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

Rachel Carson Science 1907 Pennsylvania 1973

Rachel Carson

Year Honored: 1973
Birth: 1907 - 1964
Born In: Pennsylvania
Achievements: Science

Zoologist whose concern over the damaging effects of pesticides and other poisons on the environment led to her groundbreaking work, Silent Spring. Carson’s book was a catalyst for the environmental movement of today.


Susan B. Anthony Humanities 1820 Massachusetts 1973

Susan B. Anthony

Year Honored: 1973
Birth: 1820 - 1906
Born In: Massachusetts
Achievements: Humanities

The women’s movement’s most powerful organizer whose lifetime of dedication, and work with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, paved the way for women’s right to vote. Her words “Men their rights and nothing more; women their rights and nothing less,” expressed the ongoing struggle for equality.


Mary Cassatt Arts 1844 Pennsylvania 1973

Mary Cassatt

Year Honored: 1973
Birth: 1844 - 1926
Born In: Pennsylvania
Achievements: Arts

American impressionist painter who captured the soul of family life, women, children, interiors and gardens. A friend and student of the great Impressionists of Paris, Cassatt powerfully influenced American art.


Emily Dickinson Arts 1830 Massachusetts 1973

Emily Dickinson

Year Honored: 1973
Birth: 1830 - 1886
Born In: Massachusetts
Achievements: Arts

One of the world’s greatest poets. A New England woman who spent much of her life in one small community, her world vision and innovative style has had a lasting impact on literature.


Florence Sabin Science 1871 Colorado 1973

Florence Sabin

Year Honored: 1973
Birth: 1871 - 1953
Born In: Colorado
Achievements: Science

First woman graduate of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the first woman to teach there. A talented anatomist and researcher, Sabin performed pioneering work in embryology, the lymphatic system and tuberculosis.


Helen Keller Education 1880 Alabama 1973

Helen Keller

Year Honored: 1973
Birth: 1880 - 1968
Born In: Alabama
Achievements: Education

Author and lecturer. An illness at the age of 19 months left her deaf, blind and mute. Through the work of teacher Anne Sullivan, she learned to overcome these daunting handicaps and became a powerful and effective national spokesperson on behalf of others with similar disabilities.


Jane Addams Humanities 1860 Illinois 1973

Jane Addams

Year Honored: 1973
Birth: 1860 - 1935
Born In: Illinois
Achievements: Humanities

Social reformer and peace activist who created Hull House in the slums of Chicago, starting an American settlement house movement to provide help for the poor. A lifelong activist, Addams fought child labor, infant mortality and dangerous workplaces. Founder of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, she won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1931.


Clara Barton Science 1821 Massachusetts 1973

Clara Barton

Year Honored: 1973
Birth: 1821 - 1912
Born In: Massachusetts
Achievements: Science

Founder of the American Red Cross, Barton ministered to injured soldiers during the Civil War and became known as the “Angel of the Battlefield.” Devoted to the organization, she later took to the field, providing relief in the Spanish American War at the age of 77.


Mary McLeod Bethune Education 1875 South Carolina 1973

Mary McLeod Bethune

Year Honored: 1973
Birth: 1875 - 1955
Born In: South Carolina
Achievements: Education

African American teacher who, with only $1.50, began a school to help educate young African American women. After developing it into a college, she became a powerful leader, and through her leadership of the National Council of Negro Women, worked to end discrimination and increase opportunities for African Americans.


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.


Pearl S. Buck Arts 1892 West Virginia 1973

Pearl S. Buck

Year Honored: 1973
Birth: 1892 - 1973
Born In: West Virginia
Achievements: Arts

Novelist whose writing evoked two different cultures, American and Asian. Buck won the Pulitzer Prize for The Good Earth and was later the first American woman awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for her body of work.


Helen Brooke Taussig Science 1898 Massachusetts 1973

Helen Brooke Taussig

Year Honored: 1973
Birth: 1898 - 1986
Born In: Massachusetts
Achievements: Science

As Chief of the heart clinic at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, she developed a pioneering operation in 1944 which solved the often fatal “blue baby” (children born with an anatomical heart defect) problem, saving countless infants.


