ABIGAIL ADAMS (1744-1818) 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.
JANE ADDAMS (1860-1935) 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, dangerous workplaces, and more. She won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1931.
MARIAN ANDERSON (1902-1993) was the first Black singer to perform with the Metropolitan Opera. An international star, she was a brilliant musician whose talents helped shatter the color line for other Black performers. ETHEL PERCY ANDRUS (1884-1967) founded the American Association of Retired Persons to help older Americans cope effectively with the later years. Her organization - now 36 million strong - helps with health insurance, career assistance, discounts, a strong political lobby, and more.
SUSAN B. ANTHONY (1820-1906) is the women's movement's most powerful organizer whose lifetime of dedication, working 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, n express the ongoing struggle for equality.
VIRGINIA APGAR (1909-1974) A physician best known for development of the Apgar Score in 1952. This system of simple tests is used to determine whether a newborn child needs special medical attention, and has saved thousands of lives.
ELLA BAKER (1903-1986) was the premier behind-the-scenes organizer and co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), headed by Martin Luther King. Jr. She also helped establish the Civil Rights Movement's foremost student organization, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.
ANN BANCROFT (1955 - ) Bancroft was the first woman to travel across the ice to the North Pole. She was also the first woman to travel across Greenland on skis, and in 1993 was leader of the American Women's Expedition, a group of 4 who skied more than 600 miles to the South Pole. CLARA BARTON (1821-1912) Barton ministered to injured soldiers during the Civil War and became known as the "Angel of the Battlefield." She was the founder of the American Red Cross.
MARY MCLEOD BETHUNE (1875-1955) was a Black teacher who began a school to help educate young Black women with only $1.50 and turned 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 Black Americans.
ANTOINETTE BLACKWELL (1825-1921) was the first American woman ordained a minister by a recognized denomination (Congregational), despite great opposition to women in the ministry. She was a pastor, mother of seven children, an(l wrote many books and essays. She was an active women's rights leader.
ELIZABETH BLACKWELL (1821-1910) was the first American woman awarded an M.D. She later founded her own infirmary and a women's medical college when she was banned from hospitals in New York. She paved the way for women in medicine.
EMILY BLACKWELL (1826-1910) The talented sister of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman doctor in America, Emily also became a physician and ran the New York Infirmary for Women and Children and the Women's Medical College, providing excellent training for women in medicine.
AMELIA BLOOMER (1818 1894) The first woman to own, operate and edit a newspaper for women. The Lily began in 1849 in Seneca Falls and became a recognized forum for women's rights issues.
MARGARET BOURKE-WHITE (1904-1971) was a trailblazing photographer, recording the Depression, London in the Blitz, Stalin and the Kremlin, World War II and more as the paramount photographer for LIFE, Fortune and other publications.
MYRA BRADWELL (1831-1894) was America's first woman lawyer. When denied permission to practice law in Illinois even after passing the Bar examination because of her gender, she began publishing the Chicago Legal News, a very successful legal journal. In 1892 the laws changed and she was admitted to practice in Illinois and in the U.S. Supreme Court.
MARY BRECKINRIDGE (1881-1965) The United States' foremost pioneer in the development of midwifery and provision of care to rural areas as founder of the Frontier Nursing Service.
GWENDOLYN BROOKS (1917 - ) is an outstanding poet and novelist and was the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize (1949). She is active in the Black arts movement and continues to write.
PEARL S. BUCK (1892-1973), a novelist whose writing evokes two different cultures, American and Asian, won the Pulitzer Prize for The Good Earth and was later awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for her body of work -- the first American woman to do-so.
ANNIE JUMP CANNON (1863-1941) was the astronomer who perfected the universal system of stellar classification and compiled the largest accumulation of astronomical information ever assembled by an individual while working at Harvard Observatory.
RACHEL CARSON (1907-1954) was a zoologist whose concern for the damaging effects of pesticides and other poisons on the environment led to her groundbreaking work, Silent Spring. This book and others paved the way for the environmental movement of today.
