Tokyo, 12 October, /AJMEDIA/
The head of the academy that awards the Nobel Prizes in science has said it will not introduce gender quotas, AJMEDIA reports citing BBC.
Goran Hansson, head of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, said they want people to win “because they made the most important discovery… not because of gender or ethnicity”.
Since its inception in 1901, only 59 Nobel Prizes have gone to women.
Maria Ressa, the only woman honoured this year, shared the Nobel Peace Prize with fellow journalist Dmitry Muratov.
The pair won the prize for their “efforts to safeguard freedom of expression” in their respective countries, the Philippines and Russia.
“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,” Mr Hansson told the AFP news agency.
“We have decided we will not have quotas for gender or ethnicity,” he said, adding that the decision was “in line with the spirit of Alfred Nobel’s last will”.
Swedish industrialist and chemist Alfred Nobel founded the prizes in his will, written in 1895 – a year before his death.
