A few days ago, the Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to Harvard University Professor Claudia Goldin for her work on women’s earnings and labour market participation through the centuries. Through her research, she uncovered the key drivers of gender differences in the labour market. In a nutshell, it showed that despite continued economic growth, women’s pay did not continuously catch up to men’s and a divide still exists despite women gaining higher levels of education than men.

But the gender divide exists even among Nobel prize winners. Businessline’s analysis shows that since 2003, the proportion of women among Nobel laureates has been quite low, 14.4 per cent. Since 2003, 243 people have been awarded the Nobel Prize across categories. Of them, just 35 are women. In fact, out of the 11 Nobel Prize winners this year more than 60 per cent (seven out of 11), are men.

Apart from Goldin, Narges Mohammadi, an Iranian human rights advocate, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year, for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran. Presently in jail, Narges has been arrested 13 times, convicted five times, sentenced to 31 years in prison and 154 lashes.

The other women laureates this year include Katalin Kariko (Medicine) and Anne L’Hullier (Physics).

Men vs women

Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903. From 2003 to 2023, there has only been a marginal increase in the share of women laureates in Nobel Prizes. The highest share of women laureates has been 36.36 per cent in 2020 and 2023. However, in six years- 2005, 2006, 2010, 2012, 2016 and 2017, there were no women laureates.

Men, on the other hand, received the majority of the awards in the last 20 years.

Poor recognition in sciences

Another trend in the prizes is that women are mostly awarded in the Literature and Peace categories. On the flip side, recognition of women in sciences has been miniscule.

From 2000 to 2023, 42.8 per cent and 38.09 per cent of laureates in Peace and Literature, respectively, were women. However, in Physics, Chemistry, and Medicine, less than 15 per cent of the laureates were women. In Economics, only 7.14 per cent of laureates were women. This includes Claudia Goldin.

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