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

Martha Graham Arts 1894 Pennsylvania 2015

Martha Graham

Year Honored: 2015
Birth: 1894 - 1991
Born In: Pennsylvania
Achievements: Arts

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.


Bessie Smith Arts c.1894 Tennessee 1984

Bessie Smith

Year Honored: 1984
Birth: c.1894 - 1937
Born In: Tennessee
Achievements: Arts

One the nation’s great blues singers, Smith earned stardom from her first record 1923’s “Down Hearted Blues,” which sold two million records. The “Empress of the Blues,” made more than 160 recordings with many of the country’s finest jazz musicians.


Pearl S. Buck Arts 1892 West Virginia 1973

Pearl S. Buck

Year Honored: 1973
Birth: 1892 - 1973
Born In: West Virginia
Achievements: Arts

Novelist whose writing evoked two different cultures, American and Asian. Buck won the Pulitzer Prize for The Good Earth and was later the first American woman awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for her body of work.


Bessie Coleman Science 1892 Texas 2001

Bessie Coleman

Year Honored: 2001
Birth: 1892 - 1926
Born In: Texas
Achievements: Science

The first licensed black female aviator. She earned her international pilot’s license in 1921 and gained fame during the next five years for her air acrobatics and highflying stunts. She dreamed of starting a school to train black aviators.


Zora Neale Hurston Arts 1891 Alabama 1994

Zora Neale Hurston

Year Honored: 1994
Birth: 1891 - 1960
Born In: Alabama
Achievements: Arts

Novelist, anthropologist and folklorist who contributed greatly to the preservation of African American folk traditions and to American literature. Hurston’s best known works include Their Eyes Were Watching God and her autobiography, Dust Tracks on the Road.


Marjory Stoneman Douglas Science 1890 Minnesota 2000

Marjory Stoneman Douglas

Year Honored: 2000
Birth: 1890 - 1998
Born In: Minnesota
Achievements: Science

A journalist with the Miami News Record, she was an active leader in the Florida suffrage movement and an environmentalist credited with saving the Everglades as a national resource. Douglas authored over ten books and several plays, including The Everglades: River of Grass. After receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1993 at the age of 103, she remained an active and influential environmentalist to her death.


Blanche Stuart Scott Science 1889 New York 2005

Blanche Stuart Scott

Year Honored: 2005
Birth: 1889 - 1970
Born In: New York
Achievements: Science

Born in Rochester, New York, Scott was a pioneering aviatrix, becoming the first American woman to take a solo hop into the air, although her flight is not regarded as official. In 1910, she became one of the first woman to drive an automobile coast to coast in her car – the ‚”Lady Overland”. Scott was also the first and only woman to take flying lessons from Glenn Curtiss, later flying with the Curtiss Exhibition Team and earning the nickname ‚”Tomboy of the Air”.


Georgia O'Keeffe Arts 1887 Wisconsin 1993

Georgia O'Keeffe

Year Honored: 1993
Birth: 1887 - 1986
Born In: Wisconsin
Achievements: Arts

Artist and perhaps the best-known American woman painter. An American original in both her lifestyle and painting, O’Keeffe produced works of high energy and vision throughout her long life.


Ruth Fulton Benedict Science 1887 New York 2005

Ruth Fulton Benedict

Year Honored: 2005
Birth: 1887 - 1948
Born In: New York
Achievements: Science

A student of Franz Boas and mentor to Margaret Mead, Ruth Fulton Benedict was a highly influential anthropologist whose theories tremendously influenced the field of cultural anthropology. Her 1934 Patterns of Culture became an American classic and is still a highly regarded publication today.


Dorothy Harrison Eustis Philanthropy 1886 Pennsylvania 2011

Dorothy Harrison Eustis

Year Honored: 2011
Birth: 1886 - 1946
Born In: Pennsylvania
Achievements: Philanthropy

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.


Alice Paul Humanities 1885 1979

Alice Paul

Year Honored: 1979
Birth: 1885 - 1977
Achievements: Humanities

Social reformer. Reared a Quaker, Paul found most of the women’s suffrage movement too slow and passive. After earning a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1912, she campaigned aggressively for women’s suffrage, using picketing and demonstrations to draw attention to the issue. Paul founded the women’s party, which demanded passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.


Ethel Percy Andrus Humanities 1884 California 1993

Ethel Percy Andrus

Year Honored: 1993
Birth: 1884 - 1967
Born In: California
Achievements: Humanities

Founded the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) to help older Americans cope effectively in their later years. Her organization, now 36 million members strong and a political lobbying force, helps with health insurance, career assistance and discounts for senior citizens.


