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

Ruby Bridges Humanities 1954 Mississippi 2024

Ruby Bridges

Year Honored: 2024
Birth: 1954 -
Born In: Mississippi
Achievements: Humanities

Civil Rights icon, activist, author, and speaker, Ruby Bridges stepped into history books in 1960 when at six years old she single-handedly broke down barriers by desegregating the all-white William Frantz Elementary school in New Orleans.


Kimberlé Crenshaw Education, Humanities 1959 Ohio 2024

Kimberlé Crenshaw

Year Honored: 2024
Birth: 1959 -
Born In: Ohio
Achievements: Education, Humanities

Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw is the co-founder and ExecutiveDirector of the African American Policy Forum, a gender and racial justice legal think tank, and the founder and Executive Director of the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies at Columbia Law School. She is a trailblazing scholar, advocate, and professor whose ideas have reshaped the landscape of critical race theory and Black feminist legal theory.


Peggy McIntosh Education, Humanities 1934 New York 2024

Peggy McIntosh

Year Honored: 2024
Birth: 1934 -
Born In: New York
Achievements: Education, Humanities

Peggy McIntosh is renowned as an educational innovator, feminist activist, author, and public speaker. McIntosh derived her understanding of white privilege from observing parallels with male privilege.


Judith Plaskow Education, Humanities 1947 New York 2024

Judith Plaskow

Year Honored: 2024
Birth: 1947 -
Born In: New York
Achievements: Education, Humanities

In the realm of feminist theology, one of the names that stands out as a pioneering force is Dr. Judith Plaskow. An author and activist, Paskow is a visionary thinker whose intellectual contributions have shaped discourse and enriched our understanding of spirituality, gender, and equality.


Loretta Ross Education, Humanities 1953 Texas 2024

Loretta Ross

Year Honored: 2024
Birth: 1953 -
Born In: Texas
Achievements: Education, Humanities

Loretta J. Ross is a Black academic, feminist, and activist for reproductive justice, especially among women of color. Driven by her personal experiences as a survivor of rape and nonconsensual sterilization, Ross has dedicated her extensive career in academia and activism to reframing reproductive rights within a broader context of human rights.


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.


Emily Howland Humanities 1827 New York 2021

Emily Howland

Year Honored: 2021
Birth: 1827 - 1929
Born In: New York
Achievements: Humanities

Michelle Obama Arts, Humanities 1964 Illinois 2021

Michelle Obama

Year Honored: 2021
Birth: 1964 -
Born In: Illinois
Achievements: Arts, Humanities

Toni Morrison Arts, Humanities 1931 2020

Toni Morrison

Year Honored: 2020
Birth: 1931 - 2018
Achievements: Arts, Humanities

An author and book editor who fostered a new generation of Black writers. Morrison has been unapologetic about her focus on Black people’s experiences, and the power with which she has brought this focus.


Jane Fonda Arts, Government, Humanities 1937 2019

Jane Fonda

Year Honored: 2019
Birth: 1937 -
Achievements: Arts, Government, Humanities

A two-time Academy Award winning actress (Best Actress in 1971 for Klute and in 1978 for Coming Home), activist, businesswoman, author, producer for film and television and philanthropist, Jane Fonda has revolutionized how we see things from the screen to fitness to representations of women and girls in the media. From the counterculture of the 1960s to today’s feminism, Native American rights and environmentalism; from Kluteto 9 to 5 to Grace and Frankie: Fonda has been a visionary and powerful influencer. Through the Jane Fonda Foundation and the Fonda Family Foundation, Fonda funds causes related toyouth and education, adolescent reproductive health, the environment, human services, and the arts. In 2005, together with Robin Morgan and Gloria Steinem, she co-founded the Women’s Media Center, an organization that works to increase the visibility and power of women in media. Fonda serves on the board of the organization. She is the recipient of many honors and awards, including two Academy Awards, two BAFTAs, four Golden Globes, a Primetime Emmy Award, the AFI Life Achievement Award, and the Honorary Golden Lion. In 2007, Fonda received an Honorary Palme d’Or from the Cannes Film Festival, making her one of three people to ever be granted this honor until then. She was also recognized with a Tony Award nomination for her role on Broadway in Moisés Kaufman’s 33 Variations. In 2018, a documentary following Fonda’s remarkable journey, Jane Fonda in Five Acts, was released.


