Discover the Women of the Hall

Barbara Holdridge is the co-founder of Caedmon Records, the first commercially successful project to record and distribute the works of living authors as well as recordings of past literary works by distinguished actors.

Founder of the Children’s Television Workshop for Public Television and creator of Sesame Street. Cooney created a study for the Carnegie Corporation on the possible use of television for preschool education. Acting on her own findings, she solicited funds to develop a program for television. For this, she was the winner of the Emmy and Peabody Awards, along with other honors.

Crusader for some of society’s most sharply disadvantaged, children of women in prison. A Sister of St. Joseph, Roulet has created many social reform and welfare organizations. She is best known for her work at the Bedford Hills Correction Center in New York, where she enabled mothers in prison to keep their babies for a year, a program now being patterned nationwide.

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.

Co-founder (with Cesar Chavez) of the United Farm Workers of America, the nation’s first successful and largest farm workers union. The UFW is dedicated to helping immigrant / migrant people of all ages. Huerta is known as a brilliant organizer, speaker, lobbyist, political strategist and human rights advocate.

First woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Following successes as Assistant Attorney General and State Senator in Arizona, O’Connor was elected to Superior Court and then the Court of Appeals. She was named to the Supreme Court by President Ronald Regan.

One of the most decorated military women in U.S. history, Brigadier General Vaught, USAF, Retired, broke through many gender barriers to achieve a series of “firsts” that paved the way for military women serving today. She may be best known and most revered for her 12-year quest to permanently honor women in the military, raising over $45 million to build a major national memorial. The stunning 33,000 sq. ft. Women in Military Service for America Memorial facility and education center stands today at the gateway to Arlington National Cemetery.

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.

The first Black woman to have ever traveled to both the North and South Pole- both after the age of 75. Inspired by her expeditions, Hillary took interest in the effects of climate change on the polar caps and became a fierce advocate for combating climate change.

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).

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.

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.

A feminist activist, writer, visual artist, filmmaker, teacher and human rights advocate, Kate Millett has been described as one of the most influential Americans of the twentieth century. Millett began her career as an English instructor and in 1966, became the first Chair of the Education Committee of the newly formed National Organization for Women. In 1968, she authored a pioneering report published by NOW, Token Learning: A Study of Women’s Higher Education in America, in which she challenged women’s colleges to provide an equal education for women. Millett is perhaps best-known for her landmark work in feminist theory, Sexual Politics (1970). She currently serves as the Director of the Millett Center for the Arts, a creative work space that provides artist in residence accommodation and studio facilities to women artists from around the world.

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.

Dr. Rita R. Colwell became the first woman and first biologist to head the National Science Foundation in 1998, spearheading the agency’s emphases in K-12 science and mathematics education, graduate science and engineering education/training and the increased participation of women and minorities in science and engineering.

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.

The first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in figure skating.  Named one of the “100 Greatest Female Athletes.”  A successful surgeon and leader in blood plasma research, she works in international efforts to eradicate polio.

A young, civil rights leader, and pioneer. At the age of 16, Powell led a student strike, for equal education, at R.R. Moton High School in Farmville, Virginia.

First woman nominated by a major political party as a candidate for Vice President of the United States. Chosen to serve as the running mate of Democratic Presidential Nominee Walter Mondale in 1984, Ferraro had been an Assistant District Attorney in New York and later served in the United States Congress.

Foreign policy advisor under six consecutive U.S. presidents from Richard Nixon to William Clinton. Beginning in 1975, she served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State; her last appointment was Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs. A former Chair of the Atlantic Council of the U.S., a foreign policy think tank, her work has spanned almost four decades.

An undersea explorer since age 13, Earle became an internationally recognized marine biologist, author, lecturer and scientific consultant. Denied the opportunity to participate in the U.S. Navy “Tektite Project” to study the ocean, she founded “Tektite II”, an all-female expedition that spent two weeks exploring the ocean floor. The founder of two companies to design and build undersea vehicles, she is chief scientist and consultant to oceanographic and marine research centers throughout the world.

First African American woman elected to Congress from the south and the first African American woman to deliver the keynote address at the convention of a major political party (Democratic Convention, 1976). Known as having a brilliant legal mind, Jordan became a professor and lecturer after retiring from Congress.