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

Henrietta Lacks Science 1920 2020

Henrietta Lacks

Year Honored: 2020
Birth: 1920 - 1951
Achievements: Science

Lacks is best recognized for her immortal HeLa cells, which have been used in research that led to the development of the Polio vaccine, chemotherapy, and contributed to Parkinson’s research.


Sherry Lansing Arts, Business, Humanities, Philanthropy 1944 Illinois 2017

Sherry Lansing

Year Honored: 2017
Birth: 1944 -
Born In: Illinois
Achievements: Arts, Business, Humanities, Philanthropy

A trailblazer, visionary leader and creative filmmaker. She was involved in the production, marketing and distribution of more than 200 films and the first woman to head a major film studio.


Clare Boothe Luce Arts, Government, Humanities, Philanthropy 1903 New York 2017

Clare Boothe Luce

Year Honored: 2017
Birth: 1903 - 1987
Born In: New York
Achievements: Arts, Government, Humanities, Philanthropy

She was instrumental in the creation of the Atomic Energy Commission and later established an endowment for what has become one of the single most significant sources of private support for women in science, mathematics, and engineering.


Carlotta Walls LaNier Humanities 1942 Arkansas 2015

Carlotta Walls LaNier

Year Honored: 2015
Birth: 1942 -
Born In: Arkansas
Achievements: Humanities

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.


Lilly Ledbetter Humanities 1938 Alabama 2011

Lilly Ledbetter

Year Honored: 2011
Birth: 1938 -
Born In: Alabama
Achievements: Humanities

For over a decade, Lilly Ledbetter has fought to achieve pay equity. Upon retiring from her position as a manager with the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, Ledbetter discovered that she had been paid considerably less than her male colleagues. She filed a formal complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission and later initiated a lawsuit against Goodyear alleging pay discrimination. Although a jury initially awarded her compensation, the Supreme Court ruled that Ledbetter could not receive any money because she had filed her complaint more than 180 days after receiving her first discriminatory paycheck. Since then, Ledbetter has continuously lobbied for equal pay for men and women; her efforts proved successful when President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law in 2009.


Allie B. Latimer Government 1931 Pennsylvania 2009

Allie B. Latimer

Year Honored: 2009
Birth: 1931 -
Born In: Pennsylvania
Achievements: Government

An attorney, civil rights activist and humanitarian, Allie B. Latimer was instrumental in organizing Federally Employed Women (FEW) in 1968, and served as the organization’s founding president until 1969. In 1977, as a federal attorney, Latimer was the first African American and first woman to serve as General Counsel of a major federal agency as well as the first African American and first woman to attain the GS-18 salary level at the General Services Administration. She was also recognized as part of the ‘second wave of feminist pioneers’ by the Veteran Feminists of America (VFA).


Emma Lazarus Arts 1849 New York 2009

Emma Lazarus

Year Honored: 2009
Birth: 1849 - 1887
Born In: New York
Achievements: Arts

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” These famous words from The New Colossus, were written by Emma Lazarus, one of the first successful Jewish American authors. Originally created in 1883, the sonnet was later engraved in bronze and placed at the base of the Statue of Liberty. Throughout her lifetime, Lazarus authored and published numerous poems, essays, letters, short stories and translations. She was an important forerunner of the Zionist movement, having argued for the creation of a Jewish homeland thirteen years before the term Zionist was even coined.


Winona LaDuke Humanities 1959 California 2007

Winona LaDuke

Year Honored: 2007
Birth: 1959 -
Born In: California
Achievements: Humanities

A graduate of Harvard and Antioch Universities, Winona LaDuke advocates for public support and funding for frontline native environmental groups. In 1994, she was nominated by Time Magazine as one of America’s most promising leaders under forty years of age. In 1998, she was named Ms. Magazine Woman of the Year. Ms. LaDuke was the vice-presidential candidate on the Green Party ticket in both 1996 and 2000. She currently serves as director of the White Earth Land Recovery Project in Minnesota.


