Gender quota has caused controversy, there are not enough women Nobel Prize winners, foreign media five questions about awards agencies

[Southern+October 12th News] According to Singapore’s "Straits Times" report, compared with 12 male Nobel Prize winners, only one woman won the Nobel Prize in 2021. This has aroused dissatisfaction among scientists and the public At the same time, the issue of gender quotas has also been questioned, but Goran Hansson, secretary general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, ruled out the possibility of gender quotas.

reported that the Philippine investigative journalist Maria Ressa (Maria Ressa) shared the Nobel Peace Prize and is the only woman to win this award this year. Since the Nobel Prize was first awarded in 1901, only 59 awards have been awarded to women, accounting for 6.2% of the total.

In response to such a low proportion of women winning awards and people’s doubts, Hansson responded to 5 questions raised by the media.

"What are the problems facing women's Nobel Prizes?" Hansson replied: "It is regrettable that there are so few female Nobel Prize winners. This reflects the injustice in society, especially The situation that existed in the past, but still exists. There is still a lot to do. We have decided not to set quotas for gender or race. We hope that every winner will be accepted because they have made the most important discovery. Not because of gender or race. This is also in the spirit of Alfred Nobel's last wish."

faced "What have you done to ensure that women's work is seen?" Hansson replied "We want to ensure that all women who are eligible for the Nobel Prize have a fair chance to be evaluated. Therefore, we have made a major effort to encourage the nomination of female scientists.This includes ensuring that this problem is resolved (encouraging the nomination of female scientists), as well as the subconscious bias in the Norwegian Nobel Committee and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. We listened to the lectures of sociologists and conducted group discussions. In this regard, we have made considerable efforts. In the end, we will award the Nobel Prize to those who have made significant contributions to the world. "

faced "Is no woman eligible for the (science) Nobel Prize this year?" Hansson replied: "No woman has won the Nobel Prize in Science this year. But this trend (women winning the Nobel Prize) is increasing, but still at a very low level. Remember, only about 10% of natural science professors in Western Europe or North America are women. If you go to East Asia, this percentage is even lower.

(Manuel Charpentier, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in 2020)

Faced with "female Nobel Prize winners less reflect the problems, it is not to give women more Is it a reward signal? "Hansson replied: "We have discussed this issue, but we are worried that such an approach will deviate from the direction of the Nobel Prize, that is, the winners are awarded because they are women, not because they are the best. Now, there is no doubt, like Emmanuelle Charpentier (Emmanuelle Charpentier, Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry 2020) or Esther Duflo (Esther Duflo, 2019 Nobel Economics Scholarship winner) Such scientists are awarded because of their important contributions.

(2019 Nobel Laureate in Economics Esther Duflo)

Facing "What will happen to the Nobel Prize in the future?" Hansson replied: "We will ensure that more and more female scientists are invited to nominate. We will continue to ensure that there are women on our award committee,But we need help, and society also needs to provide help in this regard. We need to adopt a different attitude towards women entering the scientific world. ”

proofreading: Ju Weiqiang