The Nobel Prize is the most famous science prize in the world. Nobel Prizes are awarded every December to reward outstanding efforts in six fields — Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace and Economic Sciences.
The Nobel Prize is named after Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), a Swedish inventor, entrepreneur, scientist, businessman, writer and poet. Nobel’s will stipulated that his fortune should be used to reward “those who, during the preceding year, should have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind “. This gave rise to the Nobel Prize that the Nobel Foundation awards yearly. The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901. Each prize consists of a medal, personal diploma and cash award of 11 million Swedish Kroner.
It is often remarked that women have won very few Nobel Prizes. From 1901 to 2023, Nobel Prizes were awarded to 915 men and 66 women, ie 93.27 per cent of the prizes went to men and 6.73 per cent to women. These 66 prizes to women were partitioned as follows: Medicine or Physiology (13); Physics (5); Chemistry (8); Literature (18); Economics (3) and Peace (19).
Only the highest calibre scientific work is considered worthy of consideration for the Nobel Prize. For example, Albert Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1921 for his discovery of the photoelectric effect. I certainly never produced any research results within the loudest ass’s roar of Nobel Prize quality!
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It is not surprising that men have been awarded many more Nobel Prizes than women since 1901 because over the first half of the 20th century few women went on to third-level education and, of these, fewer took science degrees. But things changed greatly in women’s favour in the second half of the 20th century, continuing/accelerating to the present day.
Women-to-men entry ratios to university are now about 55 per cent women to 45 per cent men. Intake of women into the sciences has also improved greatly and today women students taking biology outnumber men 70 per cent to 30 per cent. My graduating Biochemistry class at UCD in the 1960s was 66 per cent men, 33 per cent women; today that picture is reversed at 33 per cent men, 66 per cent women. Physics and Mathematics are now among a minority of science subjects where men comprise a strong majority of the students — about 66 per cent men and 33 women students (HEA Statistics 2024).
The historical participation rates of men compared to women in the scientific profession largely explain the heavy bias of Nobel Prize awards in favour of men to date. But since women’s participation in science now equals men’s participation, the Nobel Prize award pattern will gradually change towards a rough parity of awards between the sexes as we go forward.
The increasing success of women can already be seen by noting the more recent gradual rise in the number of female Nobel Laureates. The numbers of women Nobel Prize winners per quarter century, beginning 1901, were as follows: 1901–1925 (4); 1925–1950 (4); 1950-1975 (3); 1976–2000 (15); and 2001–2023 (35).
Women are still not winning many Nobel Prizes, the greatest honour available in science, but how are they doing at senior levels in science below that pinnacle? The picture here is rosier.
Women now progress to PhD level at the same rate as men. Things slow down a bit after that. This may be related to the fact that prestigious research laboratories run by well-known male scientists take on a greater proportion of men than women to fill their postdoctoral positions (a postdoctoral appointment is usually the next step after getting your PhD).
And experience of getting “postdoc” training in a prestigious laboratory makes one more employable when applying later for one’s first “proper” academic position, according to Julianna LeMieux, writing in American Council on Science and Health.
But prospects of women filling senior academic posts in our Irish universities are now improving rapidly. For example, until 2019 no Irish university had a woman president. Today seven of the presidents of the 12 Irish universities are women. Also, although about half of all academic staff in Irish universities are women until 2020 only 24 per cent of professorships were held by women. This asymmetry is now being addressed by introducing new professorships that are gender-specific, a clumsy intervention that I would hope will be considered unnecessary before long.
- William Reville is an emeritus professor of biochemistry at UCC