Maya Y. Lin Arts 1959 Ohio 2005

Maya Y. Lin

Year Honored: 2005
Birth: 1959 -
Born In: Ohio
Achievements: Arts

Lin, an architectural designer who gained fame at the age of 21 as creator of the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial, is a Chinese-American who draws on a variety of culturally diverse sources for her inspiration. Some of her well-known works include the Civil Rights Memorial at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, AL and The Wave Field at the University of Michigan.


Patricia A. Locke Education 1928 Idaho 2005

Patricia A. Locke

Year Honored: 2005
Birth: 1928 - 2001
Born In: Idaho
Achievements: Education

Locke worked for decades to preserve American Indian languages and became a pioneer in an effort to grant the tribes greater authority in the education of their children. Locke was a 1991 MacArthur Fellow for her work to save dying tribal languages. In 1993, she became the first Native American woman elected to the national governing body of the Baha’i faith.


Dorothea Lange Arts 1895 New Jersey 2003

Dorothea Lange

Year Honored: 2003
Birth: 1895 - 1965
Born In: New Jersey
Achievements: Arts

Lange was a pioneer in documentary photography, remembered for her wide-ranging photographs of Americans during the depression and the Japanese-American internment during World War II, and for her later work in Asia. She put a human face on political issues of the day, such as poverty and social injustice. Lange was the first woman awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in photography in 1940.


Mildred Robbins Leet Philanthropy 1922 New York 2003

Mildred Robbins Leet

Year Honored: 2003
Birth: 1922 - 2011
Born In: New York
Achievements: Philanthropy

As Co-founder and Chairman of the Trickle Up Program, Inc., philanthropist Mildred Leet assisted people worldwide in rising out of poverty. Trickle Up provides seed capital to impoverished individuals, allowing them the opportunity to work their way to self-sufficiency. Leet also helped found United Cerebral Palsy and was a co-founder and Vice President of the U.S. Committee for the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).


Shannon W. Lucid Science 1943 1998

Shannon W. Lucid

Year Honored: 1998
Birth: 1943 -
Achievements: Science

A commercial, instrumental and multi-engine-rated pilot, Dr. Shannon Lucid was a member of the first astronaut class to admit women (1979). In her more than 30 year tenure with NASA, she served in various capacities and participated in five space flights. Dr. Lucid was the first woman to hold an international record for the most flight hours in orbit by any non-Russian, and, until June 2007, she held the record for the most flight hours in orbit by any woman in the world – 5,354 hours or 223 days in space.


Anne Morrow Lindbergh Arts, Science 1906 1996

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Year Honored: 1996
Birth: 1906 - 2001
Achievements: Arts, Science

Author of numerous elegant essays, journals and other books. Lindbergh also excelled as co-pilot and navigator with her husband Charles on their historic flights to promote the development of international aviation.


Susette La Flesche Humanities 1854 Nebraska 1994

Susette La Flesche

Year Honored: 1994
Birth: 1854 - 1903
Born In: Nebraska
Achievements: Humanities

Member of the Omaha Tribe and a tireless campaigner for native American rights. La Flesche was the first Native American published lecturer, artist and author. She helped change national perceptions about the rights of Native Americans.


Mary Lyon Education 1797 1993

Mary Lyon

Year Honored: 1993
Birth: 1797 - 1849
Achievements: Education

Founded the first college for women, Mount Holyoke (1837). Mount Holyoke became the model for institutions of higher education for women nationwide. Lyon based her school on sound finances and high quality education in all disciplines, encouraging and educating women to reach beyond teaching and homemaking.


Belva Lockwood Government 1830 New York 1983

Belva Lockwood

Year Honored: 1983
Birth: 1830 - 1917
Born In: New York
Achievements: Government

First woman to practice law and argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court (1879). Lockwood became a lawyer when she was 40 and used her knowledge to help secure women’s suffrage, property law reforms, pay equity and world peace. She helped open the legal profession to women.


Juliette Gordon Low Humanities 1860 Georgia 1979

Juliette Gordon Low

Year Honored: 1979
Birth: 1860 - 1927
Born In: Georgia
Achievements: Humanities

As a tireless champion of young girls, Juliette Gordon Low founded the Girl Scouts of the USA (1912). Today, there are more than 3 million girl and adult members of the Girl Scouts of the USA.