MARY CASSATT (1844-1926), American impressionist painter, captured the soul of family life -- women and children, interiors, gardens, etc. A friend and student of the great Impressionists in Paris, she has powerfully influenced American art.
WILLA CATHER (1873-1947), a newspaperwoman and editor, became an outstanding novelist with the publication of O Pioneers in 1913. She went on to write other great novels and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1922. Other well-known works include My Antonia and Death Comes for The Archbishop.
CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT (1859-1947) was the tenacious women's suffrage movement organizer whose efforts at the helm of the National American Women Suffrage Association put forth the "winning plan" that led to state-by-state enactments of suffrage and the final victory in 1920.
SHIRLEY CHISHOLM (1924 - ), the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress, was also the first Black woman to receive delegate votes for the presidential nomination by a major party. In Congress for many years, she is now an educator and writer.
JACQUELINE COCHRAN (1906-1980) was the first woman aviator to break the sound barrier and was a leader and pilot. She held many speed, distance and altitude records, and led the Women's Air Force Service Pilots during World War II, becoming the first woman to pilot a bomber across the Atlantic Ocean.
EILEEN COLLINS (1956- ) The first American woman to pilot a spacecraft. A math teacher at the Air Force Academy and test pilot, Collins served as pilot of the space shuttle Discovery during a mission to rendezvous with space station Mir.
RUTH COLVIN (1916 - ) is the founder of the Literacy Volunteers of America, a group which began in her home in upstate New York and now has taught almost half a million people to read. The organization's unique approach, designed by Colvin, employs community tutors and other innovative approaches.
JANE CUNNINGHAM CROLY (1829-1901) was a journalist and the driving force behind the American club women's movement that inspired thousands of women into a wide range of social reform activities. Probably the nation's first woman syndicated columnist, Croly was also the founder of the General Federation of Women's Clubs.
EMILY DICKINSON (1830-1886) is 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.
DOROTHEA DIX (1802-1887) was one of the nation's earliest and most effective advocates for better care for the mentally ill. When she saw that such people were badly treated in institutions she lobbied nationwide for reform and humane treatment.
ELIZABETH HANFORD DOLE (1936 - ) Dole has held cabinet positions as Secretary of Transportation (the first woman to do so) under President Ronald Reagan and as Secretary of Labor for President George Bush. She is now President of the American Red Cross.
ANNE DALLAS DUDLEY (1876-1955) was central to the campaign to pass the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, serving as national campaign director as well as in her home state of Tennessee, where she led a march of 2000 women in the South's first suffrage parade in 1914.
AMELIA EARHART (1897-1937) was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, and also the first to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean. She was a strong individual who inspired other women to take risks in nontraditional arenas.
CATHERINE EAST (1916 - ) Described by Betty Friedan as "the midwife of the contemporary women's movement," Catherine East was a key staffer on the first-ever Presidential Commission on the Status of Women in the 1960s, and persuaded Friedan and others to create the National Organization for Women to lead the drive to end gender discrimination, and has worked all her life to end discrimination and advance women's rights.
MARY BAKER EDDY (1821-1910) The only American woman to found a lasting American-based religion- The Church of Christ (Scientist). Her personal struggles led her to believe that the cause of disease is mental. In 1908, two years before her death at 89, she started The Christian Science Monitor.
MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN (1939 - ) is an attorney and civil rights advocate who founded the Children's Defense Fund, the nation's strongest advocate group for children. A passionate champion of helping youth, Edelman's group is now working on health care and help for homeless children.
GERTRUDE BELLE ELION (1918 - ) 1988 Nobel Prize winner, has spent a lifetime creating drugs to combat leukemia, gout, malaria, herpes and other autoimmune diseases. Her work has saved many lives, and her design led to the development of the first major AIDS drug, AZT.
ALICE EVANS (1881-1975) found the organism that caused undulant fever, a killer disease, which in turn led to mandatory milk pasteurization, saving countless lives worldwide. This outstanding scientist was an advocate for women entering the scientific professions.
GERALDINE FERRARO (1935 - ) was the 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 Democrat Walter Mondale in 1984, Ferraro had been an assistant district attorney in New York and had served in Congress.
