Women scarce in male-dominated Nobel history

STOCKHOLM — The Nobel Prize statistics are dour reading for women, who’ve been awarded only one of every 20 prizes. And while the numbers are slowly improving, the Sunday prize ceremony will be an all-male affair for the second straight year.

The Nobel Prizes for medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and economics are awarded in Sweden, and the one for peace in Norway — two pioneering countries in the area of women’s rights who proudly boast of their politics promoting gender equality.

While the number of women Nobel laureates has risen in recent decades, the 48 women crowned over the years represent just 5 percent of the 896 people honored, excluding organizations.

The statistics vary depending on the discipline: the economics prize has been by far the most unattainable for women. The literature prize remains largely a male domain, while peace does somewhat better.

The peace prize is the most favorable to women: 16 women laureates out of 104 people awarded (15.4 percent). But that is still far from parity.

“We are disappointed, looking in a larger perspective, that there aren’t more women who’ve been awarded,” admits Goran Hansson, the permanent secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences which selects the physics, chemistry and economics laureates.

The reason women are so poorly represented in the science fields, he says, is because laboratory doors were closed to women for so long.

Anne L’Huillier, a member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences who sat on the Nobel physics committee in 2010, agrees, noting that of the few women who made it into the labs, even fewer made it to the top of their fields.

“At the same time, it is worth recalling that the Swedish Academy does not strive to obtain good statistics for the sake of good statistics. The only thing the Academy cares about is quality,” said Sara Danius, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy that awards the literature prize.