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

Susan Solomon Science 1956 Illinois 2009

Susan Solomon

Year Honored: 2009
Birth: 1956 -
Born In: Illinois
Achievements: Science

An internationally recognized leader in the field of atmospheric science, Susan Solomon pioneered the theory explaining how and why the ozone hole occurs in Antarctica, and obtained some of the first chemical measurements that established man-made chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as its cause. Solomon is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 1999 National Medal of Science and the Asahi Foundation of Japan’s Blue Planet Prize in 2004. From 2002-2008, Solomon served as the co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Albert Gore, Jr. in 2007. Solomon’s current research as a senior scientist with the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration focuses on climate change, ozone depletion and the links between the two.


Sonia Sotomayor Education, Government 1954 2019

Sonia Sotomayor

Year Honored: 2019
Birth: 1954 -
Achievements: Education, Government

Sonia Sotomayor is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, appointed by President Barack Obama in 2009 after leadership as an assistant district attorney, in private practice and across a distinguished judicial career. She is the third woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court and the first Hispanic and Latina Justice in the Court’s 230 years. A graduate of Princeton and Yale Law School, Sotomayor’s experiences as one of few Latinas at these institutions led her to advocate for inclusion on campuses, foreshadowing her focus on public service across her career. During her tenure on the Supreme Court, Sotomayor has been reputed for her work concerning the rights of defendants, calls for reform of the criminal justice system, and attention to issues of race, gender and ethnic identity. Justice Sotomayor is also an author, including of “My Beloved World/Mi Mundo Adorado,” “A Judge Grows in the Bronx/La juez que creció en el Bronx” and “Turning pages/Pasando Páginas.” A recipient of the Katherine Hepburn Award from Bryn Mawr College honoring women who change the world, Sotomayor has also received multiple honorary degrees, including from her alma mater Princeton University.


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.


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.


Donna E. Shalala Education, Government 1941 Ohio 2011

Donna E. Shalala

Year Honored: 2011
Birth: 1941 -
Born In: Ohio
Achievements: Education, Government

A groundbreaking educator and politician, Dr. Donna Shalala has more than thirty years of experience as an accomplished scholar, teacher and administrator. Dr. Shalala is recognized as the longest serving United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (1993-2001) and is the current President of the University of Miami. From 1980-1987, Dr. Shalala served as the president of Hunter College, and from 1987-1993, she was the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Shalala is the recipient of more than three dozen honorary degrees and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008.


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.


Eleanor Smeal Humanities 1939 Ohio 2015

Eleanor Smeal

Year Honored: 2015
Birth: 1939 -
Born In: Ohio
Achievements: Humanities

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.


Allucquére Rosanne Stone Arts, Education, Humanities 1936 New Jersey 2024

Allucquére Rosanne Stone

Year Honored: 2024
Birth: 1936 -
Born In: New Jersey
Achievements: Arts, Education, Humanities

Allucquére Rosanne Stone, also known as Sandy Stone, is an academic, media theorist, artist, audio engineer, and computer programmer. A founder of the academic discipline of transgender studies, Stone’s trailblazing work created space for trans scholars to unfold the vast spectrum of gender.


Gloria Steinem Humanities 1934 Ohio 1993

Gloria Steinem

Year Honored: 1993
Birth: 1934 -
Born In: Ohio
Achievements: Humanities

Feminist leader, writer and social activist. A founder of Ms. Magazine, Steinem also co-convened the National Women’s Political Caucus and helped create the Ms. Foundation for Women. A best-selling author, her latest works are Revolution from Within: A Book of Self Esteem for Women and Moving Beyond Words.


Beverly Sills Arts 1929 New York 1998

Beverly Sills

Year Honored: 1998
Birth: 1929 - 2007
Born In: New York
Achievements: Arts

Acclaimed Soprano who became the first woman General Director and then President of the New York City Opera, and later first woman chair of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, guiding the Center to become one of the nation’s most important institutions. She was not only directly responsible for the discovery and launch of many young performers, but was also actively involved in a myriad of humane works, including the National Victim Center and (as National Chair) the March of Dimes Mothers March on Birth Defects.


