Discover the Women of the Hall

These are the Inductees of the National Women’s Hall of Fame. Select any of the women to discover their stories and learn how they have influenced other women and this country.

Achievements Year Born Where Born Year Inducted Last Name
Year Born: to
Birth State or Country: or
Year Inducted: to
First Letter of Last Name: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Inductee Name Achievements Born Where Born Inducted More

Billie Jean King Athletics 1943 California 1990

Billie Jean King

Year Honored: 1990
Birth: 1943 -
Born In: California
Achievements: Athletics

Dominated the world of tennis for more than 20 years, winning 20 Wimbledon titles, 13 U.S. Open titles and more. King was the founder of the Women’s Tennis Association and helped create the Women’s Sports Foundation.


Antonia Novello Government, Science 1944 Puerto Rico 1994

Antonia Novello

Year Honored: 1994
Birth: 1944 -
Born In: Puerto Rico
Achievements: Government, Science

First woman and first Hispanic to be named Surgeon General of the United States. A pediatrician, Novello has used her position to alleviate suffering worldwide, especially for women and children.


Sherry Lansing Arts, Business, Humanities, Philanthropy 1944 Illinois 2017

Sherry Lansing

Year Honored: 2017
Birth: 1944 -
Born In: Illinois
Achievements: Arts, Business, Humanities, Philanthropy

A trailblazer, visionary leader and creative filmmaker. She was involved in the production, marketing and distribution of more than 200 films and the first woman to head a major film studio.


Charlotte Anne Bunch Education, Humanities 1944 North Carolina 1996

Charlotte Anne Bunch

Year Honored: 1996
Birth: 1944 -
Born In: North Carolina
Achievements: Education, Humanities

Founder and director of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership at Rutgers University. Bunch has helped shape the global feminist movement and created consciousness about gender-based human rights. She is also a leader in national and international networking and advocacy for women.


Alice Waters Business, Education, Humanities, Philanthropy 1944 New Jersey 2017

Alice Waters

Year Honored: 2017
Birth: 1944 -
Born In: New Jersey
Achievements: Business, Education, Humanities, Philanthropy

A chef, author and food activist, and the founder and owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley, California. She has been a champion of local sustainable agriculture for over four decades, and is credited with popularizing the organic food movement.


Angela Davis Education, Government 1944 2019

Angela Davis

Year Honored: 2019
Birth: 1944 -
Achievements: Education, Government

Dr. Angela Davis is a prominent political activist, academic scholar, and author of numerous groundbreaking works. Well-known for her emphasis on the ways that justice is “indivisible,” Dr. Davis has spent a lifetime working on civil rights and women’s rights, against the prison industrial complex and for international justice. Dr. Davis’ teaching career has taken her to numerous college campuses across the United States, and she has also given lectures in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and South America. She spent 15 years at the University of California Santa Cruz where she is now Distinguished Professor Emerita of History of Consciousness (an interdisciplinary Ph.D program) and of Feminist Studies. Dr. Davis’ works have emboldened generations of students to critically address and respond actively to contemporary issues of injustice. Her powerful voice remains instructive today. 


Elouise Cobell Business 1945 Montana 2024

Elouise Cobell

Year Honored: 2024
Birth: 1945 - 2011
Born In: Montana
Achievements: Business

Known as “Yellow Bird Woman,” Elouise Cobell was an entrepreneur, banker, advocate, and member of the Blackfeet Nation who fought tirelessly for government accountability and for Native Americans to have control over their own financial future.


Carol A. Mutter Government, Humanities 1945 Colorado 2017

Carol A. Mutter

Year Honored: 2017
Birth: 1945 -
Born In: Colorado
Achievements: Government, Humanities

A Lieutenant General who entered the Marines when only 1% of Marines were women and no women were in the deployed services. Among her numerous activities, she has served as Chair of the Department of Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services and is a Past President of the Women Marines Association where she remains active at the national level.


