Discover the Women of the Hall

One of the greatest artists of the 20th century, she created a new dance language.  Named Dancer of the Century, she was the first dancer to perform at the White House and to act as a cultural ambassador abroad.

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.

Microbiologist whose landmark discovery that pathogenic bacteria communicate with each other via a system known as “quorum sensing” served as the foundation for an entire field of study and has led to drug development to interrupt the bacterial communication process.

Through her pioneering work studying images of women in advertising, Jean Kilbourne has changed the conversation as to how organizations and educational institutions address many public health problems including smoking, high-risk drinking eating disorders, obesity, sexualization of children, and violence against women.

Civil rights advocate Carlotta Walls LaNier, at age 14, was the youngest of the Little Rock Nine; the nine African-American students who integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.  A recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal, she works to ensure equal access to education for children of color.

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.

The founder of the Junior League, she helped author the Social Security Act, chaired the first consumer’s rights groups, and was instrumental in the creation of public playgrounds in New York’s Central Park.

Her life and work has been dedicated to the achievement of women’s equality and human rights.  She has been at the forefront of nearly every significant women’s rights victory.  Responsible for coining the phrase “gender gap” referring to the difference in the way women and men vote and popularizing its usage in election and polling analyses to enhance women’s voting clout.

A groundbreaking First Lady, Betty Ford is often remembered for her candor in addressing the controversial issues of her time. Shortly after she became the First Lady of the United States in 1974, Ford was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a radical mastectomy. Rather than suppressing the diagnosis, Ford courageously shared her personal story and inspired countless women across the nation to get breast examinations. In 1978, following a family intervention, Ford underwent successful treatment for addiction to alcohol and prescription drugs. She again used her story to raise public awareness of addiction, and in 1982, she co-founded the Betty Ford Center to treat victims of alcohol and chemical dependency. Ford was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991 and the Congressional Gold Medal, with President Gerald R. Ford, in 1999.

A certified professional midwife who has attended more than 1,200 births, Ina May Gaskin is known as the “mother of authentic midwifery.” In 1971, Gaskin founded the Farm Midwifery Center in rural Tennessee and effectively demonstrated that home birth midwives could be well prepared for their profession without first being educated as obstetric nurses. During a stay in Guatemala in 1976, Gaskin learned a technique for preventing and resolving shoulder dystocia during birth. After using the method with great success, Gaskin began to teach it and publish articles about the method. Now referred to as the Gaskin maneuver, it is the first obstetrical maneuver to be named after a midwife. Gaskin is the author of four books, including Spiritual Midwifery (1975), the first text written by a midwife published in the United States.

With more than 3,700 career wins, Julie Krone is the leading female Thoroughbred horse racing jockey of all time. Krone made history in 1993 when she became the first woman to win a Triple Crown event at the Belmont Stakes. In 2003, she went on to become the first woman to win a Breeders’ Cup event at the Juvenile Fillies and the first woman to win a million dollar event at the Pacific Classic. Krone initially retired from horse racing in 1999 and became a commentator and analyst for the TVG racing network, but returned to the sport in 2002, retiring for a second time in 2004. Krone was named ESPN’s 1993 Professional Female Athlete of the Year, and in 2000, she became the first woman inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame.

A feminist activist, writer, visual artist, filmmaker, teacher and human rights advocate, Kate Millett has been described as one of the most influential Americans of the twentieth century. Millett began her career as an English instructor and in 1966, became the first Chair of the Education Committee of the newly formed National Organization for Women. In 1968, she authored a pioneering report published by NOW, Token Learning: A Study of Women’s Higher Education in America, in which she challenged women’s colleges to provide an equal education for women. Millett is perhaps best-known for her landmark work in feminist theory, Sexual Politics (1970). She currently serves as the Director of the Millett Center for the Arts, a creative work space that provides artist in residence accommodation and studio facilities to women artists from around the world.

For twenty-five years, Nancy Pelosi has broken ground for women in politics. As the representative from California’s 12th district, Pelosi has focused her political career on strengthening America’s middle class and creating jobs, reforming the political system to create clean campaigns and fair elections, enacting comprehensive immigration reform, and ensuring safety in America’s communities, neighborhoods and schools. In 2002, Pelosi became the first woman to lead a major political party in the United States as the Democratic Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, and from 2007-2011, she served as the first female Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Pelosi has spearheaded the passage of historic legislation, including the Affordable Care Act, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and more.

A woman of extraordinary vision and drive, Mother Mary Joseph Rogers, MM founded the Maryknoll Sisters, the first United States based Catholic congregation of religious women dedicated to a global mission. While attending Smith College in 1904, Rogers was inspired by graduating Protestant students preparing to leave for missionary work in China, and following her graduation, she returned to Smith and started a mission club for Catholic students (1905). It was while organizing the club that she met Father James A. Walsh, director of Boston’s Office for the Propagation of the Faith, later founder of Maryknoll Fathers & Brothers, through whom she was inspired to establish a mission congregation for women. The Maryknoll Sisters were founded in 1912, and by the time of Rogers’ death in 1955, there were 1,065 sisters working in twenty countries and several cities in the United States.