ELLA FITZGERALD (1917 - ) World-renowned jazz singer and the first pop musician awarded the Lincoln Centre Medallion. At 15, she entered a talent contest to dance. Her knees shook so much she sang instead, and was discovered by a Chick Webb bandmember. The rest is history.
BETTY FRIEDAN (1921 - ) has reshaped American attitudes toward women's lives and rights through decades of social activism, strategic thinking and powerful writing. Her book The Feminine Mystique (1963) triggered the contemporary women's movement. Her latest work is the best-selling The Fountain of Age.
MARGARET FULLER (1810-1850) A literary critic, editor, teacher and author. Fuller's writing inspired leaders of the women's rights movement. She was editor of The Dial, a Transcendental journal, and she advocated liberation of all human beings.
MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE (1826-1898) Gage is best known as the co- author (with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony) of the History of Women's Suffrage. She served in the National Women's Suffrage Association and helped form suffrage groups.
LILLIAN MOLLER GILBRETH (1878-1972) An industrial engineer and expert in motion studies, Gilbreth was a pioneer in the relationship between engineering and human relations. She convinced managers that worker-efficiency was the result of the quality of the work environment.
CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN (1860-1935) was a philosopher, writer, educator and activist who demanded equal treatment for women as the best means to advance society's progress. Her landmark Women and Economics (1898) argued that until women gained economic independence, real autonomy and equity could not be achieved.
ELLA GRASSO (1919-1981), the first woman elected a state governor in her own right, was elected Governor of Connecticut in 1974, serving until illness forced her retirement in 1980. She was also a Congresswoman and advocate for women, minorities and the elderly.
MARTHA WRIGHT GRIFFITHS (1912 - ) Congresswoman from Michigan from 1955-1975, she is best known for successfully adding sex discrimination as a prohibited act in the 1964 Civil Rights Act. She also successfully got the Equal Rights Amendment passed in the House of Representatives.
FANNIE LOU HAMER (1917-1977), a Mississippi sharecropper, was an organizer of the Mississippi Freedom Party, challenging the white domination of the Democratic Party. She succeeded in integrating the state delegation, and was a tireless champion for poor minority people in her state and nationwide.
ALICE HAMILTON (18691970), a physician pathologist, specialized in industrial diseases and helped save workers' lives by forcing protections and reforms in the workplace. She helped lead the way on dangers like lead poisoning.
HELEN HAYES (1900-1993) was a major actress in every entertainment area she touched, from live theater to films and radio. She entertained America and the world for more than 50 years.
DOROTHY HEIGHT (1912 - ) began as a volunteer with the National Council of Negro Women and is its president and leader today, following in the footsteps of her mentor, Mary McLeod Bethune. Height's group, representing organizations with more than four million members, works to create strong families and assist young people and the needy.
GRACE HOPPER (1906-1992) -- mathematics genius, computer pioneer, inventor and teacher -- is especially well-known for pioneering "user-friendly" computer software to make computers more accessible to business and all who could learn them. She was the first woman to attain the rank of rear admiral in the U.S. Navy.
DOLORES HUERTA (1932 - ) is the co-founder (with Cesar Chavez) of the United Farm Workers union, which is dedicated to helping immigrant/migrant people of all ages. She is a brilliant organizer, speaker, lobbyist, political strategist and feminist.
HELEN HUNT (1949 - ) is a creative philanthropist who has used her own resources and others to create women's funding institutions. She is co-founder of the National Network of Women's Funds, and creator of the New York Women's Foundation, the Dallas Women's Foundation and The Sister Fund, all of which provide resources to support grass roots women's programs and projects.
ZORA NEALE HURSTON (1891-1960) was a novelist, anthropologist and folklorist of enormous talent who contributed greatly to the preservation of African-American folk traditions, as well as to American literature. Her best known works include Their Eyes Were Watching God and her autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road.
ANNE HUTCHINSON (1591-1643) insisted on practicing her religious faith as she chose, and was expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the first woman in the New World to do so.
MARY JACOBI (1842-1906), a physician, founded the Association for the Advancement of Medical Education of Women and was a leader in obtaining quality medical education for women.
