|
|
|
|
Notable Women in History
Bella Abzug (1920 - 1998) civil rights and labor attorney elected to Congress from New York City in 1970.
Abigail Adams (1744 - 1818) influential letter writer who urged her husband, President John Adams to "Remember the Ladies," and permit women to legally own property.
Jane Addams (1860 - 1935) social reformer who created Hull House in Chicago slums, starting an American settlement house movement to help the poor.
Madeleine Korbel Albright (1937 - ) First female Secretary of State and the highest ranking woman in the U.S. government.
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) author who produced the first literature for the mass market of juvenile girls in the 19th century.
Marian Anderson (1897 - 1993) first black singer to perform with the Metropolitan Opera.
Ethel Percy Andrus (1884 - 1967) founder the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP)
Maya Angelou (1928 - ) Poet, author and early Civil Rights advocate.
Susan B. Anthony (1820 - 1906) the women's movement's most powerful organizer whose lifetime of dedication paved the way for women's right to vote.
Virginia Apgar (1909 -1974) physician best known for development of the Apgar Score in 1952.
Ella Baker (1903 - 1986) premier behind-the-scenes organizer and co-founder of the Southern Christian leadership Conference (SCLC), headed by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Ann Bancroft (1955 - ) first woman to travel across the ice to the North and South Poles.
Clara Barton (1821 - 1912) founder the American Red Cross, Barton ministered to injured soldiers during the Civil War and became known as the "Angel of the Battlefield."
Mary McLeod Bethune (1875 - 1955) Black teacher who began a school to help educate young black women with only $1.50 and developed it into a college.
Antoinette Blackwell (1825 - 1921) first American woman ordained a minister by a recognized denomination (Congregational), despite great opposition to women in the ministry.
Elizabeth Blackwell (1821 - 1910) first American woman awarded an MD.
Emily Blackwell (1826 - 1910) physician who ran the New York Infirmary for Women and children as well as the Women's Medical College, providing excellent training for women in medicine.
Amelia Bloomer (1818-1894) first woman to own, operate and edit a newspaper for women, The Lily, published in 1849 in Seneca Falls New York.
Nellie Bly (1864-1922) trail-blazing journalist considered to be the "best reporter in America" who pioneered investigative journalism.
Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971) 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) America's first woman lawyer.
Lydia Moss Bradley (1816-1908) Educator, founder of Bradley University and coeducation advocate
Mary Breckinridge (1881-1965) the United States foremost pioneer in the development of midwifery and provision of care to rural areas.
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917- ) poet and novelist. Brooks was the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize (1949).
Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973) novelist whose writing evoked two different cultures, American and Asian.
Charlotte Ann Bunch (1944- ) founder and director of the Center for Women's Global Leadership at Rutgers University.
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850-1917) first American citizen to be canonized a saint.
Mary Steichen Calderone, M.D. (1904-1998) pioneering sex educator and acknowledged "mother of sex education."
Annie Jump Cannon (1863-1941) astronomer who perfected the universal system of stellar classification.
Rachel Carson (1907-1964) zoologist whose concern over the damaging effects of pesticides and other poisons on the environment led to her groundbreaking work, Silent Spring.
Mary Ann Shadd Cary (1823-1893) educator and abolitionist. First Black woman to enroll in and graduate from Howard University Law School and first Black woman to vote in a federal election.
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) American impressionist painter who captured the soul of family life, women, children, interiors and gardens.
Willa Cather (1873-1947) newspaperwoman and editor who became an outstanding novelist with the publication of O Pioneers in 1913.
Carrie Chapman Catt (1859-1947) tenacious women's suffrage 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- ) first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress.
Jacqueline Cochran (1906-1980) first woman aviator to break the sound barrier.
Eileen Collins (1956- )first American woman to pilot a spacecraft.
Ruth Colvin (1916- ) founder of the Literacy Volunteers of America, a group which she began in her upstate New York home.
Joan Ganz Cooney (1929- ) founder of the Children's Television Workshop for Public Television and creator of Sesame Street.
Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori (1896-1957) first American woman to receive the Nobel Prize in science.
Jane Cunningham Croly (1829-1901) journalist and driving force behind the American Club women's movement which inspired thousands of women into a wide range of social reform activities.