For more than forty years, Bernice Resnick Sandler has been a tireless advocate of educational equity for women and girls. In 1970, Sandler filed the first charges of sex discrimination against 250 educational institutions. It was this strategy that led to the first federal investigations of campus sex discrimination at a time when no laws existed to prohibit discrimination based on sex in education. Subsequently, Sandler was instrumental in the development, passage and implementation of Title IX, the legislation that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity. An expert in strategies and policies to prevent and respond to sex discrimination in higher education, Sandler has given more than 2,500 presentations. She currently serves as a Senior Scholar in Residence at the Women’s Research and Education Institute in Washington, DC.

Perhaps the most widely acclaimed female research economist of the twentieth century, Anna Jacobson Schwartz has been described as “one of the world’s greatest monetary scholars.” In 1941, after a five year career with Columbia University’s Social Science Research Council, Schwartz began her more than seventy year tenure working for the National Bureau of Economic Research. During her time at the National Bureau, Schwartz met and began working with Milton Friedman and together, the two coauthored A Monetary History of the United States, 1867 – 1960. Described by Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, as “the leading and most persuasive explanation of the worst economic disaster in American history,” the text is one of the most widely cited in economics. Schwartz was also considered a leading financial historian and expert on monetary statistics in the United States and Britain.

During her lifetime, Emma Hart Willard blazed an extraordinary trail on behalf of women’s education. A teacher by trade, Willard opened a girls’ school in her home in 1814 and was struck by the contrast between the education she could offer her women students and the education provided to men at nearby Middlebury College. She crafted A Plan for Improving Female Education, a document in which she advocated equal education for women at the academy level. In 1819, at the encouragement of Governor DeWitt Clinton, Willard opened a school in Waterford, New York which closed shortly afterward due to a lack of funding. Two years later, she founded Troy Female Seminary in Troy, New York (1821), the first school of higher learning for women. The seminary was renamed the Emma Willard School in her honor in 1895.

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.

A philanthropist, Dorothy Harrison Eustis combined her love of animals and her passion for helping others to co-found the nation’s first dog guide school, The Seeing Eye. In 1921, Eustis began her career in Switzerland, breeding German shepherds for civic duty. She was later contacted by Morris Frank, a blind American man seeking a guide dog. After bringing Frank to Switzerland and providing him with a dog, Eustis returned to the United States, and in 1929, they established The Seeing Eye to help blind people achieve greater independence, dignity and self-confidence through the use of Seeing Eye dogs. To date, The Seeing Eye has bred and trained 15,000 dogs to assist nearly 8,000 men and women.

An internationally renowned nursing leader, Dr. Loretta C. Ford has devoted her career to practice, education, research, consultation and the delivery of health services. Dr. Ford is best known for co-founding the nurse practitioner model through her studies on the nurse’s expanded scope of practice in public health nursing. In 1972, Dr. Ford became the founding dean of the University of Rochester School of Nursing, where she implemented the unification model. Dr. Ford is the author of more than 100 publications and has served as a consultant and lecturer to multiple organizations and universities.

A missionary who dedicated her life and fortune to aid Native Americans and African Americans, Saint Katharine Drexel is only the second recognized American-born saint. In 1891, Saint Katharine founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, a religious order that today remains devoted to the education and care of Native Americans and African Americans. During her lifetime, Saint Katharine and her order founded more than sixty missions and schools, including Xavier University of Louisiana. Saint Katharine was beatified in 1988 and canonized in 2000.

A major figure in the national anti-slavery and women’s rights movements, Abby Kelley Foster is remembered for her roles as a lecturer, fundraiser, recruiter and organizer. In 1850, Foster helped develop plans for the National Woman’s Rights Convention in Massachusetts, and later, in 1868, she was among the organizers of the founding convention of the New England Woman Suffrage Association. During her lifetime, Foster worked extensively with the American Anti-Slavery Society, where she held several different positions within the organization. Foster worked tirelessly for the ratification of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments and helped lay the groundwork for the nineteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

A pioneering chemist, Helen Murray Free conducted research that revolutionized diagnostic testing in the laboratory and at home. Free is the co-developer of Clinistix, the first dip-and-read diagnostic test strips for monitoring glucose in urine. Along with her husband, Alfred Free, she also developed additional strips for testing levels of key indicators for other diseases. Today, dip-and-read strips make testing for diabetes, pregnancy, and other conditions available in underdeveloped regions of the United States and in foreign countries. Free is the recipient of numerous awards, including the National Medal of Technology and Innovation and the American Chemical Society’s 66th National Historic Chemical Landmark designation (2010).

Considered by many to be one of the greatest jazz vocalists of all time, Billie Holiday forever changed the genres of jazz and pop with her unique style. Holiday began her career as a singer in Harlem nightclubs in 1931, without formal musical training. She went on to record and tour with a number of famous musicians like Benny Goodman and Lester Young, and officially began recording under her own name in 1936. Holiday, known for her deeply moving and personal vocals, remains a popular musical legend more than fifty years after her death.