TheNobel Prizes are five separate prizes that, according toAlfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to Mankind." Additionally, theSveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (often referred to as the Nobel Prize in Economics) was established bySveriges Riksbank in 1968 and is awarded to a "person or persons in the field of economic sciences who have produced work of outstanding importance."
As of 2025, according to theNobel Foundation,[1] 68 Nobel Prizes and the Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences have been awarded to 67 women (Marie Curie has been honoured twice, first in Physics in 1903, then in Chemistry in 1911).[2] Unique Nobel Prize laureates include 894 men, 64 women, and 27 organizations.[3]
The approximate distribution of Nobel prizes awarded to women is as follows (regularly updated list from the Nobel Foundation can be found on their website at"Nobel-Prize awarded women" ):
The first woman to win a Nobel Prize wasMarie Skłodowska-Curie, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 withPierre Curie, andHenri Becquerel.[10][11] 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[10] 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.[12]
The most recent women to be awarded a Nobel Prize wereMaria Corina Machado for Peace,Mary Brunkow for Physiology or Medicine (2025),Han Kang in Literature (2024),Claudia Goldin in Economics,Narges Mohammadi for Peace,Anne L'Huillier in Physics andKatalin Karikó in Physiology or Medicine (2023),Annie Ernaux in Literature andCarolyn R. Bertozzi for Chemistry (2022),Maria Ressa for Peace (2021),Louise Glück in Literature,Andrea M. Ghez in Physics,Emmanuelle Charpentier andJennifer Doudna in Chemistry (2020).[1] The most Nobel Prizes awarded to women in a single year was in 2009, when five women became laureates in four categories.[13]
| No. | Year | Portrait | Name | Born | Died | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1909 | .jpg) | Selma Lagerlöf | 20 November 1858 Sunne,Värmland,  United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway[j] | 16 March 1940 Sunne,Värmland,  Sweden | "in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings."[39] |
| 2 | 1926 |  | Grazia Deledda | 27 September 1871 Nuoro,Sardinia,  Kingdom of Italy[b] | 15 August 1936 Rome, Kingdom of Italy[b] | "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."[40] |
| 3 | 1928 | .jpg) | Sigrid Undset | 20 May 1882 Kalundborg, Zealand,  Denmark | 10 June 1949 Lillehammer,  Norway | "principally for her powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages."[41] |
| 4 | 1938 | .jpg) | Pearl Buck | 26 June 1892 Hillsboro, West Virginia,  United States | 6 March 1973 Danby, Vermont, United States | "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces."[42] |
| 5 | 1945 |  | Gabriela Mistral | 7 April 1889 Vicuña,  Chile | 10 January 1957 Hempstead, New York, 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."[43] |
| 6 | 1966 |  | Nelly Sachs | 10 December 1891 Berlin,  German Empire[c] | 12 May 1970 Stockholm, Sweden | "for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel's destiny with touching strength."[44] (shared withShmuel Yosef Agnon) |
| 7 | 1991 | .JPG) | Nadine Gordimer | 20 November 1923 Springs, Gauteng,  Union of South Africa[k] | 13 July 2014 Johannesburg, Gauteng,  South Africa | "who through her magnificent epic writing has - in the words of Alfred Nobel - been of very great benefit to humanity."[45] |
| 8 | 1993 | .jpg) | Toni Morrison | 18 February 1931 Lorain, Ohio, United States | 5 August 2019 New York City, United States | "who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality."[46] |
| 9 | 1996 | .jpg) | Wisława Szymborska | 2 July 1923 Kórnik,  Second Polish Republic[g] | 1 February 2012 Kraków, Poland | "for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality."[47] |
| 10 | 2004 | .jpg) | Elfriede Jelinek | 20 October 1946 Mürzzuschlag,Styria,  Austria | (aged79) | "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."[48] |
| 11 | 2007 | .JPG) | Doris Lessing | 22 October 1919 Kermanshah,  Guarded Domains of Iran[l] | 17 November 2013 London, United Kingdom | "that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny."[49] |
| 12 | 2009 | .jpg) | Herta Müller | 17 August 1953 Nițchidorf,  Romanian People's Republic[m] | (aged72) | "who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed."[50] |
| 13 | 2013 | .jpg) | Alice Munro | 10 July 1931 Wingham, Ontario,  Canada | 13 May 2024 Port Hope, Ontario, Canada | "master of the contemporary short story"[51] |
| 14 | 2015 | _08_(cropped2).JPG) | Svetlana Alexievich | 31 May 1948 Stanislav,Ukrainian SSR,  Soviet Union[n] | (aged77) | "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time."[52] |
| 15 | 2018 | .jpg) | Olga Tokarczuk | 29 January 1962 Sulechów, Poland | (aged64) | "for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life."[53] |
| 16 | 2020 | .jpg) | Louise Glück | 22 April 1943 New York City, United States | 13 October 2023 Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States | "for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal."[54] |
| 17 | 2022 | .jpg) | Annie Ernaux | 1 September 1940 Lillebonne,Seine-Maritime,  Military Administration in France[d] | (aged85) | "for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory."[55] |