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) one of the world's greatest poets.
Dorothea Dix (1802-1887) one of the nation's earliest and most effective advocates for better care of the mentally ill.
Elizabeth Hanford Dole (1936- ) first woman to hold two cabinet positions as Secretary of Transportation under Ronald Reagan and Secretary of Labor for President George Bush.
Anne Dallas Dudley (1876-1955) was central to the campaign to pass the 19th amendment to the U.S. constitution.
Amelia Earhart (1897-1937) the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, and the first to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean.
Catherine East (1916-1996) "the midwife of the contemporary women's movement," as described by Betty Friedan.
Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910) the only American woman to found a lasting American-based religion, the Church of Christ (Scientist).
Marian Wright Edelman (1939- ) attorney and civil rights advocate who founded the Children's Defense Fund, the nation's strongest advocacy group for children.
Gertrude Belle Elion (1918- 1999) 1988 Nobel Prize winner who has spent a lifetime creating drugs to combat leukemia, gout malaria, herpes and other auto-immune diseases.
Alice Evans (1881-1975) scientist who found the organism which caused undulant fever, a killer disease.
Geraldine Ferraro (1935- ) first woman nominated by a major political party as a candidate for Vice President of the United States.
Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996) world-renowned jazz singer and the first pop musician awarded the Lincoln Center Medallion.
Betty Friedan (1921- ) reshaped American attitudes toward women's lives and rights through decades of social activism, strategic thinking and powerful writing.
Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) literary critic, editor, teacher and author.
Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826-1898) best known as the co-author (with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony) of The History of Women's Suffrage.
Lillian Moller Gilbreth (1878-1972) industrial engineer and expert in motion studies, Gilbreth was a pioneer in the relationship between engineering and human relations.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) philosopher, writer, educator and activist who demanded equal treatment for women as the best means to advance society's progress.
Ella Grasso (1919-1981) first woman elected a state governor in her own right.
Sarah Grimke (1792-1873) Angelina Grimke (1792-1873) sisters who wrote numerous published papers which championed abolition and women's rights.
Martha Wright Griffiths (1912- ) Congresswoman from Michigan 1955-1975, best known for successfully adding sex discrimination as a prohibited act in he 1962 Civil Rights Act.
Mary A. Hallaren (1907- ) leader who championed permanent status for women in the military after World War II as director of the Women's Army Corps.
Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977) Mississippi sharecropper and organizer of the Mississippi Freedom Party, which challenged the white domination of the Democratic Party.
Alice Hamilton (1869-1970) physician pathologist who specialized in industrial diseases.
Helen Hayes (1900-1993) a major actress in all entertainment areas, from live theater to films and radio.
Dorothy Height (1912- ) began as a volunteer with the National Council of Negro Women and became its president.
Oveta Culp Hobby (1905-1995) shaped the development of two major government institutions as first Director of the Women's Army Corps and first Secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
Wilhelmina Cole Holladay (1922- ) founder of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D. C.
Grace Murray Hopper (1906-1992) mathematics genius, computer pioneer, inventor and teacher. She was the first woman to attain the rank of Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy.
Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910) suffragist and author of Battle Hymn of the Republic.
Dolores Huerta (1930 - ) co-founder (with Cesar Chavez) of the United Farm Workers union, which is dedicated to helping immigrant/migrant people of all ages.
Helen LaKelly Hunt (1949 - ) creative philanthropist who has used her own resources and others to create women's funding institutions.
Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) novelist, anthropologist and folklorist who contributed greatly to the preservation of African-American folk traditions and to American literature.
Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643) religious leader who insisted on practicing her religious faith as she chose, including holding religious meetings in her home, the first woman in the new world to do so.
Shirley Ann Jackson (1946-) first woman to chair the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the first African-American woman to serve on the Commission
Mary Jacobi (1842-1906) physician who founded the Association for the Advancement of Medical Education of Women.
Frances Wisebart Jacobs (1843-1892) driving force behind the concept of today's United Way, and founder of what became the National Jewish Hospital for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine.
Mae Jemison (1956- ) physician, engineer and astronaut.
Mary Harris, "Mother" Jones (1830-1930), labor organizer and agitator who was a major figure in the American labor movement.
