The Nobel Prize () is a set of five different prizes that, according to its benefactor Alfred Nobel, in his 1895 will, must be awarded "to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind". The five prizes are awarded in the fields of Physiology or Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Literature, and Peace.

As of 2025, 68 Nobel Prizes and the Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences have been awarded to 67 women and since 1901, the year wherein the awarding of the prizes began, hundreds of women have already been nominated and shortlisted carefully in each field.

The first woman to win a Nobel Prize was Marie Curie, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 with her husband, Pierre Curie, and Henri Becquerel. Curie is also the only woman to have won multiple Nobel Prizes; in 1911, she won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Curie's daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935, making the two the only mother-daughter pair to have won Nobel Prizes. Of the currently revealed female nominees both in physics and chemistry, the notable scientists Alice Ball, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Harriet Brooks, Agnes Pockels, Margaret Eliza Maltby, Mileva Marić, Maud Menten, Elda Emma Anderson, Maria Lipp, Astrid Cleve, Hertha Sponer, Kathleen Lonsdale, Geertruida de Haas-Lorentz, Helen Parsons, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Katherine Burr Blodgett, Marie-Antoinette Tonnelat, Katharina Boll-Dornberger Elizabeth Rona and Leona Woods were not included.

In 1912, Mary Edwards Walker became the first ever woman nominated for prize in physiology or medicine but her nomination was later declared invalid by the Nobel Committee because her nominator was not invited to nominate that year. Hence, Cécile Vogt-Mugnier, nominated first in 1922, became the official first female nominee but never won despite numerous recommendations. She was followed by Maud Slye who was nominated in the year 1923, but again never won. Only in 1947, that the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was finally awarded to a woman, Gerty Cori, sharing with her husband Carl Ferdinand Cori. Of the currently revealed female nominees, the physiologists Nettie Stevens, María Orosa, Florence R. Sabin, Rosalind Franklin, Louise Pearce, Esther Killick, Hattie Alexander, Dorothy Hansine Andersen, Frieda Robscheit-Robbins, Virginia Apgar, Olga Bridgman and Alice Catherine Evans were not included.

The most number of female nominees was in the field of literature. The first woman to be nominated was the German memoirist Malwida von Meysenbug for the year 1901. She was nominated by the French historian Gabriel Monod but unfortunately did not win the prize. Her nomination was followed by Émilie Lerou and Selma Lagerlöf for the year 1904. Lagerlöf would later on become the first woman to win the prize in the year 1909. Of the 83 currently revealed female nominees for the literature category, the celebrated authors Kate Chopin, Sarah Orne Jewett, Delmira Agustini, Emilia Pardo Bazán, Edith Nesbit, Carmen de Burgos, Begum Rokeya, Lu Yin, Alfonsina Storni, Marina Tsvetaeva, Virginia Woolf, Simone Weil, Jelena Dimitrijević, Else Lasker-Schüler, Gertrude Stein, Emma Orczy, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Zora Neale Hurston, Edith Hamilton, Flannery O'Connor, Carson McCullers, Fannie Hurst, Nancy Mitford, Rosario Castellanos, Hannah Arendt, Agatha Christie, Clarice Lispector and Jean Rhys were not included.

The first women nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize were Belva Ann Lockwood and Bertha von Suttner, who would eventually be awarded in 1905. The latter was considered for authoring Lay Down Your Arms! and contributing to the creation of the Prize. Of the 64 currently revealed female nominees, the famous Susan B. Anthony, Florence Nightingale, Clara Barton, Harriet Tubman, Frances Xavier Cabrini, Millicent Fawcett, Mary Harris Jones, Olive Schreiner, Aletta Jacobs, Emmeline Pankhurst, Ida B. Wells, Käthe Kollwitz, Muriel Lester, Katharine Drexel, Helene Schweitzer, Marie Stopes, Virginia Gildersleeve, Vera Brittain, Bertha Lutz, Ava Helen Pauling, Golda Meir, Rachel Carson and Rosa Parks were not included. Based on leaked nominations, the youngest nominee in the category was Hind Rajab, a five-year-old Palestinian girl who was nominated posthumously in 2025.

Physiology or Medicine

Starting from 1912 to 1953, 15 women have been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine wherein one was declared invalid, one was purportedly recommended and one was subsequently awarded.

