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

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.


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.


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.


Ina May Gaskin Science 1940 Iowa 2013

Ina May Gaskin

Year Honored: 2013
Birth: 1940 -
Born In: Iowa
Achievements: Science

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.


Ruth Bader Ginsburg Government 1933 New York 2002

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Year Honored: 2002
Birth: 1933 - 2020
Born In: New York
Achievements: Government

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has spent her career working to eliminate gender-based stereotyping and discrimination. Justice Ginsburg is the second woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court in its 212 year history.


Katharine Graham Arts, Business 1917 New York 2002

Katharine Graham

Year Honored: 2002
Birth: 1917 - 2001
Born In: New York
Achievements: Arts, Business

As publisher and then Board Chair and CEO of the Washington Post, Graham became one of the most influential women in the country. Her courageous decisions to publish the Pentagon Papers and to proceed with the Watergate investigation earned her a reputation as a daring and thorough journalist, willing to take risks in order to give the American people full access to important information.


Althea Gibson Athletics 1927 South Carolina 2001

Althea Gibson

Year Honored: 2001
Birth: 1927 - 2003
Born In: South Carolina
Achievements: Athletics

In 1957 Althea Gibson became the first African American tennis player to win at Wimbledon and Forest Hills. Her influence as a role model for aspiring athletes has been profound.


Sarah Grimké Humanities 1792 South Carolina 1998

Sarah Grimké

Year Honored: 1998
Birth: 1792 - 1873
Born In: South Carolina
Achievements: Humanities

Along with Angelina Grimké Weld, who wrote numerous published papers which championed abolition and women’s rights. The Grimké sisters were southerners who became the first female speakers for the American Anti-Slavery Society. Sarah’s Letters on the Equality of the Sexes exposed the plight of factory women in New England, as well as arguing on behalf of women’s rights and abolition. Through their examples and their words, the Grimkés proved that women could affect the course of political events and have a far-reaching influence on society.


Maria Goeppert-Mayer Science 1906 Germany 1996

Maria Goeppert-Mayer

Year Honored: 1996
Birth: 1906 - 1972
Born In: Germany
Achievements: Science

First U.S. woman and second woman ever to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. The Prize was awarded for developing the shell model of the nucleus of the atom, the basic model for the description of nuclear properties. Mayer was also a member of the team that first isolated fissionable uranium 235.


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.


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.


Charlotte Perkins Gilman Arts 1860 Connecticut 1994

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Year Honored: 1994
Birth: 1860 - 1935
Born In: Connecticut
Achievements: Arts

Philosopher, writer, educator and activist who demanded equal treatment for women as the best means to advance society’s progress. Her landmark Women and Economics (1898) argued that until women gained economic independence, real autonomy and equity could not be achieved.


Ella Grasso Government 1919 Connecticut 1993

Ella Grasso

Year Honored: 1993
Birth: 1919 - 1981
Born In: Connecticut
Achievements: Government

First woman elected a state governor in her own right. Grasso was elected Governor of Connecticut in 1974, serving until illness forced her retirement in 1980. She was also a Congresswoman and advocate for women, minorities and the elderly.


Martha Wright Griffiths Government 1912 Missouri 1993

Martha Wright Griffiths

Year Honored: 1993
Birth: 1912 - 2003
Born In: Missouri
Achievements: Government

Congresswoman from Michigan 1955-1975, best known for successfully adding sex discrimination as a prohibited act in the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Griffiths also successfully led the Equal Rights Amendment passage in the House of Representatives.