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
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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

Nannerl O. Keohane Education 1940 1995

Nannerl O. Keohane

Year Honored: 1995
Birth: 1940 -
Achievements: Education

The first contemporary woman to head both a major women’s college (Wellesley) and a research university (Duke). Her efforts have increased minority student enrollment and improved faculty diversity.


Patricia Schroeder Government 1940 1995

Patricia Schroeder

Year Honored: 1995
Birth: 1940 - 2023
Achievements: Government

Served as the senior woman in Congress, first elected in 1972 from Colorado. Schroeder worked to establish a national pro-family policy, promoting issues such as parental leave, child care and family planning.


Eileen Collins Science 1956 New York 1995

Eileen Collins

Year Honored: 1995
Birth: 1956 -
Born In: New York
Achievements: Science

First American woman to pilot a spacecraft. A math teacher at the Air Force Academy and test pilot, Collins served as pilot of the space shuttle Discovery during a mission to rendezvous with space station Mir. In July, 1999 she became NASA’s first female commander in space.


Hannah Greenebaum Solomon Humanities 1858 Illinois 1995

Hannah Greenebaum Solomon

Year Honored: 1995
Birth: 1858 - 1942
Born In: Illinois
Achievements: Humanities

Club woman and welfare worker on matters relating to child welfare, she organized a nationwide Jewish Women’s Congress as part of the 1890’s World’s Fair. It later became the National Council of Jewish Women, to which she was elected its first president.


Margaret Fuller Arts 1810 Massachusetts 1995

Margaret Fuller

Year Honored: 1995
Birth: 1810 - 1850
Born In: Massachusetts
Achievements: Arts

Literary critic, editor, teacher and author. Fuller’s early writings inspired leaders of women’s rights. She was editor of the The Dial, a Transcendental journal, and she advocated liberation for all humanity.


Matilda Joslyn Gage Humanities 1826 New York 1995

Matilda Joslyn Gage

Year Honored: 1995
Birth: 1826 - 1898
Born In: New York
Achievements: Humanities

Best known as the co-author (with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony) of The History of Women’s Suffrage. She served in the National Women’s Suffrage Association and helped form suffrage groups in order to gain the right to vote for women.


Maggie Kuhn Humanities 1905 1995

Maggie Kuhn

Year Honored: 1995
Birth: 1905 - 1995
Achievements: Humanities

Following a forced retirement at age 65, Kuhn began work forming the Gray Panthers, an organization which addressed age discrimination and pension rights. Kuhn also addressed large public issues, including nursing home reform, forced retirement and fraud against the elderly.


Amelia Bloomer Humanities 1818 New York 1995

Amelia Bloomer

Year Honored: 1995
Birth: 1818 - 1894
Born In: New York
Achievements: Humanities

First woman to own, operate and edit a newspaper for women, The Lily. First published in 1849 in Seneca Falls, New York, it became a recognized forum for women’s rights issues. She often wore full-cut pantaloons under a short skirt, giving birth to the term “bloomers.”


Lillian Moller Gilbreth Science 1878 California 1995

Lillian Moller Gilbreth

Year Honored: 1995
Birth: 1878 - 1972
Born In: California
Achievements: Science

Industrial engineer and expert in motion studies, Gilbreth was a pioneer in the relationship between engineering and human relations. She convinced managers that worker-efficiency is the result of the quality of the work environment.


Virginia Apgar Science 1909 New Jersey 1995

Virginia Apgar

Year Honored: 1995
Birth: 1909 - 1974
Born In: New Jersey
Achievements: Science

Physician best known for development of the Apgar Score in 1952. This system of simple tests is used to determine whether a newborn child requires special medical attention, and it has saved thousands of lives.


Ella Fitzgerald Arts 1917 Virginia 1995

Ella Fitzgerald

Year Honored: 1995
Birth: 1917 - 1996
Born In: Virginia
Achievements: Arts

World-renowned jazz singer and the first pop musician awarded the Lincoln Center Medallion. At 15, she entered a talent contest to dance. Her knees shook so much during the contest, she chose to sing instead and was discovered by a Chick Webb band member.


