 17 November 2013, London, United Kingdom Residence at the time of the award: United Kingdom
Born: 2 July 1923, Bnin (now K贸rnik), Poland Died: 1 February 2012, Krak贸w, Poland Residence at the time of the award: Poland
Prize motivation: "that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny"
Prize motivation: "for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality" Field: poetry Language: Polish
Field: prose
2004 Elfriede Jelinek Born: 20 October 1946, M眉rzzuschlag, Austria Residence at the time of the award: Austria Prize motivation: "for her musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that with extraordinary linguistic zeal reveal the absurdity of society's clich茅s and their subjugating power" Field: drama, prose Language: German
1991 Nadine Gordimer Born: 20 November 1923, Springs, South Africa Died: 13 July 2014, Johannesburg, South Africa Residence at the time of the award: South Africa Prize motivation: "who through her magnificent epic writing has - in the words of Alfred Nobel - been of very great benefit to humanity" Field: prose Language: English
1993 Toni Morrison Born: 18 February 1931, Lorain, OH, USA Residence at the time of the award: USA Prize motivation: "who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality" Field: prose Language: English
1966 Nelly Sachs Born: 10 December 1891, Berlin, Germany Died: 12 May 1970, Stockholm, Sweden Residence at the time of the award: Sweden Prize motivation: "for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel's destiny with touching strength" Field: poetry Language: German
1945 Gabriela Mistral (pen-name of Lucila Godoy y Alcayaga) Born: 7 April 1889, Vicu単a, Chile Died: 10 January 1957, Hempstead, NY, USA Residence at the time of the award: Chile Prize motivation: "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" Field: poetry Language: Spanish
From Schoolmistress to Poet The daughter of a poet, schoolteacher Lucila Godoy y Alcayaga began to write poetry after a love affair in her youth. Her first collection of poems 'Sonetos de la muerte' ('Sonnets of Death') was written in grief over the loved one's death, and published under the pen name Gabriela Mistral, taken from two of her favorite poets. Central themes in her poems are love, betrayal, a mother's love and nature. Gabriela Mistral was also engaged in social politics and made great efforts for education in Latin America.
1938 Pearl Buck (pen-name of Pearl Walsh, nĂŠe Sydenstricker) Born: 26 June 1892, Hillsboro, WV, USA Died: 6 March 1973, Danby, VT, USA Residence at the time of the award: USA Prize motivation: "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces" Field: prose Language: English
Interpreted China to the West Pearl Buck grew up in China, where her parents were missionaries. She began to write in the 1920s. Many of her books deal with China and Chinese life, for example the novel 'The Good Earth' (1931) that depicts Chinese peasant life: sorrows and hardship as well as joys and rewards. It became a best seller and one of the great modern classics. From 1935 she lived in the United States and started a humanitarian organization. Pearl Buck wrote more than 70 books, dealing with the confrontation of East and West.
1928 Sigrid Undset Born: 20 May 1882, Kalundborg, Denmark Died: 10 June 1949, Lillehammer, Norway Residence at the time of the award: Norway Prize motivation: "principally for her powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages" Field: prose Language: Norwegian
Described the Life of Medieval Women Sigrid Undset grew up in Norway, daughter to an archaeologist. She started working at 16, but had a strong interest in literature and history, and wrote her first novel, 'Fru Marte Oulie', in 1907. She is most praised for her descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages, including the trilogy about 'Kristin Lavransdatter', one of the world's most read novels. Sigrid Undset criticized the Nazi occupation of Norway and had to flee in 1940. She settled in USA, but returned at the end of the war.
1926 Grazia Deledda (pen-name of Grazia Madesani, née Deledda) Born: 27 September 1871, Nuoro, Sardinia, Italy Died: 15 August 1936, Rome, Italy Residence at the time of the awardItaly Prize motivation: "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" Field: prose
1909 Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf Born: 20 November 1858, Mårbacka, Sweden Died: 16 March 1940, Mårbacka, Sweden Residence at the time of the award: Sweden Prize motivation: "in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings" Field: prose Language: Swedish
The Nobel PEACE Prize
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2014 Malala Yousafzai Born: 12 July 1997, Mingora, Pakistan Residence at the time of the award: United Kingdom Prize motivation: "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education"
2011 Leymah Gbowee Born: 1972, Monrovia, Liberia Residence at the time of the award: Liberia Prize motivation: "for their nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work" Field: peace movement, women's rights
2011 Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Born: 29 October 1938, Monrovia, Liberia Residence at the time of the award: Liberia Prize motivation: "for their nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work" Role: President of Liberia Field: peace movement, women's rights
2011 Tawakkol Karman Born: 7 February 1979, Ta'izz, Yemen Residence at the time of the award: Yemen Prize motivation: "for their nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work" Field: peace movement, / women's rights
2004 Wangari Muta Maathai Born: 1 April 1940, Nyeri, Kenya Died: 25 September 2011, Nairobi, Kenya Residence at the time of the award: Kenya Prize motivation: "for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace" Field: humanitarian work
Sustainable Development, Democracy and Peace Wangari Maathai was the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. She was also the first female scholar from East and Central Africa to take a doctorate (in biology), and the first female professor ever in her home country of Kenya. Maathai played an active part in the struggle for democracy in Kenya, and belonged to the opposition to Daniel arap Moi's regime. In 1977 she started a grass-roots movement aimed at countering the deforestation that was threatening the means of subsistence of the agricultural population. The campaign encouraged women to plant trees in their local environments and to think ecologically. The so-called Green Belt Movement spread to other African countries, and contributed to the planting of over thirty million trees.
