List Of Female Nobel Laureates

The Nobel Prizes are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to Mankind.

List Of Female Nobel Laureates
All Nobel Prizes won by women (1901–2023)

As of 2023, 65 Nobel Prizes and the Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences have been awarded to 64 women. Unique Nobel Prize laureates include 894 men, 64 women, and 27 organizations.

The distribution of Nobel prizes awarded to women is as follows:

  • nineteen women have won the Nobel Peace Prize (16.3% of 110 awarded);
  • seventeen have won the Nobel Prize in Literature (14.28% of 119 awarded);
  • thirteen have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (5.6% of 230 awarded);
  • eight have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (4.1% of 191 awarded);
  • five have won the Nobel Prize in Physics (1.8% of 224 awarded);
  • and three (Elinor Ostrom, Esther Duflo and Claudia Goldin) have won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2.17% of 92 awarded).

The first woman to win a Nobel Prize was Marie Curie, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 with her husband, Pierre Curie, and Henri Becquerel. Curie is also the first person and the only woman to have won multiple Nobel Prizes; in 1911, she won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Curie's daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935, making the two the only mother–daughter pair to have won Nobel Prizes and of Pierre and Irène Curie the only father-daughter pair to have won Nobel Prizes by the same occasion, whilst there are 6 father-son pairs who have won Nobel Prizes by comparison.

The most Nobel Prizes awarded to women in a single year was in 2009, when five women became laureates in four categories.

The most recent women to be awarded a Nobel Prize were Claudia Goldin in Economics, Narges Mohammadi for Peace, Anne L'Huillier in Physics and Katalin Karikó in Physiology or Medicine (2023), Annie Ernaux in Literature and Carolyn R. Bertozzi for Chemistry (2022), Maria Ressa for Peace (2021), Louise Glück in Literature, Andrea M. Ghez in Physics, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna in Chemistry (2020), and Esther Duflo in Economics (2019).