Mary Baker Eddy Humanities 1821 New Hampshire 1995

Mary Baker Eddy

Year Honored: 1995
Birth: 1821 - 1910
Born In: New Hampshire
Achievements: Humanities

The only American woman to found a lasting American-based religion, the Church of Christ (Scientist). Her personal struggles led her to believe in a system of prayer-based healing. In 1908, two years before her death at 89 she started The Christian Science Monitor.


Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin Humanities 1842 1995

Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin

Year Honored: 1995
Birth: 1842 - 1924
Achievements: Humanities

African American leader from New England. Ruffin was a suffragist, fought slavery, and founded several organizations for African American women, including the Boston branch of the NAACP and the League of Women for Community Service.


Muriel Siebert Business 1928 Ohio 1994

Muriel Siebert

Year Honored: 1994
Birth: 1928 - 2013
Born In: Ohio
Achievements: Business

First woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange (1967). She was also the nation’s first-ever discount broker and the first woman to serve as Superintendent of Banks for the State of New York.


Grace Hopper Science 1906 New York 1994

Grace Hopper

Year Honored: 1994
Birth: 1906 - 1992
Born In: New York
Achievements: Science

A mathematics genius and computer pioneer, Grace Hopper created computer programming technology that forever changed the flow of information and paved the way for modern data processing. In 1952, Hopper was credited with creating the first compiler for modern computers, a program that translates instructions written by a programmer into codes that can be read by a computer. Hopper was the first woman to hold the rank of Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy.


Myra Bradwell Government 1831 Vermont 1994

Myra Bradwell

Year Honored: 1994
Birth: 1831 - 1894
Born In: Vermont
Achievements: Government

America’s first woman lawyer. When denied permission to practice law in Illinois (despite passing the bar examination) because of her gender, she began publishing The Chicago Legal News, a very successful legal journal. When the laws changed in 1892, Bradwell was admitted to practice in Illinois and in the U.S. Supreme Court.


Linda Richards Science 1841 1994

Linda Richards

Year Honored: 1994
Birth: 1841 - 1930
Achievements: Science

Received the first diploma awarded by the nation’s first school of nursing. Richards dedicated her career to creating professional nurses training schools nationwide to improve both patient care and nurses’ skills.


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.


Geraldine Ferraro Government 1935 New York 1994

Geraldine Ferraro

Year Honored: 1994
Birth: 1935 - 2011
Born In: New York
Achievements: Government

First woman nominated by a major political party as a candidate for Vice President of the United States. Chosen to serve as the running mate of Democratic Presidential Nominee Walter Mondale in 1984, Ferraro had been an Assistant District Attorney in New York and later served in the United States Congress.


Betty Bone Schiess Humanities 1923 Ohio 1994

Betty Bone Schiess

Year Honored: 1994
Birth: 1923 - 2017
Born In: Ohio
Achievements: Humanities

Religious leader. Schiess led the successful effort in 1974 to have women ordained as priests in the Episcopal Church in America, elevating the position of women in the Episcopal Church at all levels.


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.


Anne Hutchinson Humanities 1591 England 1994

Anne Hutchinson

Year Honored: 1994
Birth: 1591 - 1643
Born In: England
Achievements: Humanities

Religious leader who insisted on practicing her religious faith as she chose, including holding religious meetings in her home, the first woman in the new world to do so. As a result, she was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.


Oprah Winfrey Arts, Business, Philanthropy 1954 Mississippi 1994

Oprah Winfrey

Year Honored: 1994
Birth: 1954 -
Born In: Mississippi
Achievements: Arts, Business, Philanthropy

The first Black woman to own her own television production company and who became television’s highest-paid entertainer. She is an advocate for ending child abuse, and she contributes generously to colleges and universities.


Annie Jump Cannon Science 1863 Delaware 1994

Annie Jump Cannon

Year Honored: 1994
Birth: 1863 - 1941
Born In: Delaware
Achievements: Science

Astronomer who perfected the universal system of stellar classification. While working at Harvard Observatory, Cannon compiled the largest accumulation of astronomical information ever assembled by an individual.

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