As the Nobel Prize announcement week has ended, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has noted that it has no plans to introduce gender or nationality quotas in the selection of the laureates of the prestigious science and peace prize, British public broadcaster BBC reports.
Since beginning of the annual Nobel Prize award in 1901, 59 prizes have gone to women out of a total of 947 people. In 2020, scientists Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna became the first two women to share the honour when they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing the tools to edit DNA. That was the first instance any of the science prizes had been awarded to two women without a male collaborator also listed on the award.
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Goran Hansson, head of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, has said to AFP news agency that the jury wishes people to win «because they made the most important discovery».
«It’s sad that there are so few women Nobel laureates and it reflects the unfair conditions in society, particularly in years past, but still existing. And there’s so much more to do. (..) In the end, we will give the prize to those who are found the most worthy, those who have made the most important contributions,» Hansson explained, according to the BBC.
Nobel Prize jury rejects introducing gender quota, despite vast difference in male and female laureates
