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Every fall, the Nobel Foundation announces
the new crop of Nobel Prize winners, rewarding distinguished achievements
in the fields of physics, chemistry, economics, physiology or medicine,
literature and peace. Of the total 789 individual winners since
1901, we wonder: In which field have women received the most Nobel
Prizes?
* * *
You chose "Peace." Congratulations,
that's correct!
Twelve women from nine different countries
have won the Nobel Peace Prize, according to data compiled by the
organization’s official website, nobelprize.org.
As in literature, in this field the nationalities
of the women winners are also diverse — with winners from Europe,
India, Southeast Asia, North and South America, Africa and the Middle
East.
Mother Teresa of India and Aung San Suu
Kyi of Burma remain perhaps the most famous of recent winners for
their work on eliminating poverty and facilitating democratic development,
respectively.
"Literature"
is not correct.
Beginning with Selma Lagerlöf of
Sweden in 1909, 11 women from nine different countries have won
the Nobel Prize in literature. This means that roughly once every
decade a woman has been awarded the prize. Of these 11 women authors,
one Nelly Sachs of Sweden won a share of the prize,
splitting the award with Shmuel Yosef Agnon of Israel in 1966.
In all, women account for just 35
or 4% of the 789 prizes awarded to individuals, as of late
2008.
"Physics and chemistry" is
not correct.
Only four different women have ever won
the Nobel Prize in the fields of physics and chemistry. The first
one of these was awarded to Marie Curie, who won as far back as
1903 for her work in physics.
She was the first woman ever to receive
the prize in any discipline. Just eight years later in 1911, Curie
won again, this time in the field of chemistry and in doing
so became the first woman to ever win the Nobel Prize twice.
The Curie family legacy continued in 1935,
when daughter Irene Joliot Curie won for her research in the field
of chemistry.
"Physiology or medicine"
is not correct.
It took 46 years for a woman to win the
Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. Starting in 1947 with the
United States Gerty Cori, eight women have been winners
all of whom are from either the United States or Western Europe.
In 2008, French virologist Françoise Barré-Sinoussi
shared the prize for her research on HIV.
All but one of the women who won
the prize in physiology or medicine shared it with either one or
two other individuals. Barbara McClintock, of New York, remains
the only woman to win the prize outright for her discovery of mobile
genetic elements, in 1983.
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