Meet all the women who have won the Nobel Prize


In July 2018, the Pakistani Malala Yousafzai was in Brazil at an event on the role of education for women. The 19-year-old was the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner in history, thanks to her militancy in favor of women's education, especially where the right is rejected.

Malala is part of a very small group of women who have already received the award. To date, only 15 female names have figured among the Nobel Peace Prize winners since its first edition, in 1901.

Statistics are no different in the other five categories – Physics, Chemistry, Economics (not quite a Nobel Prize but a tribute to Alfred Nobel), Physiology/Medicine and Literature.

Meet, below, the women winners of all the Nobel Prizes in history, alongside the achievements that culminated in recognition.

Index

  • What is the Nobel Prize?
  • Nobel Prize Winners for Literature
  • Nobel Peace Prize Winners
  • Nobel Prize Winners in Physics
  • Winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
  • Nobel Prize Winner in Economics
  • Winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine

What is the Nobel Prize?

The Nobel Prize is a set of six international awards awarded annually to institutions and people who made important discoveries, researches or contributions to humanity in the previous year or in the course of their activities.

The awards were part of the wish of the Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel who established them in 1895. Currently, Physics and Chemistry prizes are awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

The institution also grants the Alfred Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences in Memory. It's not exactly a Nobel Prize, but it's known as the award in the field of Economics.

The Karolinska Institute Nobel Assembly awards the Physiology/Medicine Prize. The Swedish Academy is responsible for the Literature award. Finally, the Nobel Peace Prize is held by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

Nobel Prize Winners for Literature

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  • Selma Lagerlöf (1909): first woman to attend the Swedish Academy.
  • Grazia Deledda (1926): award given by “Caniços ao Vento”.
  • Sigrid Undset (1928): acknowledgment of the strong descriptions of medieval Norse life.
  • Pearl S. Buck (1938): true descriptions of peasant life in China and biographical works.
  • Gabriela Mistral (1945): first Latin American to receive a Nobel Prize in Literature.
  • Nelly Sachs (1966): Jewish suffering translated into her poems.
  • Nadine Gordimer (1991): works that configure an important voice in the struggle against apartheid.
  • Toni Morrison (1993): the first black woman to receive a Nobel Prize in Literature.
  • Wislawa Szymborska (1996): lyrical look at war and its impacts on daily life
  • Elfriede Jelinek (2004): controversial figure that explores violence in a provocative way
  • Doris Lessing (2007): author of works of varied themes
  • Herta Muller (2009): oppression of the communist regime
  • Alice Munro (2013): works of impact in short story literature
  • Svetlana Alexievich (2015): reports from survivors of World War II and conflicts in Afghanistan

Nobel Peace Prize Winners

  • Bertha von Suttner (1905): President of the Permanent International Peace Office.
  • Jane Addams (1931): president of the International Women's League for Peace and Freedom.
  • Emily Greene Balch (1946): honorary president of the International Women's League for Peace and Freedom.
  • Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan (1976): Founders of the Women's Peace Movement in Northern Ireland
  • Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1979): fight against poverty in india
  • Aung San Suu Kyi (1991): human rights activist.
  • Rigoberta Menchu ​​Tum (1992): campaign for indigenous peoples
  • Jodi Williams (1997): work for the prohibition of antipersonnel mines and their removal
  • Shirin Ebadi (2003): Iranian human rights activist and democracy advocate
  • Wangari Maathai (2004): Kenyan environmentalist and human rights activist
  • Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakel Karman (2011): fight for women's rights
  • Malala Yousafzai (2014): fight against discrimination against young people and children, right to education

Nobel Prize Winners in Physics

  • Marie Curie (1903): research on the phenomenon of radiation
  • Maria Goeppert-Mayer (1963): discoveries related to the structure of nuclear layers

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

  • Iréne Joliot-Curie (1935): neutron discovery and artificial radioactivity

Nobel Prize Winner in Economics

  • Elinor Ostrom (2009): analysis of economic governance of the commons

Winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine

  • Gerty Cori (1947): discoveries in the catalytic conversion process of carbohydrates
  • Rita Levi-Montalcini (1986): epidermal growth factor discoveries
  • Gertrude Elion (1988): development of drugs to treat leukemia

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