The not so ‘Nobel’ gulf: Women comprise miniscule share of laureates, tiny boost in recent years

In a whopping 77 out of a total of 118 years when the Nobel Prize was awarded, not a single woman received the coveted honour.

One out of 13 is how skewed the Nobel Prizes are in 2021 on the gender parity scale. The lone woman winner is Maria Ressa from the Philippines, who shared the Nobel Prize for Peace with Dmitry Muratov of Russia for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression.

This is not the lone year with such a gender gap among laureates. In fact, it has always been like this since the inception of the prize in 1901. In a whopping 77 out of a total of 118 years when the Nobel Prize was awarded, not a single woman received the coveted honour. The latest years include 2017, 2016, 2012 and 2010. The Noble Prize committee paused the ceremony between 1940 and 1942 due to World War II.