Barbara Jordan (1936-1996) first black woman elected to Congress from the south and the first Black woman to deliver the keynote address at the convention of a major political party (Democratic Convention, 1976).
Helen Keller (1880-1968) 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.
Nannerl O. Keohane (1940- ) the first contemporary woman to head both a major women's college (Wellesley) and a research university (Duke).
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.
Maggie Kuhn (1905-1995) following a forced retirement at age 65, Kuhn began work forming the Gray Panthers, an organization which addressed age discrimination and pension rights.
Susette La Flesche (1854-1903) member of the Omaha Tribe and a tireless campaigner for native American rights.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906- ) author of numerous elegant essays, journals and other books.
Belva Lockwood (1830-1917) first woman to practice law and argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court (1879).
Juliette Gordon Low (1860-1927) founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA in 1915.
Shannon W. Lucid (1943-) astronaut who set the American record for the longest space flight by an American (July 15, 1996).
Mary Lyon (1797-1849) founder of Mt. Holyoke, the first college for women, in 1837.
Mary Mahoney (1845-1926) first black woman to study and work as a professionally trained nurse.
Wilma Mankiller (1945- ) first woman elected Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.
Maria Goeppert Mayer (1906-1972) first U.S. woman and second woman ever to win the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Katherine Dexter McCormick (1875-1967) Co-founder (with Carrie Chapman Catt) of the League of Women Voters.
Barbara McClintock (1902-1992) geneticist who pioneered work in maize genetics and the complex mechanisms which control and regulate cell development.
Louise McManus (1896-1993) first American nurse to earn a Ph.D.
Margaret Mead (1901-1978) trailblazing anthropologist whose book, Coming of Age in Samoa, caused scientific and social rethinking of adolescence.
Maria Mitchell (1818-1889) astronomer who discovered a new comet in 1847 and first woman named to membership in the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
Constance Baker Motley (1921- ) attorney and jurist who, after performing landmark work with the NAACP with Thurgood Marshall and others, became the first black woman elected to the New York State Senate.
Lucretia Mott (1793-1880) Quaker anti-slavery advocate, who, after meeting Elizabeth Cady Stanton, became a leader in the women's right's movement.
Antonia Novello (1944- ) first woman and first Hispanic to be named Surgeon General of the United States.
Annie Oakley (1860-1926) markswoman, was probably the nation's finest.
Sandra Day O'Connor (1930-) first woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) artist and perhaps the best-known American woman painter.
Rosa Parks (1913- ) known as "the mother of the Civil Rights Movement," when, in 1955, she refused to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama.
Alice Paul (1885-1977) social reformer and founder of the National Woman's Party.
Frances Perkins (1880-1965) public office and first woman to hold a Presidential Cabinet office and first woman Secretary of Labor.
Esther Peterson (1906-1997) catalyst for change in the labor, women's and consumer movements and the driving force behind President Kennedy's creation of the first Presidential commission on Women in 1962.
Jeannette Rankin (1880-1973) first woman elected to the U.S. Congress, serving two separate terms.
Ellen Swallow Richards (1842-1911) the nation's first professional woman chemist, an important figure in opening careers in science to woman.
Linda Richards (1841-1930) received the first diploma awarded by the nation's first school of nursing.
Sally Ride (1951- ) first American woman astronaut (1983), when she road aboard the Challenger into space.
Rozanne L. Ridgway (1935- ) foreign policy advisor under six consecutive U.S. presidents from Richard Nixon to William Clinton.
Edith Nourse Rogers (1881-1960 ) Massachusetts Congresswoman who introduced the "G.I. Bill of Rights" Act and Women's Army Auxiliary Corp (WAC) legislation.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) trailblazing First Lady and wife of President Franklin Roosevelt.
Ernestine Louise Potowski Rose (1810-1892) early advocate for women's rights traveling for more than three decades giving eloquent speeches and seeking petition signatures.
Sister Elaine Roulet (1930- ) crusader for some of society's most sharply disadvantaged, children of women in prison.
Wilma Rudolph (1940-1994) first American woman ever to win three gold medals in the Olympics.
Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin (1842-1924) black leader from New England, she 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) first woman graduate of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the first woman to teach there.
Margaret Sanger (1879-1966) nurse and social reformer.
