The scientific Nobel Prize is three - physiology or medicine, physics and chemistry. This year, William Kaelin, Peter Ratcliffe and Gregg Semenza were awarded the award in medicine. James Peebles, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz were awarded the prize in physics and Joihn B. Goodenough, Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino in chemistry.

Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences' class for chemistry and is a professor of chemical biology at Chalmers in Gothenburg. At Chalmers, among other things, she runs a project to increase equality at the university.

- The norm is that men dominate science. Historically, it is men who research, are professors and write scientific articles, says Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede.

"Old guys" as role models

Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede says that the Nobel Prize has a responsibility.

- We give out awards that give signals and not everyone understands that these are old discoveries that are being praised. Nobel prizes have a tremendous role model value and now we do not give children and young people any model when we see these old guys, she says.

At the same time, she emphasizes that those who are praised are really worthy of the award.

Changing the culture

The big change needs to happen at the universities, academia and the research world, says Wittung-Stafshede. Men and women must be given the same opportunities, which can later lead to the Nobel Prize. That's not the case today, according to her.

- It's about changing the culture and the system. In practice, leaders at all universities must take responsibility. Awareness is a first step, that you talk more about it and understand where the issues and problems lie, she says.

Two female award winners in literature and economics

Olga Tokarczuk and Peter Handke were awarded the prize in literature 2018 and 2019 respectively by the Swedish Academy, and Abiy Ahmed in the field of peace work by the Norwegian Peace Committee.

The prize in economics was awarded to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer by the Swedish Riksbank. Although the prize is the last to be awarded during the so-called Nobel Week, the recipients of the award are not Nobel laureates in the real sense.