The List of Female Nobel Laureates
In many of my articles about the Nobel Prize (more than 50 so far) I point out the large number of Jews and the teeny number of Muslims who have become Nobel Laureates and I assert thereby that Islam or growing up Muslim somehow stunts in its followers any ability to excel in scientific or literary intellectual achievement.
Inevitably I receive comments from Muslims or their apologists that they are not impressed with the Nobel Prize because it is subjective or politically biased. Usually they point to Nobel Peace Prize recipients who have done absolutely nothing to advance scientific knowledge.
My usual response to variations of this comment is to agree that the Nobel Peace Prize is indeed politically motivated, subjective and worthless, but those readers will not, however, be able to mention one single Nobel Laureate in the sciences who did not absolutely deserve the award.
Are there other scientists who also deserved to receive the Nobel Prize but did not? Yes, there is a limit each year to how many can receive the award in any category. So some deserving scientists because of these limitations could not be chosen.
As of 2015, ignoring the Nobel Peace Prize, 767 individuals have been awarded Nobel Prizes of which a mere 33 are women (1). One possible reason for this low number is that fewer women than men finish post-graduate work in the sciences (2).
Except for the sentiments expressed by one former male Nobel winner that female scientists are a romantic distraction (3) (supposedly as a joke), I found very little evidence to substantiate the notion that research carried on by women in the sciences is ignored by the Nobel committees due to sexism. Just because women comprise 50% of the population does not mean that 50% of Nobel Laureates should be women.
At one time 90% of basketball players in America were Jews - not because basketball team owners were biased against gentiles, but because in that era Jews aspired to be basketball players.
Today 75% of the NBA is black - not because basketball team owners are biased against whites, but because blacks aspire to be basketball players.
But as to women and Nobel Awards, the situation does seem to be improving of late, consider:
- 60 years - From 1901 to 1960 - 9 females have won Nobels in the sciences or literature.
- 40 years - From 1961 to 2000 - 11 females have won Nobels.
- 15 years - From 2001 to 2015 - 13 females have won Nobels.
I believe that this growth is due to more women aspiring to be scientists in each era than in previous eras.
ENDNOTES
(1):
Laureates with an asterisk (*) in front of the name are of Jewish Descent.
Year Laureate Country Category 1903 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Poland and France Physics 1909 Selma Lagerlöf Sweden Literature 1911 Marie Curie-Skłodowska Poland and France Chemistry 1926 Grazia Deledda Italy Literature 1928 Sigrid Undset Norway Literature 1935 Irène Joliot-Curie France Chemistry 1938 Pearl S. Buck USA Literature 1945 Gabriela Mistral Chile Literature 1947 *Gerty Theresa Cori USA Physiology or Medicine 1963 Maria Goeppert-Mayer USA Physics 1964 Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin United Kingdom Chemistry 1966 *Nelly Sachs Sweden and Germany Literature 1977 *Rosalyn Sussman Yalow USA Physiology or Medicine 1983 Barbara McClintock USA Physiology or Medicine 1986 *Rita Levi-Montalcini Italy/USA Physiology or Medicine 1988 *Gertrude B. Elion USA Physiology or Medicine 1991 *Nadine Gordimer South Africa Literature 1993 Toni Morrison USA Literature 1995 Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard Germany Physiology or Medicine 1996 Wisława Szymborska Poland Literature 2004 *Elfriede Jelinek Austria Literature 2004 Linda B. Buck USA Physiology or Medicine 2007 Doris Lessing United Kingdom Literature 2008 Françoise Barré-Sinoussi France Physiology or Medicine 2009 Elizabeth Blackburn Australia and USA Physiology or Medicine 2009 Carol W. Greider USA Physiology or Medicine 2009 *Ada E. Yonath Israel Chemistry 2009 Herta Müller Germany and Romania Literature 2009 *Elinor Ostrom USA Economics 2013 Alice Munro Canada Literature 2014 May-Britt Moser Norway Physiology or Medicine 2015 Tu Youyou China Physiology or Medicine 2015 Svetlana Alexievich Belarus Literature
(2):
HuffPost, 24 Jul 2013, The Nobel Prize: Where Are the Women?
"While almost half of high school physics students are girls, less that one-fourth of bachelor's degrees in physics are earned by women." Though men and women leave the field at roughly equal rates in graduate school, women drop out of physics at higher rates between taking classes in high school and finishing college.
Last year The Guardian reported bad news, too, based on a longitudinal study of Ph.D. students in chemistry in the UK. When women began their studies, 72 percent planned to become a researcher, but by the time they completed the Ph.D., only 37 percent planned a research career. Fewer men, 61 percent, started with the same plan, but very few, just 2 percent, changed their minds about a research career. Again, women flee science at higher rates than men do.
(3):
NY Times, Women Respond to Nobel Laureate’s ‘Trouble With Girls’
A Nobel laureate has resigned as honorary professor at University College London after saying that female scientists should be segregated from male colleagues because women cry when criticized and are a romantic distraction in the laboratory.
The comments by Tim Hunt, 72, a biochemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2001 for groundbreaking work on cell division, unleashed a torrent of fury and added fuel to a global cultural debate about gender bias and discrimination against women in science.
“Let me tell you about my trouble with girls,” Mr. Hunt told an audience on Monday at the World Conference of Science Journalists in South Korea. “Three things happen when they are in the lab: You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticize them they cry.”