Katherine Siva Saubel (1920- ) born on a reservation in great poverty, Saubel became determined to preserve her tribe's culture and language, despite overwhelming odds.
Betty Bone Schiess (1923- ) religious leader, led the successful effort in 1974 to have women ordained as priests in the Episcopal Church in America.
Patricia Schroeder (1940- ) served as the senior woman in Congress, first elected in 1972 from Colorado.
Felice N. Schwartz (1925-1996 ) founder in 1962 of Catalyst, the premier organization working with corporations to foster women's leadership.
Florence Seibert (1897-1991) scientist who made it possible to test for tuberculosis and who pioneered safe intravenous therapy.
Elizabeth Bayley Seton (1774-1821) the first native-born American woman to be canonized a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.
Eunice Mary Kennedy Shriver (1921) founder in 1968 of the Special Olympics for the mentally retarded.
Muriel Siebert (1932- ) first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange (1967).
Beverly Sills (1929- ) Acclaimed Soprano who became the first woman General Director and then President of the New York City Opera, and later first woman chair of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
Bessie Smith (1894?-1937) one the nation's great blues singers, Smith earned stardom from her first record 1923's "down Hearted Blues," which sold two million records.
Margaret Chase Smith (1897-1995) beginning her political career by assuming her deceased husband's seat in the U.S. House of Representativesupon his death. She was later elected U.S. Senator from Maine.
Hannah Greenbaum Solomon (1858-1942) club woman and welfare worker on matters relating to child welfare, she organized a nationwide Jewish Women's congress as part of the 1890's World's Fair.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) suffragist and reformer, convened the first women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, NY in 1848.
Gloria Steinem (1934- ) feminist leader, writer and social activist, she founded Ms. Magazine.
Helen Stephens (1918-1993) athlete who set a world record and won two track and field gold medals at the 1936 Olympics.
Nettie Stevens (1861-1912) research biologist who determined that the "X" and "Y" chromosomes determined the sex humans, ending scientific debate as to whether sex was determined by heredity or other factors.
Lucy Stone (1818-1893) early suffrage leader who began as an anti-slavery public advocate, followed by a lifetime of work for women's right to vote.
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) author and daughter of a minister, Stowe became on of the first women to earn a living by writing, publishing the best-seller Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852.
Helen Brooke Taussig (1896-1986) 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.
Maria Tallchief (1925- ) prima ballerina with the New York City Ballet and artistic director the Lyric Opera Ballet in Chicago.
Sojourner Truth (c.1797-1883) abolitionist born a slave who became a Quaker missionary.
Harriet Tubman (c.1820-1913) abolitionist born a slave who eventually became a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad.
Florence Wald (1916) former dean of the Yale School of Nursing and founder of the Hospice movement in America.
Lillian Wald (1867-1940) nurse who organized the public health nursing service and the Henry Street Settlement in New York City to meet the needs of the urban poor.
Madam C. J. Walker (1867-1919) Sara Breedlove, a Black entrepreneur considered the first Black woman to become a millionaire.
Faye Wattleton (1943- ) nurse who was the first woman since founder Margaret Sanger, and first black to become president of the Planned Parenthood Foundation.
Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931) Black leader, anti-lynching crusader, journalist, lecturer and community; organizer who fought social injustice all her life.
Edith Wharton (1862-1937) American novelist and short story writer of the 20th century, she was the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
Oprah Winfrey (1954- ) the first Black woman to own her own television production company, she is host of the nation's most successful talk show.
Sarah Winnemucca (c.1842-1891) Native American Leader who dedicated her life to returning land taken by the government back to the tribes, especially the land of her own Paiute Tribe.
Fanny Wright (1795-1852) first American woman to speak out against slavery and for the equality of woman.
Chien-Shiung Wu (1912-1997) nuclear scientist whose pioneering work altered modern physical theory and changed the accepted view of the structure of the universe.
Rosalyn Yalow (1921- ) first American woman trained in the U.S. to win the Nobel Prize for Medicine.
Gloria Yerkovich (1942- ) founder of CHILDFIND, a nationwide organization which helps locate missing children.
Mildred "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias (1914-1956) one of the century's premier athletes, she won track and field gold medals.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Home
