Amber Bellaire
Globe and Mail Update Published on Wednesday, Oct. 07, 2009 7:07PM EDT Last updated on Monday, Oct. 12, 2009 2:17PM EDT
It’s been a banner year for women and the Nobel Prize, marking the first time five women have been named Nobel laureates in a single year.
Today's announcement of Elinor Ostrom, an American economist, for the 2009 Nobel Prize in economics set the record.
A 2008 file photo from the University of Stockholm shows Elinor Ostrom who won the Nobel economics prize on Oct. 12, 2009.
Last week, four women won Nobels. Herta Mueller, a little-known Romanian-born German author, won the 2009 Nobel Prize in literature. U.S.-based researchers Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider were among the medicine winners and the chemistry prize included Israel’s Ada Yonath.
Dr. Yonath won the 2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry Tuesday morning for mapping ribosomes, the protein-producing factories within cells, at the atomic level. “These models are now used by scientists in order to develop new antibiotics, directly assisting the saving of lives and decreasing humanity's suffering,” the academy said in its announcement. Dr. Yonath shared the prize with American colleagues Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz.
Israeli scientist Ada Yonath, professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science, smiles during a news conference in Rehovot near Tel Aviv Oct. 7, 2009. Three scientists, one of them Yonath, who produced atom-by-atom maps of the mysterious, life-giving ribosome won the Nobel chemistry prize on Wednesday for a breakthrough that has allowed researchers to develop powerful new antibiotics.
The prize includes a 10-million kronor ($1.4-million U.S.) prize and will be handed out Dec. 10 in the Swedish capital.
Dr. Blackburn and Dr. Greider were co-recipients of the Nobel Prize in medicine, announced Monday morning at the Nobel assembly in Stockholm, Sweden. The two women shared the award with another American, Jack W. Szostak.
Carol Greider (C), professor at John Hopkins University School of Medicine, reacts after being awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for medicine, along with Australian-born Elizabeth Blackburn and British-born Jack Szostak. Oct. 5, 2009.
The three doctors were accredited for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase. A statement from the Nobel Foundation said that their discovery added a new dimension to our understanding of the cell, shed light on disease mechanisms, and stimulated the development of potential new therapies,” including therapies for cancer.
University of California San Francisco scientist Elizabeth Blackburn celebrates after winning the Nobel Prize in medicine, Oct. 5, 2009 in San Francisco. Blackburn shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in medicine with Carol Greider and Jack Szostak for their discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase.
Only 41 Nobel Prizes have ever been handed out to women, and that includes this year's five female winners and both of Marie Curie's awards.
Five of the most acclaimed female Nobel Prize winners are listed below.
Marie Curie physics (1903) and chemistry (1911)
An undated picture likely from 1895 shows student Marie Sklodowska in Paris, shortly before her wedding with Pierre Curie.
Curie and husband Pierre Currie were awarded half of the 1903 Nobel Prize in physics for their research with the spontaneous radiation discovered by Henri Becquerel, who won the other half of the prize.
In 1911 she received a second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry, in recognition of her work in radioactivity.
In 1935, Curie's daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, and son-in-law, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, jointly received Nobel prizes in chemistry for their discovery of artificial radioactivity.
To this day, Marie Curie is the only woman to have ever won two Nobel prizes. The French Curie family has more Nobel wins than any other family.
Toni Morrison, literature (1993)
Author Toni Morrison attends the premiere for the film "Lemming" at Le Palais de Festival on the opening night of the 58th International Cannes Film Festival May 11, 2005 in Cannes, France.
A professor, writer and editor, Morrison, now 78, was recognized for her many contributions to the literary community. The American has written six monumental novels, including The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved, a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1988.
“Toni Morrison is a literary artist of the first rank. She delves into the language itself, a language she wants to liberate from the fetters of race. And she addresses us with the lustre of poetry,” the Nobel Foundation announced upon her win in 1993.
Doris Lessing, literature (2007)
AP
Doris Lessing holds up the 2007 Nobel Prize for literature medal after being presented it by the Ambassador of Sweden Staffan Carlsson, during a ceremony at the Wallace Collection art gallery in London, Jan. 30, 2008. The writer, 88 at the time of this photo, suffers back problems and was not well enough to travel to Stockholm for the official Nobel prize-giving ceremony on Dec. 10, 2007.
The Nobel Foundation awarded Lessing with the prestigious Nobel Prize in literature, stating that “with skepticism, fire and visionary power,” she “has subjected a divided civilization to scrutiny.” Aged 89-years-old, the Briton is most famous for The Grass is Singing, a novel about racial politics, and The Golden Notebook, a novel that interweaves fiction and reality, cleverly exploring serious themes like Stalinism and the Cold War, in an enjoyable manner.
Aung San Suu Kyi, peace (1991)
AP
People hold a banner with a photo of Myanmar Nobel Peace prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, to protest against the bloody anti-government protests this week in Myanmar in Brussels, Sept. 28, 2007.
Suu Kyi was determined to end the socialist, military rule of government in Myanmar (also known as Burma). In 1990, the government held free elections in the country, and Suu Kyi, leader of the opposition democratic party, won by a landslide. Upon discovery of these results, however, the military junta refused to give up power. It wasn't long after when Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest. A believer in Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of non-violent protesting, Suu Kyi remains in her house this very day. “Suu Kyi's struggle is one of the most extraordinary examples of civil courage in Asia in recent decades,” the Nobel Foundation announced at the time she was awarded. World leaders such as U.S. president Barack Obama and French president Nicolas Sarkozy have demanded her release, but it has not yet happened.
Shirin Ebadi, peace (2003)
The Globe and Mail
Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian lawyer and human rights activist, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, poses after an interview in Montreal, June 13, 2005.
The first Iranian person, let alone woman, to win the Nobel Peace Prize, is a 62-year-old lawyer and human rights activist. The Nobel Foundation described Ebadi as a Muslim woman who has stood up time and time again as a courageous activist for the human rights of women and children. The academy said Ebadi “never heeded the threats to her own safety,” adding that “no society deserves to be labelled civilized unless the rights of women and children are respected.”
The Nobel Prize in economics has never been won by a woman. The opportunity to be the first is still available.
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