Discover the Women of the Hall

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.

Nurse who was the first woman since founder Margaret Sanger, and first African American to become president of the Planned Parenthood Foundation. Wattleton developed Planned Parenthood into an influential nationwide organization.

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.

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.

Founder and director of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership at Rutgers University. Bunch has helped shape the global feminist movement and created consciousness about gender-based human rights. She is also a leader in national and international networking and advocacy for women.

First woman elected Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. As Chief, Mankiller brought about major economic and social improvements for her tribe, including better health care, economic development, and education.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.