Nobel Women

Nobel Prize-Winning Women

Inspired by Elinor Ostrom, who recently became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, findingDulcinea recognizes female Nobel Prize winners. Read biographies and news stories celebrating their incredible lives and accomplishments.

wangari muta maathai, 2004 nobel peace prize
Associated Press

Wangari Muta Maathai, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Winner

September 27, 2011
by Haley A. Lovett
In 2004, Wangari Muta Maathai became the first African Woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Maathai is known as the founder of the “Green Belt Movement” to reforest Africa.
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  • Happy Birthday, Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize-Winning Author
    February 18, 2011 06:00 AM
    Toni Morrison grew up in a house of African-American storytellers and developed a love for books. After earning a masters degree in English and teaching for many years, she felt there was a book she wanted to read but had yet to find—so she wrote it herself. A prolific career ensued, with Morrison winning both the Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes for her fiction.
  • Happy Birthday, Marie Curie, Discoverer of Radium
    November 07, 2010 12:00 AM
    The first woman in France to receive a doctorate degree, scientist Marie Curie is remembered for her discoveries in radioactivity and radioactive elements. Her work won her two Nobel prizes in physics and chemistry, but unfortunately also led to her death.
  • Happy Birthday, Doris Lessing, Social Commentator and Nobel Prize Winner in Literature
    October 22, 2010 12:00 AM
    A powerful, politically minded and acerbic Nobel Laureate, Britain's Doris Lessing is a treasured social commentator and novelist who has continued her prolific and award-winning career into her 80s.
  • Happy Birthday, Jane Addams, Social Settlement Worker
    September 06, 2010 09:00 AM
    Jane Addams was a pioneer in the field of social work and co-founder of the Hull House, a settlement house for lower class immigrants in Chicago. A noted pacifist and internationalist, Addams fearlessly took unpopular stances and became the first American woman ever to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
  • Happy Birthday, Mother Teresa, 1979 Winner of Nobel Peace Prize
    August 26, 2010 10:00 AM
    Mother Teresa won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her outstanding devotion to the poor in Calcutta’s slums.
  • Happy Birthday, Elinor Ostrom, First Woman to Win the Nobel Prize in Economics
    August 07, 2010 08:00 AM
    Elinor Ostrom won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics for her against-the-grain studies of how self-imposed regulation of common resources can be more efficient than government regulation.
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