Female laureates

Physiology or Medicine
No. Year Laureate Name Born Died Rationale
1 1947 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Gerty Radnitz-Cori 15 August 1896
Prague, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Austria-Hungary
26 October 1957
Glendale, Missouri,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
""for their discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen."
(shared with Carl Ferdinand Cori and Bernardo Houssay)
2 1977 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Rosalyn Yalow 19 July 1921
New York City, New York,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
30 May 2011
The Bronx, New York,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
"for the development of radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones."
(shared with Roger Guillemin and Andrew Schally)
3 1983 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Barbara McClintock 16 June 1902
Hartford, Connecticut,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
2 September 1992
Huntington, New York,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
"for her discovery of mobile genetic elements."
4 1986 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Rita Levi-Montalcini 22 April 1909
Turin, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Italy
30 December 2012
Rome, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Italy
"for their discoveries of growth factors."
(shared with Stanley Cohen)
5 1988 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Gertrude Belle Elion 23 January 1918
New York City, New York,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
21 February 1999
Chapel Hill, North Carolina,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
"for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment."
(shared with James W. Black and George H. Hitchings)
6 1995 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard 20 October 1942
Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  German Empire
"for their discoveries concerning the genetic control of early embryonic development."
(shared with Edward B. Lewis and Eric F. Wieschaus)
7 2004 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Linda Buck 29 January 1947
Seattle, Washington,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
"for their discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system"
(shared with Richard Axel)
8 2008 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Françoise Barré-Sinoussi 30 July 1947
Paris, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  France
"for their discovery of HIV, human immunodeficiency virus."
(shared with Harald zur Hausen and Luc Montagnier)
9 2009 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Elizabeth Blackburn 26 November 1948
Hobart, Tasmania,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Australia
"for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase."
(shared with Jack W. Szostak)
10 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Carolyn Greider 15 April 1961
San Diego, California,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
11 2014 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  May-Britt Moser 4 January 1963
Fosnavåg, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Norway
"for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain."
(shared with Edvard Moser and John O'Keefe)
12 2015 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Tú Yōuyōu 30 December 1930
Ningbo, Zhejiang,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  China
"for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy (artemisinin) against Malaria."
(shared with William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura)
13 2023 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Katalin Karikó 17 January 1955 Szolnok, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Hungary "for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19."
(shared with Drew Weissman)
Physics
No. Year Laureate Name Born Died Rationale
1 1903 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Marie Skłodowska-Curie 7 November 1867
Warsaw, Poland List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Poland
4 July 1934
Passy, Haute-Savoie,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  France
"in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel"
(shared with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel)
2 1963 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Maria Göppert Mayer 28 June 1906
Katowice, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Poland
20 February 1972
San Diego, California,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
"for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure."
(shared with J. Hans D. Jensen and Eugene Wigner)
3 2018 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Donna Strickland 27 May 1959
Guelph, Ontario,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Canada
"for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses."
(shared with Gérard Mourou)
4 2020 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Andrea Mia Ghez 16 June 1965
New York City, New York
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
"for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy."
(shared with Reinhard Genzel)
5 2023 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Anne L’Huillier 16 August 1958
Paris, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  France
"for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter."
(shared with Pierre Agostini and Ferenc Krausz)
Chemistry
No. Year Laureate Name Born Died Rationale
1 1911 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Marie Skłodowska-Curie 7 November 1867
Warsaw, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Poland
4 July 1934
Passy, Haute-Savoie,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  France
"for her discovery of radium and polonium"
2 1935 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Irène Joliot-Curie 12 September 1897
Paris, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  France
17 March 1957
Paris, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  France
"for their synthesis of new radioactive elements"
(shared with Frédéric Joliot-Curie)
3 1964 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin 12 May 1910
Cairo, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Egypt
29 July 1994
Ilmington, Warwickshire,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United Kingdom
"for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances"
4 2009 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Ada Yonath 22 June 1939
Jerusalem, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Israel
"for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome."
(shared with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas A. Steitz)
5 2018 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Frances Arnold 25 July 1956
Edgewood, Pennsylvania,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
"for the directed evolution of enzymes"
(shared with Gregory Winter and George Smith)
6 2020 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Emmanuelle Charpentier 11 December 1968
Juvisy-sur-Orge, Essonne,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  France
"for the development of a method for genome editing."
7 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Jennifer Doudna 19 February 1964
Washington, D.C.
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
8 2022 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Carolyn Bertozzi 10 October 1966
Boston, Massachusetts,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
"for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry."
(shared with Morten P. Meldal and Karl Barry Sharpless)
Literature
No. Year Laureate Name Born Died Rationale
1 1909 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Selma Lagerlöf 20 November 1858
Sunne, Värmland,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Sweden
16 March 1940
Sunne, Värmland,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Sweden
"in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings."
2 1926 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Grazia Deledda 27 September 1871
Nuoro, Sardinia,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Italy
15 August 1936
Rome, Italy
"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."
3 1928 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Sigrid Undset 20 May 1882
Kalundborg, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Norway
10 June 1949
Lillehammer, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Norway
"principally for her powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages."
4 1938 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Pearl Buck 26 June 1892
Hillsboro, West Virginia,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
6 March 1973
Danby, Vermont,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
"for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces."
5 1945 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Gabriela Mistral 7 April 1889
Vicuña, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Chile
10 January 1957
Hempstead, New York,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
"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."
6 1966 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Nelly Sachs 10 December 1891
Berlin, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  German Empire
12 May 1970