The First Female Peace Prize Laureate from the Islamic World
2003 Shirin Ebadi
The lawyer Shirin Ebadi was Iran's first female judge. After Khomeini's revolution in 1979 she was dismissed. Ebadi opened a legal practice and began defending people who were being persecuted by the authorities. In the year 2000 she was imprisoned herself for having criticized her country's hierocracy. Shirin Ebadi took up the struggle for fundamental human rights and especially the rights of women and children. She took part in the establishment of organizations that placed these issues on the agenda, and wrote books proposing amendments to Iran's succession and divorce laws. She also wanted to withdraw political power from the clergy and advocated the separation of religion and state. In its choice of Ebadi, the Nobel Committee expressed a wish to reduce the tensions between the Islamic and the Western worlds following the terrorist attack on the United States on 11 September 2001. At the same time, the Committee wished to extend a helping hand to the Iranian reform movement.
Born: 21 June 1947, Hamadan, Iran Residence at the time of the award: Iran Prize motivation: "for her efforts for democracy and human rights. She has focused especially on the struggle for the rights of women and children" Field: human rights
1997 Jody Williams Born: 9 October 1950, Putney, VT, USA Residence at the time of the award: Putney, VT, USA Prize motivation: "for their work for the banning and clearing of antipersonnel mines" Field: arms control and disarmament, peace movement
1992 Rigoberta MenchĂş Tum Born: 9 January 1959, Aldea Chimel, Guatemala Residence at the time of the award: Guatemala Prize motivation: "in recognition of her work for social justice and ethnocultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples" Field: human rights
1991 Aung San Suu Kyi Born: 19 June 1945, Rangoon (now Yangon), Burma (now Myanmar) Residence at the time of the award: Burma Prize motivation: "for her nonviolent struggle for democracy and human rights" Field: human rights
Burma's Modern Symbol of Freedom The Burmese Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is the daughter of the legendary liberation movement leader Aung San. Following studies abroad, she returned home in 1988. From then on, she led the opposition to the military junta that had ruled Burma since 1962. She was one of the founders of the National League for Democracy (NLD), and was elected secretary general of the party. Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, she opposed all use of violence and called on the military leaders to hand over power to a civilian government. The aim was to establish a democratic society in which the country's ethnic groups could cooperate in harmony. In the election in 1990, the NLD won a clear victory, but the generals prevented the legislative assembly from convening. Instead they continued to arrest members of the opposition and refused to release Suu Kyi from house arrest. The Peace Prize had a significant impact in mobilizing world opinion in favor of Aung San Suu Kyi's cause, but she remains under strict surveillance in Rangoon and the old regime is still in power.
1982 Alva Myrdal Born: 31 January 1902, Uppsala, Sweden Died: 1 February 1986, Stockholm, Sweden Residence at the time of the award: Sweden Role: Writer, Diplomat, former Cabinet Minister Field: arms control and disarmament
1979 Mother Teresa Born: 26 August 1910, Uskup (now Skopje), Ottoman Empire (now Republic of Macedonia) Died: 5 September 1997, Calcutta, India Residence at the time of the award: India Role: Leader of Missionaries of Charity, Calcutta Field: humanitarian work
Peace Must Be Built from Below In 1976, three innocent children were killed in a shooting incident in Belfast. The housewife and secretary Betty Williams witnessed the tragedy. She decided to launch an appeal against the meaningless use of violence in the conflict between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland. Betty was joined by the dead children's aunt, Mairead Corrigan, and together they founded the peace organization the Community of Peace People. Betty Williams had a Protestant father and Catholic mother, a family background from which she derived religious tolerance and a breadth of vision that motivated her to work for peace. Early in the 1970s she joined an anti-violence campaign headed by a Protestant priest, before she threw herself with full force into grass-root activities for the Peace People. By setting up local peace groups comprising former opponents who undertook confidence-building measures, they hoped to set a peace process in motion from below. The Northern Irish peace movement disintegrated in the course of 1978. This was due both to internal disagreements and to the spreading of malicious rumors by Catholic and Protestant extremists.