Louise Slaughter Education, Government 1929 2019

Louise Slaughter

Year Honored: 2019
Birth: 1929 - 2018
Achievements: Education, Government

A prominent advocate for women and POC, Louise Slaughter was a member of Congress for over 30 years. One of the longest-serving women in the House of Representatives, Slaughter was the first chairwoman of the House Rules Committee and the co-chair and founding member of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, which works to promote reproductive health and protect a woman’s right to choose. Slaughter also established the Office of Research on Women’s Health and secured the first $500 million in federal funding for breast cancer research at the NIH, and she co-authored the landmark Violence Against Women Act, which has reduced cases of domestic violence by 67% since 1994. Representing upstate New York in Congress for decades, Slaughter was a scientist-turned-politician, a local and national leader whose work for women and for all Americans continues to shape our lives.


Bernice Resnick Sandler Education, Humanities 1928 New York 2013

Bernice Resnick Sandler

Year Honored: 2013
Birth: 1928 - 2019
Born In: New York
Achievements: Education, Humanities

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.


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.


Felice N. Schwartz Business 1925 New York 1998

Felice N. Schwartz

Year Honored: 1998
Birth: 1925 - 1996
Born In: New York
Achievements: Business

Founder in 1962 of Catalyst, the premier organization working with corporations to foster women’s leadership. She published studies (Women in Corporate Leadership in 1990 and Women in Engineering in 1992) illustrating the barriers to women’s workplace progress and then provided samples of model corporate practices to help women advance. Her work has had a lasting impact on the composition of American corporate leadership.


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.


Eunice Kennedy Shriver Humanities 1921 Massachusetts 1998

Eunice Kennedy Shriver

Year Honored: 1998
Birth: 1921 - 2009
Born In: Massachusetts
Achievements: Humanities

For more than thirty years, Eunice Kennedy Shriver served as a leader in the worldwide struggle to enhance the lives of people with intellectual disabilities. Under her leadership, the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation aided in the creation of The President’s Committee on Mental Retardation (1961) and the development of the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (1962). Shriver is credited as the founder of the Special Olympics, an organization that today serves 3 million people with intellectual disabilities in nearly 200 nations around the world.


Katherine Siva Saubel Arts, Education, Humanities 1920 California 1993

Katherine Siva Saubel

Year Honored: 1993
Birth: 1920 - 2011
Born In: California
Achievements: Arts, Education, Humanities

Founder of the Malki Museum at the Morongo Reservation in California. Born on a reservation in great poverty, Saubel became determined to preserve her tribe’s culture and language, despite overwhelming odds. A learned ethno anthropologist, Saubel was a founder of this first museum run by Native Americans.


Helen Stephens Athletics 1918 Missouri 1993

Helen Stephens

Year Honored: 1993
Birth: 1918 - 1994
Born In: Missouri
Achievements: Athletics

Athlete who set a world record and won two track and field gold medals at the 1936 Olympics. As an amateur, Stephens set Olympic, American and Canadian records in running, broad jump and discus. The small-town Missouri girl went on to become the first woman owner/manager of a women’s semiprofessional ball team and a lifetime sports advocate.


Anna Jacobson Schwartz Business 1915 New York 2013

Anna Jacobson Schwartz

Year Honored: 2013
Birth: 1915 - 2012
Born In: New York
Achievements: Business

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.


Florence B. Seibert Science 1897 1990

Florence B. Seibert

Year Honored: 1990
Birth: 1897 - 1991
Achievements: Science

Scientist who made it possible to test for tuberculosis and who pioneered safe intravenous therapy. Siebert also devoted many years to cancer research.


Margaret Chase Smith Government 1897 Maine 1973

Margaret Chase Smith

Year Honored: 1973
Birth: 1897 - 1995
Born In: Maine
Achievements: Government

Beginning her political career by assuming her deceased husband’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, she ran for and became a U.S. Senator from Maine. Margaret Chase Smith served four terms and was an advocate for a strong national defense.


Catherine Filene Shouse Arts, Philanthropy 1896 Massachusetts 2007

Catherine Filene Shouse

Year Honored: 2007
Birth: 1896 - 1994
Born In: Massachusetts
Achievements: Arts, Philanthropy

Known for her visionary work in education, arts, politics and women’s affairs, Catherine Filene Shouse was the first woman to receive a Masters Degree in Education from Harvard University and the first woman appointed to the Democratic National Committee in 1919. Ten years later, she launched the Institute for Women’s Professional Relations. An ardent supporter of the arts and arts education, Catherine Filene Shouse founded and was the major benefactor of the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in Vienna, Virginia – the first and only national park dedicated to the performing arts. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Gerald R. Ford in 1977.


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.


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”.