Gender Gap in The Nomination of The Nobel Prize

Nobel prize was created by Alfred Nobel with a purpose to give recognition to the discoveries that have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind. He believed that people are capable of helping to improve the society through knowledge, science, and humanism. We clearly understand the purpose of Nobel prizes which is to award prizes to scientists that have great discoveries regardless of their gender. However, statistics have shown that since the Nobel prize in 1901 till today, there are 892 individuals that have received the Nobel prize, but just 48 of them are female. 30 of these women won either the literature or peace prize, highlighting the wide gender gap in the laureates for physics, chemistry, and physiology/medicine. Do you feel that there is a problem in the nominating process? This has raised many voices for Nobel committees to consider gender diversity when nominating scientists.

Disparity Between Genders in Nobel Prize Nominations

First, we have to find out the reason why there is a wide gender gap in the laureates for the STEM field. A very good example we can learn from is that Jocelyn Bell Burnell is an outstanding astrophysicist who was the first to discover pulsars. In the 1974 Nobel prize, Jocelyn’s name was not included for the physics prize despite her crucial contribution to the discovery of pulsars, yet it was her male colleague, Anthony Hewish, who was honored (CBC Radio, 2018). We clearly understand that for a single discovery, it is possible to put forward multiple names. This clearly shows that there is gender bias in the nominating process. In addition, at a press conference together with Anthony Hewish, Jocelyn was treated as “human interest.”

There is a traditional stereotype that women “don’t like math” and “aren’t good at science” (Feeney, 2018). These stereotypes against women in the STEM field are totally false. Studies have shown that girls and women avoid STEM education not because of cognitive inability, but because of early exposure and experience in science, stereotypes, and a lack of exposure to role models. Women face structural and institutional barriers in academic STEM careers. In this field, it is dominated by males, leading to women feeling isolated and perceived as tokens. Women are often excluded from networking opportunities and social events and left to feel that they are outside the culture of the lab. This has greatly affected the self-esteem of women scientists. The domino effect has caused women to think twice about whether to pursue a career in the STEM field due to the lack of gender diversity in the field.

The Importance of Women Role Models

We can find out it is extremely important to have women role models (Harrington, 2016). In 2013, a study by The Glass Hammer and Accenture concluded that there was a strong correlation between women with role models and women with leadership goals. In the past years of Nobel awards, the number of women that have been awarded the prize has been less than six percent. An abundance of research demonstrates that having few women represented in science creates a lack of role models to attract and retain young women in STEM professions. Statistics show that only twenty-eight percent of the world's scientists are women. If we start considering gender diversity in nominating scientists, the number of female scientists will increase drastically over the years. It is imperative to create an environment where women can thrive and contribute equally, as this would lead to significant advancements in various scientific domains.

Efforts and Challenges

Many organizations and nominators said that they have been taking gender diversity into consideration. The vice chair of the board of directors of the Nobel foundation, Göran Hansson, said, “There was an even larger bias against women then. There were far fewer women laureates if you go back 20 or 30 years.” That is not the case, as statistics have shown that from 1961 to 1990, there is a total of six women laureates in the science prize. From 1991 to 2017, the number of women laureates is eight. As you can see, the improvement of women representation is minimal. This indicates that more robust actions are needed to address the underlying causes of this disparity.

Conclusion

If we do not solve this issue, it will not only affect the reputation of the Nobel Prize, but there will also be more petitions regarding gender inequality in nominating scientists for the Nobel Prize. In order to solve the issue of raising voices to consider gender diversity, we must first tackle our unconscious biases. By eliminating these biases, there will be more women representatives in science so that future female scientists will have role models to look up to and strive in science.

References

CBC Radio. (2018). The woman who discovered pulsars was snubbed by the Nobel prize. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/radio/

Feeney, N. (2018). Gender stereotypes in STEM. Retrieved from http://www.example.com/

Harrington, B. (2016). The impact of role models on women in science. Retrieved from http://www.example.com/