1976 Betty Williams Born: 22 May 1943, Belfast, Northern Ireland Residence at the time of the award: United Kingdom Role: Founder of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement (later renamed Community of Peace People) Field: peace movement
Catholic and Campaigner for Peace In August 1976, the Northern Irish secretary Mairead Corrigan's sister lost three children in a shooting incident in Belfast. She was promptly contacted by a witness, Betty Williams, and they agreed to found a peace organization to bring an end to the bitter conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. Mairead grew up in a poor family in Belfast. In addition to her office job, she devoted a great deal of time in her youth to charity work in the Catholic organization Legion of Mary. That gave her a good basis on which to develop the nonviolent strategy of the Community of Peace People, which brought together thousands of people in protest marches and confidence-building measures among the grass roots in 1976 and 1977. Mairead Corrigan did not give up hope even when the Peace People lost nearly all their support in the late 1970s. She kept up her local peace work with admirable strength.
1976 Mairead Corrigan Born: 27 January 1944, Belfast, Northern Ireland Residence at the time of the award: United Kingdom Role: Founder of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement (later renamed Community of Peace People) Field: peace movement
1946 Emily Greene Balch
1931 Jane Addams
Born: 8 January 1867, Jamaica Plain, MA (now Boston), USA Died: 9 January 1961, Cambridge, MA, USA Residence at the time of the award: USA
Born: 6 September 1860, Cedarville, IL, USA Died: 21 May 1935, Chicago, IL, USA Residence at the time of the award: USA
Role: Honorary International President, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Formerly Professor of History and Sociology Field: peace movement
Role: International President, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Sociologist Field: peace movement
Author and "Generalissimo of the Peace Movement" Baroness Bertha Sophie Felicita von Suttner, nĂŠe Countess Kinsky von Chinic und Tettau Born: 9 June 1843, Prague, Austrian Empire (now Czech Republic) Died: 21 June 1914, Vienna, Austria Residence at the time of the award: Austria Role: Author of Lay Down Your Arms, Honorary President of Permanent International Peace Bureau, Berne, Switzerland Field: peace movement
Baroness Bertha von Suttner, the first woman to be awarded the Peace Prize, wrote one of the nineteenth century's most influential books, the anti-war novel "Lay Down Your Arms" (1889). The title was provocative to many, but the anti-militaristic message caught on. In the 1870s she became a close friend of Alfred Nobel's, and they corresponded for years on the subject of peace. The Peace Prize Laureate became one of the leaders of the international peace movement, and in 1891 established the Austrian Peace Society. At the male-dominated peace congresses she stood out as a liberal and forceful leader. At the beginning of the new century she was referred to as the "generalissimo of the peace movement". There is little doubt that von Suttner's friendship with Alfred Nobel had an impact on the contents of his will, and many give her the credit for his establishment of a peace prize. "Inform me, convince me, and then I will do something great for the movement", Alfred Nobel said to Bertha von Suttner.
Where Are all the Women? What are the reasons for the massive gender gap in the Nobel Prize winners?
Anti-nepotism laws in the U.S. actively prevented women from working at the same universities where their husbands worked until 1971. Half of female scientists in the U.S. were married to other scientists in the middle of the 20th century, which meant they may not have had access to laboratories. Some women did find ways around the rules. Maria Goeppert Mayer, who won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1963, worked as a volunteer professor until she received the award. Gerty Cori, who split the 1947 Nobel Prize for chemistry with her husband, was an unpaid lab assistant at the time. Some women remained single, but many were given heavier teaching loads, which prevented them from doing research Women also faced barriers to entering higher education, especially at elite institutions that offered the resources to do the cutting edge science that could get them nominated for the prize.
“Certainly in the first 50 years [of the prize] there were very few women proposed,” Friedman says. “There were few women candidates because there would have been fewer women with access to the best institutions and positions.” Beyond not being able to do the science, Friedman says it also meant women didn’t get the networks of colleagues who had the right to nominate and promote their work among the prize committee members. Between 1948 and 1962, a number of women were nominated, but none were chosen. As the Cold War was settling in, he says, the committees opted for strong men.
But to be considered for a Nobel, you have to be nominated. In that numbers game, women are still being cut short, says Mary Ann Liebert, who founded the Rosalind Franklin Society to secure more nominations and awards for women in the sciences. “Men tend not to nominate them, and women don’t tend to nominate themselves,” Liebert says. “Women scientists have to be more assertive in seeking nominations. And men have to put women’s names into nomination, too.”
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