The Nobel Prizes close again with a minority of women among the winners

Oct. 10 () –

The Nobel Prize winners have included only two women among the 14 winners this year – the writer Annie Ernaux and the chemist Carolyn R. Bertozzi -, which exacerbates an imbalance between genders in recognitions that have historically been reserved for men.

Throughout history, 60 women have received an award, mostly in the 21st century, while the list of men is now close to 900. Five years have passed since the last time there were only men in the list of Nobel laureates, but the difference is still palpable and, in fact, in 2021, there was only one woman on the list.

Marie Curie was the first woman to be recognized by the prizes left as a legacy by Alfred Nobel, in 1903, and she remains to this day the only one who has received a prize in two editions. By branches, the Peace and Literature prizes account for more than half of all the Nobel Prizes awarded to women, while Economics has only two cases.

The vice president of the Board of Directors of the Nobel Foundation, Göran Hansson, alleged last year in statements to ‘The Guardian’ that the scarcity of women among the winners was actually a reflection of the disparity that still persists in social recognition, but he ruled out applying quotas to favor inclusion, according to the Bloomberg agency.

UN Women has also routinely used Nobel Prizes to exemplify historical gender discrimination. In 2021, he noted female underrepresentation as “another indicator of slow progress towards gender equality” across the board.