María Corina Machado Becomes The 20th Woman To Win Nobel Peace Prize; Who Are The Other 19 Women?

María Corina Machado from Venezuela became the 20th women laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. She was presented with the honour on on Friday at 2.30 p.m. Indian Standard Time. Since its inception, only 19 other women have received the prize compared to 92 men.

Here are the other women recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize over the years along with their achievements —

1. Bertha von Suttner (1905): Author of one of the nineteenth century's most influential books, the anti-war novel "Lay Down Your Arms", Austrian citizen Bertha was the first Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. She went on to become one of the leaders of the international peace movement, and in 1891 established the Austrian Peace Society.

2. Jane Addams (1931): Jane Addams was the second woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. She was the founder of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in 1915, and worked for many years to get the great powers to disarm and conclude peace agreements. She also worked to help the poor and to stop the use of children as industrial laborers in the United States and ran a help centre for immigrants called Hull House in Chicago.

3. Emily Greene Balch (1946): During World War I she worked with the 1931 Peace Prize Laureate Jane Addams to persuade the heads of state of neutral countries to intervene to stop the war.

4. Betty Williams (1976): After witnessing the tragedy of a shooting incident which claimed lives of three children in Belfast in the same year, Betty decided to launch an appeal against the meaningless use of violence in the conflict between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland.

5. Mairead Corrigan: Corrigan was the aunt of the late children and joined Williams to find the peace organization the Community of Peace People.

6. Mother Teresa (1979): Mother Teresa (born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu) and her helpers built homes for orphans, nursing homes for lepers and hospices for the terminally ill in Calcutta. Although, she was later criticised for refusing pain relief to terminally ill and dying people in hospices while she herself accepted hospital treatment.

7. Alva Myrdal (1982): She was awarded the prize for fighting for a nuclear weapons-free zones in Europe and actively persuading superpowers to disarm.

8. Aung San Suu Kyi (1991): One of the founders of Burma's (now Myanmar's) National League for Democracy (NLD) Suu Kyi was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and opposed all use of violence while calling on the military leaders to hand over power to a civilian government.

9. Rigoberta Menchú Tum (1992): Guatemalan indigenous woman Rigoberta Menchú was awarded the Peace Prize in 1992 for her work for the rights of indigenous peoples and reconciliation between ethnic groups.

10. Jody Williams (1997): Williams was awarded the international honour for launching an international campaign to ban landmines.

11. Shirin Ebadi (2003): Ebadi was the first Muslim Female Peace Prize laureate for her struggle to secure fundamental human rights especially for women and children.

12. Wangari Muta Maathai (2004): Maathai was the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. She played a prominent part in her country, Kenya's, fight for democracy.

13. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (2011): Sirleaf was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her non-violent efforts to promote peace and her struggle for women’s rights in Africa.

14. Leymah Gbowee (2011): Along with Sirleaf, Gbowee was also awarded the Peace Prize for her non-violent efforts to promote peace and her struggle for women’s rights through her grass roots movement Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace.

15. Tawakkol Karman (2011): The year 2011 was a particularly special one for women as three women became Nobel Peace Prize laureates. Karman, Yemeni journalist, was one of them and also the first woman to win from the Arab world. Karman several protests against the dictatorial regime of President Saleh, in a fight for democracy and freedom of speech.

16. Malala Yousafzai (2014): Born in the Swat Valley in Pakistan, Malala was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her fight for the right of every child to receive an education.

17. Nadia Murad (2018): Murad suffered through sexual violence at the hands of militants from the Islamic State (IS), which conquered Kojo and abducted other women including Murad to be held as sex slaves. After some months, Nadia Murad managed to escape, and in 2015 arrived in Germany, where she chose to tell the international community of the injustice and trauma she suffered in hopes of bringing justice for her abusers' crimes.

18. Maria Ressa (2021): Investigative journalist Ressa was awarded the Nobel Peace Price for her fight for freedom of Press in Philippines.

19. Narges Mohammadi (2023): Mohammadi was awarded the honour for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her struggle to promote human rights and freedom for all.