FRANCES WISEBART-JACOBS (1843-1892) was the driving force behind the concept of today's United Way, the founder of what became the National Jewish Hospital for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine, and is the only woman of 16 pioneers honored in the Colorado Capitol Rotunda.
MAE JEMISON (1956 - ), a physician, engineer and astronaut -- is the first Black woman astronaut in space, traveling on the Endeavor in 1992. Jemison today works on linking space-age technology with developing nations, and encouraging women and minorities to enter scientific fields.
MARY HARRIS, "MOTHER" JONES (1830-1930), labor organizer and agitator, was a major figure in the American labor movement for decades, speaking out and organizing for social justice for workers. She worked for the United Mine Workers and other groups.
BARBARA JORDAN (1936 -1996), the first Black woman elected to Congress from the South since Reconstruction, was also the first Black woman to deliver the keynote address at the convention of a major political party (Democrats, 1976). She was a professor and a lecturer.
HELEN KELLER (1880-1968) was deaf, blind and mute as a child. Through the work of teacher Anne Sullivan, Keller learned to overcome these daunting handicaps and became a powerful and effective national spokesperson on behalf of the capabilities of others with problems.
NANNERL O. KEOHANE (1940 - ) The first contemporary woman to head both a major women's college, Wellesley, and a research university, Duke. Her efforts have increased minority student enrollment and improved faculty diversity - including hiring more women.
BILLIE JEAN KING (1943 - ) dominated the world of tennis for more than 20 years, winning 20 Wimbledon titles, 13 U.S. Open titles, and more. She was the founder of the Women's Tennis Association and helped create the Women's Sports Foundation.
MAGGIE KUHN (1905-1995) At 65, after a forced retirement, Kuhn began work forming the Gray Panthers, an organization which has addressed age discrimination and pension rights, as well as larger public issues, including nursing home reform, forced retirement, and fraud against the elderly.
SUSETTE LA FLESCHE (1854-1903) of the Omaha Tribe, was a tireless campaigner for Native American rights, and was the first Native American published lecturer, artist and author. She helped change national perceptions about the rights of Native Americans in this country.
BELVA LOCKWOOD (1830-1917) was the first woman to practice law and argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court (1879). She became a lawyer when she was 40, and used her knowledge to help secure woman suffrage, property law reforms, pay equity and world peace. She helped open the legal profession to women.
JULIETTE GORDON LOW (1860-1927) was the founder of the Girls Scouts of America in 1915. She was a tireless champion of young girls and raised a fortune to support the Girls Scouts by traveling nationwide for the cause.
MARY LYON (1797-1849) was the founder of Mt. Holyoke, the first college for women, in 1837 -- and it became the model for institutions of higher education for women nationwide. She based her school on a sound fiscal base and focused on high quality education in all disciplines, not just teaching and homemaking.
MARY MAHONEY (1845-1926) was the first Black woman to study and work as a professionally trained nurse. She received her diploma from the New England Hospital in 1879, one of only four of 18 who started to pass the difficult course. She paved the way for other Black women and was a suffrage advocate.
WILMA MANKILLER (1945 - ) is the first woman elected Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. As chief, Mankiller has brought about major economic and social improvements for her tribe, including better health care, economic development, and education.
BARBARA MCCLINTOCK (1902-1992) was a brilliant geneticist whose pioneering work in maize genetics and the complex mechanisms that control and regulate cell development helped to advance scientific understanding of this important field.
LOUISE MCMANUS (1896-1993) was the first American nurse to earn a Ph.D. and was central to the establishment of schools of nursing in colleges and universities, providing the fundamental basis for nursing science growth.
MARGARET MEAD (1901-1978) was a trailblazing anthropologist whose book, Coming of Age in Samoa caused scientific and social rethinking of adolescence. Her field career included the study of numerous tribes and much innovative Geld work.
MARIA MITCHELL (1818-1889) In 1847 astronomer Mitchell discovered a new comet. She spent her lifetime as an astronomer, and was the first woman named to membership in the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. She was also a founder of the Association for the Advancement of Women.