PictureNameBornDiedYears NominatedNotes 1912Mary Edwards Walker26 November 1832Oswego, New York, United States21 February 1919Oswego, New York, United States1912Nominated by A. S. Helton. 1922Cécile Vogt-Mugnier27 March 1875 Annecy, Haute-Savoie, French Third Republic4 May 1962 Cambridge, United Kingdom1922, 1923, 1926, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1950, 1951, 1953Nominated jointly with Oskar Vogt each time. 1923Maud Slye8 February 1879 Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States17 September 1954 Chicago, Illinois, United States1923Nominated by Albert Soiland. 1925Gladys Dick18 December 1881 Pawnee City, Nebraska, United States21 August 1963 Palo Alto, California, United States1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1935Nominated jointly with George Frederick Dick each time. 1930Alice Bernheim28 September 1878 Cincinnati, Ohio, United States14 July 1968 Cincinnati, Ohio, United States1930Nominated by William Cogswell Clarke. 1939May Mellanby9 September 1882 London, United Kingdom5 March 1978 London, United Kingdom1939Nominated jointly with Edward Mellanby.Susan Gower Smith9 December 1897 Greenville, South Carolina, United States3 October 1983 Durham, North Carolina, United States1939Nominated jointly with David Tillerson Smith and Julian Ruffin; nominated by Osvaldo Polimanti. 1940Olive Watkins Smith29 April 1901 Worcester, Massachusetts, United States1983 Brookline, Massachusetts, United States1940Nominated jointly with George Van Siclen Smith; nominated by Frank Arthur Pemberton. 1941Sona Valikhan [Vəlixan]19 June 1883 Kharkiv, Russian Empire4 April 1982 Baku, Azerbaijan SSR, Soviet Union1941Nominated by the Azerbaijan Medical Institute. 1946Gerty Cori15 August 1896 Prague, Austria-Hungary25 October 1957 Glendale, Missouri, United States1946, 1947Awarded the 1947 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with Carl Ferdinand Cori and Bernardo Houssay.Militsa Lyubimova-Engelhardt26 December 1898 Kazan, Tatarstan, Russian Empire22 December 1975 Moscow, Russia SFSR, Soviet Union1946Nominated jointly with Vladimir Engelgardt; nominated by Leon Orbeli. 1947Helen Taussig24 May 1898 Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States20 May 1986 Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States1947, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953 1951Miriam Menkin8 August 1901 Riga, Russian Empire8 June 1992 Boston, Massachusetts, United States1951Nominated jointly with John Rock and Roger Alfred Auguste Vendrely; nominated by Bożydar Szabuniewicz.Madge Macklin6 February 1893 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States4 March 1962 Columbus, Ohio, United States1951Nominated by Charles Clifford Macklin. 1952Elizabeth Bugie5 October 1920 New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States10 April 2001 New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States1952Nominated jointly with Selman Waksman and Albert Schatz; nominated by Jevrem Nedelkovitch. 1954–1974should be revealed by Nobel Committee Others 1977Rosalyn Yalow19 July 1921 New York City, New York, United States30 May 2011 The Bronx, New York, United States1977Award the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with Andrew V. Schally and Roger Guillemin. 1979Johanna Budwig30 September 1908 Essen, Prussia, German Empire19 May 2003 Freudenstadt, Baden-Württemberg, Germany1979 1983Barbara McClintock16 June 1902 Hartford, Connecticut, United States2 September 1992 Huntington, New York, United States1983Awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. 1986Rita Levi-Montalcini22 April 1909 Turin, Kingdom of Italy 30 December 2012 Rome, Italy1986Awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with Stanley Cohen. 1988Gertrude Elion23 January 1918 New York City, New York, United States21 February 1999 Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States1988Awarded the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with James W. Black and George H. Hitchings. 1993Louise Chow1943 Hunan, Republic of China(aged )1993 1995Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard20 October 1942 Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Nazi Germany(aged )1995Awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with Edward B. Lewis and Eric F. Wieschaus. 2004Linda Buck29 January 1947 Seattle, Washington, United States(aged )2004Awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with Richard Axel. 2008Françoise Barré-Sinoussi30 July 1947 Paris, French Fourth Republic(aged )2008Awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with Luc Montagnier and Harald zur Hausen.Nubia Muñoz Calero7 February 1940 Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia(aged )2008, 2019 2009Elizabeth Blackburn26 November 1948 Hobart, Tasmania, Australia(aged )2009Awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with Jack W. Szostak.Carolyn Greider15 April 1961 San Diego, California, United States(aged )2009 2013Ingeborg Hochmair17 January 1953 Vienna, Austria(aged )2013 2014May-Britt Moser4 January 1963 Fosnavåg, Norway(aged )2014Awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with Edvard I. Moser and John O'Keefe. 2015Tú Yōuyōu30 December 1930 Ningbo, Zhejiang, Republic of China(aged )2015Awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura.Evelyn M. Witkin9 March 1921 New York City, New York, United States8 July 2023 Plainsboro Township, New Jersey, United States 2015 2016Arlene Sharpe1953 Gary, Indiana, United States(aged )2016 2017Yuan Chang17 November 1959 Taipei, Taiwan(aged )2017 2019Philippa Marrack28 June 1945 Ewell, Surrey, England(aged )2019 2020Pamela Bjorkman21 June 1956 Portland, Oregon, United States(aged )2020Huda Zoghbi20 June 1954 Beirut, Lebanon(aged )2020 2021Özlem Türeci6 March 1967 Siegen, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany(aged )2021 2022Virginia Man-Yee Lee1945 Chongqing, Yuzhong, Republic of China(aged )2021Mary-Claire King27 February 1946 Wilmette, Illinois, United States(aged )2021 2023Katalin Karikó17 January 1955 Szolnok, Hungarian People's Republic(aged )2023Awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with Drew Weissman.Lotte Bjerre Knudsen"10 March 1964 Copenhagen, Denmark"(aged )2023, 2025Svetlana Mojsov8 December 1947 Skopje, North Macedonia(aged )2023, 2025 2024Helen Hobbs5 May 1952 Boston, Massachusetts, United States(aged )2024Ann Graybiel25 January 1942 Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States(aged )2024 2025Mary Brunkow1961 Portland, Oregon, United States (aged )2025Awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi.Andrea Ablasser13 July 1983 Bad Friedrichshall, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany(aged )2025

Physics

Starting from 1902 to 1974, 13 women have been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics and three of the nominees were subsequently awarded.