The Nobel Prize and Gender

October 14, 2021 Mollie Messick
48 Comments
Gender News

I wanted to share this recent article from the BBC about the question of gender and ethnicity quotas for the Nobel Prize committee. I was noticing how the quotes lament that there are fewer women selected as Nobel laureates but at the same time put the “blame” and responsibility on society as a whole to offer women better support. Would love to hear other thoughts and/or reactions!

Mollie Messick

48 Responses to “The Nobel Prize and Gender”

  • Greg Ford, Jr.
    5 years ago
    Reply

    Hey there, Mollie! Thank you so much for posting this article. I think the logic the Chair of the Nobel Prize committee is employing is circular (e.g., there aren’t enough women scientists to choose from because there aren’t enough women scientists because society is sexist and patriarchal, which leads to fewer women pursuing degrees in the sciences, which results in fewer women scientists; redounding to “it’s not our fault; it’s society’s fault”), and only serves to perpetuate inequities and systems of oppression that deny marginalized communities access to opportunities.

    Instead of playing a gatekeeping role, which reinscribes gender inequity in a given field, the Nobel Prize committees in the sciences (i.e., chemistry, physics, and medicine) could prioritize the inclusion, nomination, and awarding of women, and trans and non-binary folks, so that as more people who are not cismen start to win these awards with greater regularity, more universities will start to prioritize the diversification of their faculties–especially concerning gender diversity within the sciences. This is one way in which we can get out of the chicken-or-the-egg cycle.

  • Mujun (June) Hu
    5 years ago
    Reply

    Dear Mollie, thank you for sharing this. And I have similar feelings just like Greg. And there are stereotypes that women are not good at STEM, which I think also hamper women scientists entering those fields. I remembered that when I was a middle school students and some teachers said “You are girls and you won’t compete with boys in subjects such as math and physics”. I am not good at STEM but the way she spoke still made me uncomfortable.

    It also reminds me of an article that I read about https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/20/us/dorian-abbot-mit.html
    it wrote “In the United States, so-called race science — including the measurement of skulls with the intent to determine intelligence — was used to justify the subordination of Black people, Chinese, Italians, Jews and others. Experiments were carried out on people without their consent.

    The worst of that history lies decades past. That said, the faculty at geoscience departments in the United States has more white faculty than some other sciences. Departments have attracted more female professors of late but struggle to recruit Black and Latino candidates. “

  • Zoya Erdevig
    5 years ago
    Reply

    Hi Mollie, thank you for this great resource that can inspire important discussion in and outside of the classroom. Putting the blame on society as a whole is a stunning copout that we often see in many areas where women are underrepresented. I remember a few years back, people were criticizing the Grammys for the underrepresentation of women in nominations and awards, and the (male) Academy president said that women needed to “step up” in order to be recognized. As if there still isn’t rampant sexism and gatekeeping in the music industry. As if women haven’t been vital contributors to the industry since the beginning. A discussion of who gets awards in various fields could be a great way to broach the topic of meritocracy and how true meritocracy is undermined by structural inequalities.

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