Four Women
Amid all the controversy of the U.S. presidential election, increasing Covid-19 case numbers, the subsequent economic meltdown and many other crises that the world is grappling with at the moment this year’s Nobel Prize laureates were quietly announced. While the Nobel Peace Prize this year was surely a long overdue and merited recognition for the UN World Food Programme and a pointed jab at countries withdrawing support for this and other organisations of the UN, the other winners caused quite a bit of a stir.
This year four women won the coveted prize, which is a rare thing to happen. To understand that statement better I should point out that since 1901 the Nobel Prizes were awarded 603 times to 934 people and 28 organisations but only 58 were given to women. Marie Curie won on two separate occasions in Physics (1903) and in Chemistry (1911), so we can say that only 57 women were awarded this illustrious prize in various fields. It is worth having a brief look at the Nobel Prize Website to understand this year’s unusual decision. Between 1901 and 1920 only three women were awarded the prize, between 1921 and 1940 only five, between 1941 and 1960 only three, between 1961 and 1980 only 7, between 1981 and 2000 only 11 and between 2001 and 2020 the prize was given to 28 women. We are talking here of periods of 20 years! To have more than 3 women win a prize in one single year has previously happened only twice (5 in 2009 and 4 in 2018)!
Another way to look at these numbers is to see in which fields these women were awarded. With this year’s Nobel Prize for Physics going to Andrea Ghez, the number of women who have won in Physics amounts to 4. Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna raised the number in Chemistry to 7 with their shared win. A total of 11 women have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and only 2 have been recognized for their efforts in Economic Sciences. On the other hand, 16 female poets, authors and dramatists have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature with the addition of Louise Glück this year. That is one less in total than the number of female winners of the Nobel Peace Prize which stands at 17.
Whilst the numbers, as I said, are improving this century, one cannot help but wonder why this table is so lopsided. From 1901 to 1970 women studying at universities were few and far between even in first world countries. This may explain the meagre number of awards given to women during this period. Racism may also have played a distinct role. Women were overlooked in the awards not only because of their gender but also because they were Chinese, African or Jewish. Some of the most terrible stories concerning the Nobel Prize and women are those in which female researchers and scientists made major contributions to a particular field and were subsequently completely ignored when the prize was given to their colleagues or even their husbands. I recommend you look up these names: Esther Lederberg, Rosalind Franklin, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Chien-Shiung Wu, Lise Meitner and Nettie Stevens. Their stories are hair-raising, to say the least.
Unfortunately, the Nobel Committees have over the years always favoured old white men because the committees themselves were primarily made up of old white men which, in my opinion, is the greatest contributing factor to this lopsided situation. It is a relief to note that this year’s committees once again decided to award 4 brilliant women, not because they are women but because their work is equally deserving of the Nobel Prize.