Wilma Mankiller Humanities 1945 Oklahoma 1993

Wilma Mankiller

Year Honored: 1993
Birth: 1945 - 2010
Born In: Oklahoma
Achievements: Humanities

First woman elected Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. As Chief, Mankiller brought about major economic and social improvements for her tribe, including better health care, economic development, and education.


Philippa Marrack Science 1945 United Kingdom 2015

Philippa Marrack

Year Honored: 2015
Birth: 1945 -
Born In: United Kingdom
Achievements: Science

Her work investigating T-cells, the family of cells that help the body fight disease, has led to a greater knowledge of the molecular basis of the immune system and contributed to medicine’s current understanding of vaccines, HIV, and other immune disorders.


Laurie Spiegel Arts 1945 2019

Laurie Spiegel

Year Honored: 2019
Birth: 1945 -
Achievements: Arts

A composer whose work appears on NASA’s “Golden Record,” (shipped out on the Voyager spacecraft) Laurie Spiegel is known worldwide for her pioneering work with early electronic and computer music systems. A cutting-edge thinker, her experience with early analogue electronic music systems led Spiegel to innovate musically and instrumentally. She has focused largely on interactive software that uses algorithmic logic as a supplement to human abilities, thereby expanding access to creative expression for a far greater number of people than was previously allowed through traditional methods of musical training. The aesthetics of musical structure and cognitive processes have also been a focus of Spiegel’s work. Spiegel’s work has been re-issued, having appeared in the popular Hunger Games movies, highlighted in the 2018 BBC Proms, and featured in various museum settings where the intersection of electronic music compositions, the machines and software used to create those compositions, and the visual arts have come together in harmony.


Marcia Greenberger Humanities 1946 United States of America 2015

Marcia Greenberger

Year Honored: 2015
Birth: 1946 -
Born In: United States of America
Achievements: Humanities

The founder and co-president of the National Women’s Law Center, Marcia Greenberger has been a leader in developing strategies to secure the successful passage of legislation protecting women and counsel for landmark litigation establishing new legal precedents for women.


Diane von Furstenberg Arts, Business 1946 2019

Diane von Furstenberg

Year Honored: 2019
Birth: 1946 -
Achievements: Arts, Business

Diane von Furstenberg is a fashion designer, philanthropist, and Founder and Chairman of the company that bears her name. In 1974, she debuted her iconic wrap dress, which became a symbol of power and independence for women all over the world and grew into a global brand. She acted as President of the CFDA from 2006 to 2015, and served as its Chairwoman from 2015 to 2019. In 2010, she established the DVF Awards to honor extraordinary women.  Her memoir, The Woman I Wanted To Be, was published in 2014 and has been translated into six languages. In 2015, she was named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People. In 2018, she received the CFDA Swarovski Award for Positive Change. She currently serves on the boards of CFDA, Vital Voices, the Statue of Liberty–Ellis Island Foundation, The Shed, and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.


Shirley Ann Jackson Education, Science 1946 District of Columbia 1998

Shirley Ann Jackson

Year Honored: 1998
Birth: 1946 -
Born In: District of Columbia
Achievements: Education, Science

First woman to chair the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the first African American woman to serve on the Commission. Elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society for her contribution to physical science, she became an advocate for women in the areas of science, education and public policy. As Chair of NRC, she rearticulated the vision of the NRC to include reaffirmation of the basic health and safety mission of the agency.


Nancy Brinker Philanthropy 1946 Illinois 2015

Nancy Brinker

Year Honored: 2015
Birth: 1946 -
Born In: Illinois
Achievements: Philanthropy

The founder of Susan G. Komen®, Nancy Brinker pioneered in the concept of cause-related marketing allowing millions to participate in the commitment to eradicate breast cancer.  She is regarded as the leader of the global breast cancer movement.