Matilda Raffa Cuomo Education, Government, Humanities, Philanthropy 1931 New York 2017

Matilda Raffa Cuomo

Year Honored: 2017
Birth: 1931 -
Born In: New York
Achievements: Education, Government, Humanities, Philanthropy

Established the nation’s first school-based one-to-one mentoring program, connecting over 10,000 students to trained mentors, and helping them to succeed in school, graduate, and advance in the workplace. The reach of this program, Mentoring USA, has expanded internationally.


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.


Lorraine Hansberry Arts, Humanities 1930 Illinois 2017

Lorraine Hansberry

Year Honored: 2017
Birth: 1930 - 1965
Born In: Illinois
Achievements: Arts, Humanities

A groundbreaking playwright and essayist best known as the author of A Raisin in the Sun, which ensured a place for the Black experience in American theatre. She was the first Black woman to have a show produced on Broadway, the first Black playwright and the youngest American to receive the prestigious New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best American Play, and the first Black American to win the distinguished Drama Desk Award.


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.


Aimée Mullins Arts, Athletics, Humanities, Philanthropy 1976 Pennsylvania 2017

Aimée Mullins

Year Honored: 2017
Birth: 1976 -
Born In: Pennsylvania
Achievements: Arts, Athletics, Humanities, Philanthropy

She is a world record holding athlete, ground-breaking high fashion model, beacon for design tech, dedicated advocate, and avant-garde actor. She conceived of, and was the first to wear and compete in, prostheses modeled after the hind legs of a cheetah – now the international standard for amputee runners.


Carol A. Mutter Government, Humanities 1945 Colorado 2017

Carol A. Mutter

Year Honored: 2017
Birth: 1945 -
Born In: Colorado
Achievements: Government, Humanities

A Lieutenant General who entered the Marines when only 1% of Marines were women and no women were in the deployed services. Among her numerous activities, she has served as Chair of the Department of Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services and is a Past President of the Women Marines Association where she remains active at the national level.


Alice Waters Business, Education, Humanities, Philanthropy 1944 New Jersey 2017

Alice Waters

Year Honored: 2017
Birth: 1944 -
Born In: New Jersey
Achievements: Business, Education, Humanities, Philanthropy

A chef, author and food activist, and the founder and owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley, California. She has been a champion of local sustainable agriculture for over four decades, and is credited with popularizing the organic food movement.


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.


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.


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.


Jean Kilbourne Humanities 1943 Kansas 2015

Jean Kilbourne

Year Honored: 2015
Birth: 1943 -
Born In: Kansas
Achievements: Humanities

Through her pioneering work studying images of women in advertising, Jean Kilbourne has changed the conversation as to how organizations and educational institutions address many public health problems including smoking, high-risk drinking eating disorders, obesity, sexualization of children, and violence against women.


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.


Betty Ford Humanities 1918 Illinois 2013

Betty Ford

Year Honored: 2013
Birth: 1918 - 2011
Born In: Illinois
Achievements: Humanities

A groundbreaking First Lady, Betty Ford is often remembered for her candor in addressing the controversial issues of her time. Shortly after she became the First Lady of the United States in 1974, Ford was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a radical mastectomy. Rather than suppressing the diagnosis, Ford courageously shared her personal story and inspired countless women across the nation to get breast examinations. In 1978, following a family intervention, Ford underwent successful treatment for addiction to alcohol and prescription drugs. She again used her story to raise public awareness of addiction, and in 1982, she co-founded the Betty Ford Center to treat victims of alcohol and chemical dependency. Ford was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991 and the Congressional Gold Medal, with President Gerald R. Ford, in 1999.

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