Eleanor Roosevelt Humanities 1884 1973

Eleanor Roosevelt

Year Honored: 1973
Birth: 1884 - 1962
Achievements: Humanities

Trailblazing First Lady and wife of President Franklin Roosevelt. She spent her adult years working in politics and social reform. Her warmth and compassion inspired the nation, and she later became U.S. Delegate to the United Nations. The U.N. Declaration of Human Rights was largely her work, and she chaired the first-ever Presidential Commission on the Status of Women (1961).


Florence Ellinwood Allen Government 1884 Utah 2005

Florence Ellinwood Allen

Year Honored: 2005
Birth: 1884 - 1966
Born In: Utah
Achievements: Government

Judge Florence Ellinwood Allen was a legal pioneer, breaking barriers for women in law. Her numerous accomplishments include becoming the first American woman to hold the office of Assistant County Prosecutor, first woman judge of the highest court of a state by election (Ohio), and first female judge of a United States Circuit Court of Appeals by presidential appointment.


Mother Mary Joseph Rogers, MM Humanities 1882 Massachusetts 2013

Mother Mary Joseph Rogers, MM

Year Honored: 2013
Birth: 1882 - 1955
Born In: Massachusetts
Achievements: Humanities

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.


Crystal Eastman Humanities 1881 Massachusetts 2000

Crystal Eastman

Year Honored: 2000
Birth: 1881 - 1928
Born In: Massachusetts
Achievements: Humanities

One the major leaders of the women’s right to vote and equal rights movements, she was co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union and author of the first national labor safety law guidelines. In 1919, she organized the First Feminist Congress, and she was one of the four authors of the Equal Rights Amendment proposed in 1923.


Mary Breckinridge Science 1881 Tennessee 1995

Mary Breckinridge

Year Honored: 1995
Birth: 1881 - 1965
Born In: Tennessee
Achievements: Science

The United States foremost pioneer in the development of midwifery and provision of care to rural areas. Breckinridge founded the Frontier Nursing Service.


Alice Evans Science 1881 1993

Alice Evans

Year Honored: 1993
Birth: 1881 - 1975
Achievements: Science

Scientist who found the organism which caused undulant fever, a killer disease. Evans’s discovery led to mandatory milk pasteurization, saving countless lives worldwide. An outstanding scientist, she also advocated women entering the scientific professions.


Mary Harriman Rumsey Humanities 1881 New York 2015

Mary Harriman Rumsey

Year Honored: 2015
Birth: 1881 - 1934
Born In: New York
Achievements: Humanities

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.


Edith Nourse Rogers Government 1881 Maine 1998

Edith Nourse Rogers

Year Honored: 1998
Birth: 1881 - 1960
Born In: Maine
Achievements: Government

Massachusetts Congresswoman who introduced the “G.I. Bill of Rights” Act and Women’s Army Auxiliary Corp (WAC) legislation. The “Bill of Rights” guaranteed veterans’ health and education benefits (also small business loans). In addition, it supported research and development of prosthetic appliances. Rogers pushed for equality for women in and out of military until her death.


Jeannette Rankin Government 1880 Montana 1993

Jeannette Rankin

Year Honored: 1993
Birth: 1880 - 1973
Born In: Montana
Achievements: Government

First woman elected to the U.S. Congress. Rankin served two separate terms representing Montana, and was the only U.S. Representative to vote against America’s entry into both World Wars. A lifelong pacifist, she worked for peace until her death.


Helen Keller Education 1880 Alabama 1973

Helen Keller

Year Honored: 1973
Birth: 1880 - 1968
Born In: Alabama
Achievements: Education

Author and lecturer. An illness at the age of 19 months left her deaf, blind and mute. Through the work of teacher Anne Sullivan, she learned to overcome these daunting handicaps and became a powerful and effective national spokesperson on behalf of others with similar disabilities.


Frances Perkins Government 1880 Massachusetts 1982

Frances Perkins

Year Honored: 1982
Birth: 1880 - 1965
Born In: Massachusetts
Achievements: Government

Public official and first woman to hold a Presidential Cabinet office and first woman Secretary of Labor. Appointed by President Roosevelt in 1932, she served for all of his terms, 1933-1945.


Margaret Sanger Humanities 1879 1981

Margaret Sanger

Year Honored: 1981
Birth: 1879 - 1966
Achievements: Humanities

Nurse and social reformer. After seeing many poor women in New York City damaged and dying from attempts to end unwanted pregnancies, she fought for reform. Sanger underwent arrests and imprisonment for distributing information on birth control and contraception.

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