First Woman Nobel Prize Winners

The below table provides the list of First Women Nobel Laureates in their irrespective fields.

First Women Nobel Laureates

Field Winner Year
Peace Bertha von Suttner (Austria-Hungary) 1905
Literature Selma Lagerlöf (Sweden) 1909
Chemistry Marie Curie (France) 1911
Physics Marie Curie 1909
Physiology / Medicine Gerty Cori (USA) 1947
Economics Elinor Ostrom (USA) 2009
  • Total no. of Women Nobel Laureates – 58 (as of 2020).*
  • Most no. of Nobel Prize was awarded to women in the year – 2009 (5).
  • First Woman to win the Nobel Prize – Marie Curie (1909).
  • First Woman to win an unshared Nobel Prize – Marie Curie (1911).
    • Only person ever to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences – Marie Curie.
  • First Asian Woman to win a Nobel Prize – Mother Theresa (India, 1979).
  • First African Woman to win the Nobel Prize – Wangari Maathai (Kenya, 2004).
  • First Black Woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature – Toni Morrison (Beloved, USA, 1993).
  • First Muslim Woman to receive Nobel Prize – Shirin Ebadi (Peace, 2003).
  • First indigenous person to receive a Nobel Peace Prize – Rigoberta Menchú (Guatemala, 1992).
  • First American Woman to win a Nobel Prize in Medicine – Gerty Cori.
  • First (& Only) Woman to win an unshared Nobel Prize in Physiology / Medicine – Barbara McClintock (1988).
  • Only mother-daughter pair to have won Nobel Prizes – Marie Curie &  Irène Joliot-Curie (Chemistry, 1935).

📝 SideNotes :

  • *Actual no. of female Nobel laureates is 57, listed as 58 because Marie Curie won it 2 times.
  • Youngest Woman to win Nobel Prize – Malala Yousafzai (Peace, 2014).