CONSTANCE BAKER MOTLEY (1921 - ) is an attorney and jurist who, after trailblazing work with the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund with Thurgood Marshall and others, became the first Black woman elected to the New York State Senate, the first woman and Black person to become Manhattan borough president, and the first Black woman named to the federal bench.
LUCRETIA MOTT (1793-1880) began as a Quaker anti-slavery advocate and, after meeting Elizabeth Cady Stanton, became a leader in the women's rights movement. A planner of the first Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls in 1848, Mott remained true to her sense of justice for Blacks and women throughout her life.
ANTONIA NOVELLO (1944 - ) was the first woman and first Hispanic to be named Surgeon General of the United States. Novello is a pediatrician who has used her position to alleviate suffering worldwide, especially for women and children.
ANNIE OAKLEY (1860-1926), markswoman, was probably the nation's finest shot. As a star performer for many years with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, Oakley was also a staunch supporter of other women's opportunities, raising funds to send needy women to college and nursing school.
SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR (1930 - ) The first woman named to the US 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 Reagan.
GEORGIA O'KEEFFE (1887-1986) was an artist all of her adult life and is probably the best-known American woman painter. An American original in both her lifestyle and painting, she produced work of high energy and vision throughout her long life.
ROSA PARKS (1913 - ) is known as "the mother of the Civil Rights Movement,N because she refused to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. This sparked the Montgomery bus boycott, the first major effort in the Civil Rights struggle. Throughout her life Parks has worked for civil rights and assisted young people in pursuing their dreams.
ALICE PAUL (1885-1977) A born organizer, Alice Paul found most of the women's suffrage movement too slow an~l passive, and worked on her own to campaign aggressively, using picketing and demonstrations to draw attention to the problem. She founded the Women's Party, and demanded passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.
FRANCES PERKINS (1880-1965) was the first woman to hold Cabinet office, and the first woman to become Secretary of Labor. Appointed by President Roosevelt in 1932, she served for all of his terms and then became a labor movement educator.
ESTHER PETERSON (1906 - ) has been a catalyst for change in the labor, women's and consumer movement.s. The driving force behind President Kennedy's creation of the first Presidential Commission on Women in 1962, she was the head of the Women's Bureau in the Department of Labor. She also served Presidents Johnson and Carter as consumer affairs adviser, and today serves President Clinton at the United Nations.
JEANNETTE RANKIN (1880-1973) was the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress. She served two separate terms representing Montana, and is the only Representative to vote against American entry into both World Wars. A lifelong pacifist, Rankin worked for peace until her death.
ELLEN SWALLOW RICHARDS (1842-1911) was the nation's first professional woman chemist, and she was an important figure in opening careers in science to women. By applying scientific principles to domestic life, Richards was a leader in the new disciplines of sanitary engineering, nutrition and home economics.
LINDA RICHARDS (1841-1930) received the first diploma awarded by the nation's first school of nursing, and dedicated her career to creating professional nurses training schools nationwide to improve both patient care and nurses' skills.
SALLY RIDE (1951 - ) was the first American woman astronaut in space (1983), when she rode aboard the Challenger into space. A scientist, Ride is today the director of the California Space Institute at the University of California, San Diego.
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT (1884-1962), wife of President Franklin Roosevelt, spent her adult years as a trailblazing First Lady, working in politics and in the reform movement. 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).
SISTER ELAINE ROULET (1930 - ) helps some of society's most sharply disadvantaged people -- children of women in prison. A Sister of St. Joseph, Roulet has created many social reform and welfare organizations, and is best known for her work at the Bedford Hills, NY Correction Center where she enabled mothers in prison to keep their babies for a year -- a program now being imitated nationwide.
WILMA RUDOLPH (1940 -1994) is the first American woman ever to win three gold medals in the Olympics. A track and field champion, Rudolph gave women's track a major presence in this country. She created the Wilma Rudolph Foundation to help train young athletes.
JOSEPHINE ST. PIERRE RUFFlN (1842-1924) A black leader from New England, Ruffin was a suffragist, fought slavery, and founded several organizations for black women, including the Boston branch of the NAACP and the League of Women for Community Service.
