List of female Nobel laureates
As of 2019, Nobel Prizes have been awarded to 866 men, 53 women, and 24 unique organizations.
The distribution of female Nobel Laureates is as follows:
- seventeen women have won the Nobel Peace Prize,
- fifteen have won the Nobel Prize in Literature,
- twelve have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine,
- five have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry,
- three have won the Nobel Prize in Physics,
- and two, Elinor Ostrom and Esther Duflo, have won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.
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 Esther Duflo in Economics, Donna Strickland in Physics, Frances Arnold in Chemistry, Nadia Murad for Peace, and Olga Tokarczuk in Literature.
Laureates
| Year | Image | Laureate | Country | Category | Rationale |
| 1903 | Poland and France | Physics | "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel" | ||
| 1905 | Austria–Hungary | Peace | Honorary President of Permanent International Peace Bureau, Bern, Switzerland; Author of Lay Down Your Arms. | ||
| 1909 | Sweden | Literature | "in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings" | ||
| 1911 | Poland and France | Chemistry | "for her discovery of radium and polonium" | ||
| 1926 | Italy | Literature | "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" | ||
| 1928 | Norway | Literature | "principally for her powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages" | ||
| 1931 | United States | Peace | Sociologist; International President, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. | ||
| 1935 | France | Chemistry | "for their synthesis of new radioactive elements" | ||
| 1938 | United States | Literature | "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces" | ||
| 1945 | Chile | Literature | "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" | ||
| 1946 | United States | Peace | Formerly Professor of History and Sociology; Honorary International President, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. | ||
| 1947 | United States | Physiology or Medicine | "for their discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen" | ||
| 1963 | United States | Physics | "for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure" | ||
| 1964 | United Kingdom | Chemistry | "for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances" | ||
| 1966 | Sweden and Germany | Literature | "for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel's destiny with touching strength" | ||
| 1976 | United Kingdom | Peace | Founder of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement | ||
| 1976 | United Kingdom | Peace | Founder of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement | ||
| 1977 | United States | Physiology or Medicine | "for the development of radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones" | ||
| 1979 | India and Yugoslavia | Peace | Leader of Missionaries of Charity, Calcutta. | ||
| 1982 | Sweden | Peace | Former Cabinet Minister; Diplomat; Writer. | ||
| 1983 | United States | Physiology or Medicine | "for her discovery of mobile genetic elements" | ||
| 1986 | Italy and United States | Physiology or Medicine | "for their discoveries of growth factors" | ||
| 1988 | United States | Physiology or Medicine | "for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment" | ||
| 1991 | South Africa | Literature | "who through her magnificent epic writing has - in the words of Alfred Nobel - been of very great benefit to humanity" | ||
| 1991 | Burma | Peace | "for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights" | ||
| 1992 | Guatemala | Peace | "in recognition of her work for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples" | ||
| 1993 | United States | Literature | "who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality" | ||
| 1995 | Germany | Physiology or Medicine | "for their discoveries concerning the genetic control of early embryonic development" | ||
| 1996 | Poland | Literature | "for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality" | ||
| 1997 | United States | Peace | "for their work for the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines" | ||
| 2003 | Iran | Peace | "for her efforts for democracy and human rights. She has focused especially on the struggle for the rights of women and children" | ||
| 2004 | Austria | Literature | "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" | ||
| 2004 | Kenya | Peace | "for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace" | ||
| 2004 | United States | Physiology or Medicine | "for their discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system" | ||
| 2007 | United Kingdom | Literature | "that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny" | ||
| 2008 | France | Physiology or Medicine | "for their discovery of HIV, human immunodeficiency virus" | ||
| 2009 | Australia and United States | Physiology or Medicine | "for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase" | ||
| 2009 | United States | Physiology or Medicine | "for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase" | ||
| 2009 | Israel | Chemistry | "for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome" | ||
| 2009 | Germany and Romania | Literature | "who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed" | ||
| 2009 | United States | Economics | "for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons" | ||
| 2011 | Liberia | Peace | "For their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work" | ||
| 2011 | Liberia | Peace | "For their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work" | ||
| 2011 | Yemen | Peace | "For their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work" | ||
| 2013 | Canada | Literature | "master of the contemporary short story" | ||
| 2014 | Norway | Physiology or Medicine | "for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain" | ||
| 2014 | Pakistan | Peace | "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education". | ||
| 2015 | China | Physiology or Medicine | "for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria " | ||
| 2015 | Belarus | Literature | "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time" | ||
| 2018 | Canada | Physics | "for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses" | ||
| 2018 | United States | Chemistry | "for the directed evolution of enzymes" | ||
| 2018 | Iraq | Peace | "for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict" | ||
| 2018 | Poland | Literature | “for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life” | ||
| 2019 | France and United States | Economics | "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty" |