Donna de Varona Athletics 1947 California 2003

Donna de Varona

Year Honored: 2003
Birth: 1947 -
Born In: California
Achievements: Athletics

In 1960, at the age of 13, de Varona became the youngest member of a U.S. Olympic swim team. Just four years later, she won gold medals in the 400 IM and 400 Freestyle Relay at the Tokyo Olympics. She went on to set 18 world records in her career, and was the first President of the Women’s Sports Foundation.


Octavia E. Butler Arts 1947 California 2021

Octavia E. Butler

Year Honored: 2021
Birth: 1947 - 2006
Born In: California
Achievements: Arts

Hillary Rodham Clinton Government 1947 Illinois 2005

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Year Honored: 2005
Birth: 1947 -
Born In: Illinois
Achievements: Government

Hillary Rodham Clinton is the first First Lady ever to be elected to the United States Senate. She is the first woman Senator from New York. Her efforts on behalf of women’s, family and children’s issues began during her earliest employment as an attorney and remain steadfast today. Senator Clinton is the first New York State Senator to serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee.


Judith Plaskow Education, Humanities 1947 New York 2024

Judith Plaskow

Year Honored: 2024
Birth: 1947 -
Born In: New York
Achievements: Education, Humanities

In the realm of feminist theology, one of the names that stands out as a pioneering force is Dr. Judith Plaskow. An author and activist, Paskow is a visionary thinker whose intellectual contributions have shaped discourse and enriched our understanding of spirituality, gender, and equality.


Flossie Wong-Staal Science 1947 2019

Flossie Wong-Staal

Year Honored: 2019
Birth: 1947 - 2020
Achievements: Science

A world-renowned virologist and molecular biologist, Dr. Flossie Wong-Staal and her team of scientists at the U.S. National Cancer Institute were the first to molecularly clone HIV and to elucidate the complex structure of its genome. This accomplishment was instrumental in proving HIV to be the cause of AIDS, and in the subsequent development of diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for the disease.


Temple Grandin Education, Humanities, Science 1947 Massachusetts 2017

Temple Grandin

Year Honored: 2017
Birth: 1947 -
Born In: Massachusetts
Achievements: Education, Humanities, Science

An animal sciences innovator and champion of farm animal welfare whose masterly designs for livestock handling systems transformed the industry and are used worldwide today. Her life and work have “revolutionized the study of autism,” as she had applied her insights gained from her own experience with autism to conceptualize equipment that reduces animal stress during the livestock handling process.


Kathrine Switzer Athletics 1947 Germany 2011

Kathrine Switzer

Year Honored: 2011
Birth: 1947 -
Born In: Germany
Achievements: Athletics

As the first woman to officially enter the Boston Marathon (1967), Kathrine Switzer broke the gender barrier and paved the way for women in running. Still recognized as a leader in the running world, Switzer has completed over thirty-seven marathons and has dedicated her career to creating opportunities and equal sport status for women. In 1977, she founded the Avon International Running Circuit, and in 1984, she was a leader in making the women’s marathon an official event in the Olympic Games. Switzer is an Emmy Award-winning television commentator who has broadcasted for ABC, CBS, NBC and ESPN.


Helen LaKelly Hunt Philanthropy 1949 Texas 1994

Helen LaKelly Hunt

Year Honored: 1994
Birth: 1949 -
Born In: Texas
Achievements: Philanthropy

Creative philanthropist who has used her own resources and others to create women’s funding institutions. Hunt is Co-founder of the National Network of Women’s Funds, and creator of the New York Women’s Foundation, the Dallas Women’s Foundation, and The Sister Fund, all of which provide resources to support grass roots women’s programs and projects.


Swanee Hunt Philanthropy 1950 Texas 2007

Swanee Hunt

Year Honored: 2007
Birth: 1950 -
Born In: Texas
Achievements: Philanthropy

Swanee Hunt is the former Director of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. An internationally recognized expert on foreign affairs and diplomacy, Hunt is heralded for her trailblazing work to increase the participation and inclusion of women in peace processes around the world. She is also President of Hunt Alternatives Fund, a private foundation committed to advancing social change at local, national and global levels.

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