FLORENCE SABIN (1871-1953) was the first woman graduate of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the first woman to teach there. A talented anatomist and researcher, she did trailblazing work in embryology, the lymphatic system and tuberculosis.
MARGARET SANGER (1883-1966), a nurse, became a reformer and campaigner for birth control when she saw many poor women in New York City damaged and dying from attempts to end unwanted pregnancies. She fought for reform throughout her life, and underwent arrests and imprisonment to get out information on birth control and contraception.
KATHERINE SIVA SAUBEL (1920 - ) Born on a reservation in great poverty, Saubel has determined to preserve her tribe's culture and language, despite overwhelming odds. She has become a learned ethnoanthropologist, and was a founder of the Malki Museum at the Morongo Reservation in California, the first museum founded and run by Native Americans.
BETTY BONE SCHIESS (1923 - ) in 1974 led the successful effort to have women ordained as priests in the Episcopal Church in America, elevating the position of women in the Church at all levels.
PATRICIA SCHROEDER (1940 - ) Elected in Colorado in 1972, Schroeder is the most senior woman in Congress. She has worked to establish a national profamily policy, promoting issues such as parental leave, child care and family planning.
FLORENCE SEIBERT (1897-1991) is the outstanding scientist who made it possible to test for tuberculosis, and who pioneered safe intravenous therapy. She also spent many years working on cancer research.
ELIZABETH BAYLEY SETON (1774-1821) is the first native-born American woman to be canonized a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. After raising a family, Seton -- who is known as "Mother Seton" -- became a Sister of Charity, and worked as an educator and leader of the order. She was known for her extraordinary virtue and kindness, and incidents of miraculous healing are attributed to her.
MURIEL SIEBERT (1932 - ) was the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange (1967). She was also the nation's first- ever discount broker, and the first woman to serve as Superintendent of Banks for the State of New York.
BESSIE SMITH (c.1898-1937), one of the nation's greatest blues singers, was a star from her first record, 1923's "Down Hearted Blues," which sold two million records. The "Empress of the Blues" made more than 160 recordings with many of the finest jazz musicians, and her work lives on today.
MARGARET CHASE SMITH (1897 -1994) Beginning her political career by taking her deceased husband's seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, she ran for and became a U.S. Senator from Maine, the first woman to do so. She served out four terms and was a supporter of a strong national defense.
HANNAII GREENEBAUM SOLOMON (1858-1942) organized a nation wide Jewish Women's Congress as part of the 1890 World's Fair, which later became the National Council of Jewish Women.
ELIZABETH CADY STANTON (1815-1902) noticed from her earliest years that women were not treated equally with men, even in her own Quaker faith. In 1848, she and others convened the first Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, bringing 300 activists together and determining that the right to vote the key to women's equality. Throughout her life and partnership with Susan B. Anthony, Stanton wrote and argued brilliantly for women's equality through the right to vote.
GLORIA STEINEM (1934 - ) has spent her life and career as a feminist leader, writer and social activist. A founder of Ms. Magazine, she was also co-convener of 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.
HELEN STEPHENS (1918-1993) set a world record and won two gold medals in track and field at the 1936 Olympics -and as an amateur, set Olympic, American and Canadian records in running, broad jump and discus. The small-town Missouri girl went on to become the first woman owner/manager of a women's semiprofessional ball team and a lifetime sports advocate.
NETTIE STEVENS (1861-1912) was the research biologist who determined that the "X" and "Y" chromosomes determined the sex of humans, ending scientific debate as to whether sex was determined by heredity or other factors. Stevens was a biology professor at Bryn Mawr College throughout her career.
LUCY STONE (1818-1893) Like many of the early suffrage leaders, Stone began as an anti-slavery public advocate and progressed to a lifetime of work on behalf of women's right to vote. She was a sophisticated political tactician and founded the Women's Journal, a fascinating archive of women's history published from 1870 to 1893.
