NOBEL PRIZES 2023: Economics, Medicine, and the Peace Prize
Photo by Alexander Mahmoud, 2018. Art design: Olena Burdeina (FA_Photo) via Photoshop
The Nobel Prize is most often awarded to men. The leading award in the field of science has been presented for 112 consecutive years, and only 6% of its laureates have been women. The year 2023 was no exception — men still dominate among scientists. But let’s not rush to conclusions…
Strong women are undoubtedly the trend of this Nobel season. It’s hard to overlook the fact that women were impressed with their charisma, willpower, and extraordinary life stories at this time, which are sure to become material for future films and books.
#1 ECONOMICS: GENDER EQUALITY AS A DRIVER OF DEVELOPMENT
The Nobel Prize in Economics is unique in itself. Unlike all other categories, Alfred Nobel did not establish this prize in 1901. It was introduced by the Bank of Sweden in 1969. However, since it is still considered a «Nobel» prize, like all other categories, it is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
This year, it was awarded to American economist Claudia Goldin for her research on the role of women in the labor market. This awarding became a doubly unique event. Firstly, in the 54 years of the prize’s existence, the committee that awards it has rarely favored women.
Goldin became only the third female laureate after Elinor Ostrom in 2009 and Esther Duflo in 2019. However, even the two women above did not receive the prize alone; they shared it with men. Thus, these cannot be considered purely «female victories» without some reservations.
Of course, Duflo managed to set two personal records. At 46, she became the youngest Nobel laureate in economics. Moreover, it was the first time in history that the Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to a married couple: Frenchwoman Esther Duflo shared it not only with American Michael Kremer but also with her husband, Abhijit Banerjee. As they say, keeping it all in the family!
Naturally, such a family Nobel connection is much more pleasant than the story of Albert Einstein, who, according to his marriage contract, had to transfer the monetary portion of his Nobel Prize to his ex-wife Mileva Marić. As you can see, women can be connected to the Nobel world in various ways.
In any case, the gender «imbalance» was finally corrected only in 2023 — 77-year-old Claudia Goldin became the first and only woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Economics individually! This is also a rare occurrence, as the prize has only been awarded individually five times since 2000.
The absence of male co-laureates alongside Goldin is highly symbolic, especially considering that the prize was awarded to Claudia for her research on the position of women in the global labor market, where gender inequality still exists.
Goldin established herself as a leading expert on this issue in 1990 with her book Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women. That same year, she became the first woman to receive a professorship at Harvard’s Department of Economics, so being a «first» is nothing new for Claudia Goldin.
Interestingly, there is a somewhat indirect «Ukrainian trace» in her career. She calls herself a third-generation Nobel laureate because her mentor was Nobel laureate Robert Fogel, whose mentor, in turn, was Nobel laureate Simon Kuznets. Yes, the same famous «father of GDP», who graduated from the Kharkiv Commercial Institute before becoming a globally renowned economic thinker (read more about him here).
Why is Claudia Goldin’s work, which she describes as «economic detective work», so important? On the eve of receiving the Nobel Prize, she published a new book, Why Women Won, covering the history of women’s struggle for their rights from 1905 to 2023. However, Goldin demonstrates that the problem is not just about the injustice and anomaly of unequal opportunities for men and women.
If a large number of people are not employed in jobs that match their qualifications and talents, this leads to significant societal costs, primarily economic. For example, in 2015, McKinsey estimated that achieving full gender parity globally within ten years would result in an additional increase in global GDP by approximately 25%. So, when you wonder where to find resources for development during an international crisis, here it is, right in front of you — think of gender equality as a driver of growth!
#2 MEDICINE: MONEY IN A TEDDY BEAR AND BELATED RECOGNITION
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to two researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, USA, for developing the technology that became the foundation for producing the COVID-19 vaccine. Hungarian-born American biochemist Katalin Karikó and American immunologist Drew Weissman began their work back in the distant 1990s.
They set an ambitious goal—to create a next-generation vaccine based on synthetic messenger RNA (mRNA). For those who may have forgotten their high school biology lessons, let’s mRNA is a type of ribonucleic acid that instructs your body on how to produce proteins, including antibodies to pathogens.
The idea was to create artificial mRNA with specific characteristics to fight pathogens. However, there was a problem — the innate immune system was stubbornly unwilling to cooperate with such mRNA, triggering unwanted side effects. Karikó and Weissman found a way to «trick» the immune system and solve this issue.
When the coronavirus pandemic struck, their technology helped Pfizer and Moderna create a vaccine in record time. This vaccine was administered approximately 13 million times and helped save millions of lives. However, the future of this technology is not limited to preventing coronavirus.
Today, mRNA synthesis technology is even being used in cancer therapies. It’s interesting that while the Nobel laureates are now receiving numerous congratulations, Weissman recalls with some bitterness how, when they found a way to use mRNA in vaccines safely, their phones remained silent — they knew they had made a breakthrough, but no one was interested. You could say their discovery was ignored until COVID-19 hit.
Karikó also shares her challenging journey to fame. She was born in the small Hungarian town of Kisújszállás, the daughter of a butcher, and had a passion for biology from an early age. To provide Katalin with the opportunity to pursue her work, her family sold their car and, hiding the money in a teddy bear, headed to America — into the unknown…
Ahead of her were tears, sleepless nights, poverty, separation, and — groundbreaking scientific discoveries. Karikó compares her scientific career to rowing backward: you don’t know what the outcome will be, where or when the finish line will come, but you keep rowing forward.
#3 PEACE PRIZE: A LAUREATE WHO IS WHIPPED
Strong women are undoubtedly the trend of this Nobel season. Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi is no less determined and strong-willed than Claudia Goldin and Katalin Karikó.
Last year, the BBC included Mohammadi in its list of «100 inspiring and influential women of the world». This year, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for «her fight against the oppression of women in Iran» while she remains in prison. In fact, this is not the first time such an event has occurred. In the history of the Nobel Peace Prize, it has been awarded to laureates in prison four times.
First, there was the German journalist and Nazi concentration camp inmate Carl von Ossietzky. His award so enraged the Third Reich that they banned their citizens from receiving such a prize in any field. Then came Burmese political figure Aung San Suu Kyi, followed by Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo and Belarusian dissident Ales Bialiatski. Notice anything they have in common? That’s right — they are all men!
Narges Mohammadi became the first woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize while imprisoned. The Iranian authorities called her Nobel award a «disappointing deviation». Why was Narges imprisoned? As a physics student, she became actively involved in defending women’s rights in Iran.
Altogether, she has been arrested 13 times. The first was in 2011 when she worked defending the rights of political prisoners and their families. In 2015, her protests against the death penalty led to her second arrest. To date, Narges has accumulated 31 years of prison sentences and 154 lashes. However, international pressure has occasionally forced the Iranian authorities to reduce her sentences.
In May 2021, she was once again sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for «anti-government propaganda», where she remains to this day. Narges’ husband, prominent journalist Taghi Rahmani, was more fortunate. After serving 14 years in prison, he managed to escape Iran with their two children and settle in France. Interestingly, Mohammadi was chosen from 351 Peace Prize nominees, among whom was also Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
- NOBEL PRIZES 2023: Physics and Chemistry
- NOBEL PRIZES 2023: The Literature Prize for «Mystical Realism»
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