Stockholm, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Sweden
"for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel's destiny with touching strength."
(shared with Shmuel Yosef Agnon)
7 1991 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Nadine Gordimer 20 November 1923
Springs, Gauteng,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  South Africa
13 July 2014
Johannesburg, Gauteng,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  South Africa
"who through her magnificent epic writing has - in the words of Alfred Nobel - been of very great benefit to humanity."
8 1993 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Toni Morrison 18 February 1931
Lorain, Ohio,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
5 August 2019
New York City, New York,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
"who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality."
9 1996 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Wisława Szymborska 2 July 1923
Kórnik, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Poland
1 February 2012
Kraków, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Poland
"for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality."
10 2004 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Elfriede Jelinek 20 October 1946
Mürzzuschlag, Styria,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Austria
"for her musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that with extraordinary linguistic zeal reveal the absurdity of society's clichés and their subjugating power."
11 2007 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Doris Lessing 22 October 1919
Kermanshah, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Iran
17 November 2013
London, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United Kingdom
"that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny."
12 2009 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Herta Müller 17 August 1953
Nițchidorf, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Romania
"who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed."
13 2013 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Alice Munro 10 July 1931
Wingham, Ontario,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Canada
"master of the contemporary short story"
14 2015 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Svetlana Alexievich 31 May 1948
Ivano-Frankivsk, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Soviet Union
"for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time."
15 2018 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Olga Tokarczuk 29 January 1962
Sulechów, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Poland
"for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life."
16 2020 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Louise Glück 22 April 1943
New York City, New York,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
13 October 2023
Cambridge, Massachusetts,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
"for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal."
17 2022 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Annie Ernaux 1 September 1940
Lillebonne, Seine-Maritime,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  France
"for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory."
Peace
No. Year Laureate Name Born Died Rationale
1 1905 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Bertha von Suttner 9 June 1843
Prague, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Austria-Hungary
21 June 1914
Vienna, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Austria-Hungary
"for her audacity to oppose the horrors of war."
2 1931 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Jane Addams 6 September 1860
Cedarville, Illinois,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
21 May 1935
Chicago, Illinois,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
"for their assiduous effort to revive the ideal of peace and to rekindle the spirit of peace in their own nation and in the whole of mankind."
(shared with Nicholas Murray Butler)
3 1946 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Emily Greene Balch 8 January 1867
Boston, Massachusetts,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
9 January 1961
Cambridge, Massachusetts,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
"for her lifelong work for the cause of peace."
(shared with John Raleigh Mott)
4 1976 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Betty Williams 22 May 1943
Belfast, Northern Ireland,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United Kingdom
17 March 2020
Belfast, Northern Ireland,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United Kingdom
"for the courageous efforts in founding a movement to put an end to the violent conflict in Northern Ireland."
5 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Mairead Maguire 27 January 1944
Belfast, Northern Ireland,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United Kingdom
6 1979 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu
(rel. name: Mother Teresa)
26 August 1910
Skopje, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Ottoman Empire
5 September 1997
Kolkata, West Bengal,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  India
"for her work for bringing help to suffering humanity."
7 1982 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Alva Myrdal 31 January 1902
Uppsala, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Sweden
1 February 1986
Danderyd, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Sweden
"for their work for disarmament and nuclear and weapon-free zones."
(shared with Alfonso García Robles)
8 1991 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Aung San Suu Kyi 19 June 1945
Yangon, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Myanmar
"for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights."
9 1992 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Rigoberta Menchú 9 January 1959
Laj Chimel, Quiché,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Guatemala
"in recognition of her work for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples."
10 1997 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Jody Williams 9 October 1950
Rutland, Vermont,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
"for their work for the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines."
(shared with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines)
11 2003 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Shirin Ebadi 21 June 1947
Hamadan, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Iran
"for her efforts for democracy and human rights, focusing especially on the struggle for the rights of women and children."
12 2004 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Wangarĩ Maathai 1 April 1940
Tetu, Nyeri,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Kenya
25 September 2011
Nairobi, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Kenya
"for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace."
13 2011 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Ellen Johnson Sirleaf 29 October 1938
Monrovia, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Liberia
"for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work."
14 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Leymah Gbowee 1 February 1972
Monrovia, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Liberia
15 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Tawakkol Karman 7 February 1979
Shara'b As Salam, Taiz, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Yemen
16 2014 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Malala Yousafzai 12 July 1997
Mingora, Swat,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Pakistan
"for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education."
(shared with Kailash Satyarthi)
17 2018 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Nadia Murad 10 March 1993
Kocho, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Iraq
"for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict."
(shared with Denis Mukwege)
18 2021 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Maria Ressa 2 October 1963
Manila, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Philippines
"for their effort to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace."
(shared with Dmitry Andreyevich Muratov)
19 2023 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Narges Mohammadi 21 April 1972
Zanjan, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Iran
"for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all."
Economic Sciences
No. Year Laureate Name Born Died Rationale
1 2009 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Elinor Ostrom 7 August 1933
Los Angeles, California,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
12 June 2012
Bloomington, Indiana,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
"for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons."
(shared with Oliver E. Williamson)
2 2019 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Esther Duflo 25 October 1972
Paris, List Of Female Nobel Laureates  France
"for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty."
(shared with Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer)
3 2023 List Of Female Nobel Laureates  Claudia Goldin 14 May 1946
New York City, New York,
List Of Female Nobel Laureates  United States
"for having advanced our understanding of women’s labour market outcomes"

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