HARRlET BEECHER STOWE (1811-1896) This daughter of a minister became one of the first women to earn a living by writing, publishing the best-seller Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852. She wrote much more, and her best-seller was often considered a major factor in the drive to end slavery.
HELEN BROOKE TAUSSIG (1896-1986) became chief of the heart clinic at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and developed a trailblazing operation in 1944 that solved the "blue baby" problem (children born with an anatomical heart defect that killed).
SOJOURNER TRUTH (c.1797-1883) was born a slave and later became a Quaker missionary, she eventually became a traveling preacher of great power who worked in the antislavery movement. She learned about women's rights, and made that her cause, as well. She later counseled newly freed slaves and helped them.
HARRIET TUBMAN (c.1820-1913) was born a slave in Maryland and fled north to freedom, where she joined the Underground Railroad as a "conductor" who led people through the lines to freedom. Credited with saving more than 300 slaves, Tubman was known as "Moses." During the Civil War, she organized freed Blacks into scouts and spy patrols, and after the war worked to help needy Blacks.
LILLIAN WALD (1867-1940) organized the public health nursing service and the Henry Street Settlement in New York City to meet the needs of the urban poor. A nurse and social activist, Wald organized public health nursing services for many groups, and was the creator of the Public Health Nurses -- today the Visiting Nurse Service. She also fought against child labor.
MADAME C.J. WALKER (1867-1919) - Sarah Breedlove - was a Black entrepreneur considered the first Black woman to become a millionaire. She did this by devising a hair care and grooming system for Blacks and pioneered a door-to-door sales approach. The daughter of former slaves, Walker became an advocate for positive social change and a philanthropist on behalf of Black Americans.
FAYE WATTLETON (1943 - ) was a nurse by profession, and became the first woman since founder Margaret Sanger and first Black person to be president of the Planned Parenthood Foundation. Wattleton developed a major nationwide grassroots organization that has become a powerful political force to block efforts to restrict or eliminate the right to birth control and abortion.
IDA B. WELLS-BARNET (1862-1931), Black leader, anti-lynching crusader, journalist, lecturer and community organizer, fought social injustice all her life. She sued a railroad over segregated seating, criticized segregated education and became editor and part owner of a newspaper. The horrors of Iynching inspired her to major efforts to abolish this atrocity.
OPRAH WINFREY (1954 - ) is the first African-American woman to own her own television production company, television's highest- paid entertainer, the host of the nation's most successful talk show, reaching more than 15 million people every day, an advocate for ending child abuse, and a philanthropist who contributes generously to colleges and universities.
SARAH WINNEMUCCA (1842? - 1891) was dedicated throughout her life to restoring land back to Native American tribes who had them taken by the government -- especially the land of her own Paiute Tribe. She lobbied Congress and even appealed personally to President Hayes for relief, and worked with the U.S. Army as a mediator and a scout.
FANNY WRIGHT (1795-1852) was the first American woman to speak out against slavery and for the equality of women. An inspiration to Stanton, Anthony and other women's equality advocates, Wright wrote and spoke out publicly for equal rights for all at a time when women were not accepted in such roles.
ROSALYN YALOW (1921 - ), the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Medicine who was trained in America, is known for pioneering the use of radioisotopes to analyze physiological systems. This made possible very detailed analysis of blood chemistry, saving lives and allowing for proper doses of medication.
GLORIA YERKOVICH (1942 - ) is the founder of CHILD FIND, a nationwide organization that helps locate missing children. She developed the program after her own daughter was abducted. Her concept is the prototype for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
MILDRED "BABE" DIDRIKSON ZAHARIAS (c.1911-1966), one of the century's premier athletes, won track and field gold medals at the 1932 Olympics and later became a golf champion, winning many tournaments and founding the Ladies Professional Golf Association. She inspired generations of women to develop athletic skills.
The National Woman's Hall of Fame is the only national membership organization that honors and celebrates the achievements of American women. Founded in 1969 in Seneca Falls, New York, where in 1848 the first Women's Rights Convention was held the Hall inducts distinguished American women and offers programs and exhibits in Seneca Falls, the Finger Lakes area, Washington D.C and elsewhere.