| 18 | 2024 | .png) | Han Kang | 27 November 1970 Gwangju,  South Korea | (aged55) | "for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life."[56] |
| No. | Year | Portrait | Name | Born | Died | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1905 | .jpg) | Bertha von Suttner | 9 June 1843 Prague,  Austrian Empire[a] | 21 June 1914 Vienna,  Austria-Hungary[o] | "for her audacity to oppose the horrors of war."[57] |
| 2 | 1931 | .jpg) | Jane Addams | 6 September 1860 Cedarville, Illinois, United States | 21 May 1935 Chicago, Illinois, 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."[58] (shared withNicholas Murray Butler) |
| 3 | 1946 |  | Emily Greene Balch | 8 January 1867 Boston, Massachusetts, United States | 9 January 1961 Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States | "for her lifelong work for the cause of peace."[59] (shared withJohn Raleigh Mott) |
| 4 | 1976 | .jpg) | Betty Williams | 22 May 1943 Belfast,Northern Ireland, United Kingdom | 17 March 2020 Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom | "for the courageous efforts in founding a movement to put an end to theviolent conflict in Northern Ireland."[60] |
| 5 | .jpg) | Mairead Maguire | 27 January 1944 Belfast,Northern Ireland, United Kingdom | (aged82) | ||
| 6 | 1979 | .jpg) | Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu (rel. name: Mother Teresa) | 26 August 1910 Skopje,  Ottoman Empire[p] | 5 September 1997 Kolkata, West Bengal,  India | "for herwork for bringing help to suffering humanity."[61] |
| 7 | 1982 | _(cropped).jpg) | Alva Myrdal | 31 January 1902 Uppsala, United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway[j] | 1 February 1986 Danderyd, Sweden | "for theirwork fordisarmament andnuclear and weapon-free zones."[62] (shared withAlfonso García Robles) |
| 8 | 1991 | .jpg) | Aung San Suu Kyi | 19 June 1945 Yangon,  State of Burma[q] | (aged80) | "for her non-violent struggle fordemocracy andhuman rights."[63] |
| 9 | 1992 | .jpg) | Rigoberta Menchú | 9 January 1959 Laj Chimel,Quiché,  Guatemala | (aged67) | "in recognition of her work forsocial justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for therights of indigenous peoples."[64] |
| 10 | 1997 | .jpg) | Jody Williams | 9 October 1950 Rutland, Vermont, United States | (aged75) | "for their work for the banning and clearing ofanti-personnel mines."[65] (shared with theInternational Campaign to Ban Landmines) |
| 11 | 2003 | .jpg) | Shirin Ebadi | 21 June 1947 Hamadan,  Imperial State of Iran[l] | (aged78) | "for her efforts for democracy andhuman rights, focusing especially on the struggle for the rights of women and children."[66] |
| 12 | 2004 | .jpg) | Wangarĩ Maathai | 1 April 1940 Tetu,Nyeri,  Colony and Protectorate of Kenya[r] | 25 September 2011 Nairobi,  Kenya | "for her contribution tosustainable development, democracy and peace."[67] |
| 13 | 2011 | .jpg) | Ellen Johnson Sirleaf | 29 October 1938 Monrovia,  Liberia | (aged87) | "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and forwomen's rights to full participation in peace-building work."[68] |
| 14 | .jpg) | Leymah Gbowee | 1 February 1972 Monrovia, Liberia | (aged54) | ||
| 15 | .jpg) | Tawakkol Karman | 7 February 1979 Shara'b As Salam,Taiz,  Yemen Arab Republic[s] | (aged47) | ||
| 16 | 2014 | .jpg) | Malala Yousafzai | 12 July 1997 Mingora,Swat,  Pakistan | (aged28) | "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for theright of all children to education."[69] (shared withKailash Satyarthi) |
| 17 | 2018 | _(cropped).jpg) | Nadia Murad | 10 March 1993 Kocho,  Iraqi Republic[t] | (aged32) | "for their efforts to end the use ofsexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict."[70] (shared withDenis Mukwege) |
| 18 | 2021 | .jpg) | Maria Ressa | 2 October 1963 Manila,  Philippines | (aged62) | "for their effort to safeguardfreedom of expression, which is a precondition fordemocracy and lasting peace."[71] (shared withDmitry Andreyevich Muratov) |
| 19 | 2023 | .jpg) | Narges Mohammadi | 21 April 1972 Zanjan, Imperial State of Iran[l] | (aged53) | "for her fight against theoppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all."[72] |
| 20 | 2025 | _(cropped).jpg) | María Corina Machado | 7 October 1967 Caracas,  Venezuela | (aged58) | "for her tireless work promotingdemocratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just andpeaceful transition fromdictatorship to democracy."[73] |
| No. | Year | Portrait | Name | Born | Died | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2009 | .jpg) | Elinor Ostrom | 7 August 1933 Los Angeles, California, United States | 12 June 2012 Bloomington, Indiana, United States | "for her analysis of economic governance, especiallythe commons."[74] (shared withOliver E. Williamson) |
| 2 | 2019 | .jpg) | Esther Duflo | 25 October 1972 Paris,  France | (aged53) | "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty."[75] (shared withAbhijit Banerjee andMichael Kremer) |
| 3 | 2023 | .jpg) | Claudia Goldin | 14 May 1946 New York City, United States | (aged79) | "for having advanced our understanding ofwomen's labour market outcomes"[76] |
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1 Nobel Memorial Prize (not one of the original Nobel Prizes). | |||||||||||||
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