Marian Anderson Arts 1897 Pennsylvania 1973

Marian Anderson

Year Honored: 1973
Birth: 1897 - 1993
Born In: Pennsylvania
Achievements: Arts

First African American singer to perform with the Metropolitan Opera. An international star, Anderson was a brilliant musician whose talents helped shatter the color barrier for other African American performers.


Alice Hamilton Science 1869 Indiana 1973

Alice Hamilton

Year Honored: 1973
Birth: 1869 - 1970
Born In: Indiana
Achievements: Science

Physician pathologist who specialized in industrial diseases. Hamilton helped save workers’ lives by forcing reforms in the workplace and protection from dangers such as lead poisoning.


Elizabeth Blackwell Science 1821 England 1973

Elizabeth Blackwell

Year Honored: 1973
Birth: 1821 - 1910
Born In: England
Achievements: Science

First American woman awarded an M.D. Blackwell founded the New York Infirmary for Women and Children and the Women’s Medical College, after having been banned from hospitals in New York. She paved the way for women in medicine.


Harriet Tubman Humanities c.1820 Maryland 1973

Harriet Tubman

Year Honored: 1973
Birth: c.1820 - 1913
Born In: Maryland
Achievements: Humanities

Abolitionist born a slave in Maryland. Fleeing north to freedom, Tubman joined the Underground Railroad as a “conductor” who led people through the lines to freedom. Credited with saving more that 300 people from slavery, she became known as “Moses.” During the Civil War, Tubman organized former slaves into scouts and spy patrols, and after the war worked to help needy African Americans.


Helen Hayes Arts 1900 1973

Helen Hayes

Year Honored: 1973
Birth: 1900 - 1993
Achievements: Arts

A major actress in all entertainment areas, from live theater to films and radio. In 1955, New York’s Fulton Theatre was renamed in her honor to commemorate a distinguished 50-year career.


Amelia Earhart Science 1897 Kansas 1973

Amelia Earhart

Year Honored: 1973
Birth: 1897 - 1937
Born In: Kansas
Achievements: Science

The first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, and the first to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean. Earhart was a strong individual who inspired other women to take risks in non-traditional arenas.


Elizabeth Cady Stanton Humanities 1815 New York 1973

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Year Honored: 1973
Birth: 1815 - 1902
Born In: New York
Achievements: Humanities

Suffragist and reformer. Stanton noticed from her earliest years that women were not treated equally with men. In 1848, she and others convened the first Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, bringing 300 individuals together, including Frederick Douglass. Stanton determined that the right to vote was the key to women’s equality. Throughout her life and partnership with Susan B. Anthony, she wrote and argued brilliantly for women’s equality through the right to vote.


Eleanor Roosevelt Humanities 1884 1973

Eleanor Roosevelt

Year Honored: 1973
Birth: 1884 - 1962
Achievements: Humanities

Trailblazing First Lady and wife of President Franklin Roosevelt. She spent her adult years working in politics and social reform. Her warmth and compassion inspired the nation, and she later became U.S. Delegate to the United Nations. The U.N. Declaration of Human Rights was largely her work, and she chaired the first-ever Presidential Commission on the Status of Women (1961).


Margaret Mead Science 1901 1976

Margaret Mead

Year Honored: 1976
Birth: 1901 - 1978
Achievements: Science

Trailblazing anthropologist whose book, Coming of Age in Samoa, caused scientific and social rethinking of adolescence. Mead’s career included the study of numerous tribes as well as extensive and innovative field work.


Abigail Adams Humanities 1744 Massachusetts 1976

Abigail Adams

Year Honored: 1976
Birth: 1744 - 1818
Born In: Massachusetts
Achievements: Humanities

Influential letter writer who urged her husband, President John Adams to “Remember the Ladies” and permit women to legally own property. She identified this major obstacle to women’s equality, which was overcome years later.


Mildred "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias Athletics 1911 Texas 1976

Mildred "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias

Year Honored: 1976
Birth: 1911 - 1956
Born In: Texas
Achievements: Athletics

One of the century’s premier athletes. Zaharias won track and field gold medals at the 1932 Olympics. She later became a golf champion and founded the Ladies Professional Golf Association. Zaharias inspired generations of women to develop athletic skills.


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.

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