Important and Famous Women in America

Sung and unsung, more women have contributed significantly to American history than can be contained within a single table. The following is a representative survey of some of the most important women in American history. The definition of a "famous woman" will vary between individuals, but there is no doubt that these women contributed importantly to the advancement of our society as well as the advancement of women in America.

1500s . 1600s . 1700s . 1800s . 1900s

Name	Cause or Field	Lifespan	Summary
1500s
Lady Deborah Moody	Religious freedom, leadership	1586-1659	Brought settlers seeking religious freedom to Gravesend at New Amsterdam (later New York). She was a respected and important community leader.
Anne Marbury Hutchinson	Religious freedom of expression	1591-1643	Banished from Boston by Puritans in 1637, due to her views on grace. In New York, natives killed her and all but one of her children.
Pocahontas	Native and English amity	1595-1617	She saved the life of Capt. John Smith at the hands of her father, Chief Powhatan. Later married the famous John Rolfe. Met royalty in England.
1600s	top of page
Margaret Brent	Human rights; women's suffrage	1600-1669	Thought to be North America's first feminist, Brent became one of the largest landowners in Maryland. Aided in settling land dispute; raised armed volunteer group.
Mary Barrett Dyer	Religious activism	Early 1600s- 1660	Quaker beliefs led to Dyer's hanging; later recognized as martyr for quickening the reversal of anti-Quaker laws in Massachusetts and other colonies.
Anne Bradstreet	Poetry	1612-1672	One of America's first poets; Bradstreet's poetry was noted for its important historic content until mid-1800s publication of Contemplations, a book of religious poems.
Mary Bliss Parsons	Illeged witchcraft	1628-1712	Wife of prominent Salem, Massachusetts, citizen, Parsons was acquitted of witchcraft charges in the most documented and unusual witch hunt trial in colonial history.
Mary Rowlandson	Colonial literature	1637-1710	After her capture during King Philip's War, Rowlandson wrote famous firsthand accounting of 17th-century Indian life and its Colonial/Indian conflicts.
1700s	top of page
Mary Musgrove	Trading, interpreting	1700-1765	A Georgia woman of mixed race, she and her husband started a fur trade with the Creeks. As an important interpreter, she helped to avoid a war.
Abigail Adams	Politics and writing	1744-1818	She wrote lucidly about her life and time in letters, and exerted political influence over her famous president husband John, and son, John Quincy.
Phillis Wheatley	Verse	1753-1784	The first significant black poet in America, the former slave exemplified the superiority of the human spirit over the circumstances of birth.
Molly Pitcher	Patriotism in battle	1754-1832	At the Battle of Monmouth, she brought water to Continental soldiers, attended the wounded and also replaced her fallen husband at a gun.
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton	Education, philanthropy	1774-1821	First U.S. saint of the Roman Catholic Church. Parochial education in America began with her founding of a famous Catholic school in Maryland.
Elizabeth Clovis Lange	Education, religious	1784-1882	Founder of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first black Roman Catholic order in the U.S. She promoted education for deprived people.
Sacajawea	Exploration	1787?-1812 or 1884	This resolute and resourceful Shoshone woman was a guide and interpreter for the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1805 and 1806.
Sarah Josepha Hale	Advancement of women, journalism	1788-1879	Editor of magazines, notably Godey’s Lady’s Book, which promoted the betterment of women. She supported important economic reform.
Lucretia Mott	Abolition, women’s rights	1793-1880	She and her husband, James, made their home a station on the Underground Railroad. Helped to organize the Women’s Rights Convention.
Sojourner Truth	Human rights, preaching	1797-1893	As a preacher, Truth campaigned nationwide for the abolition of slavery and important women’s rights. Also raised money for black Union soldiers.
1800s	top of page
Dorothea Dix	Social reform and war nursing	1802-1887	An advocate of asylum, poorhouse and prison reform, she also helped alleviate Civil War misery as Superintendent of Female Nurses.
Phoebe Palmer	writing, Evangelism	1807-1874	One of the founders of the Holiness Movement, Methodist evangelist Palmer advocated Christian perfection or the cleansing of original sin prior to death.
Harriet Beecher Stowe	Antislavery, fiction	1811-1896	Famous for her controversial novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, an antislavery story based on her experiences. Also spoke against slavery.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton	Abolition and women's rights	1815-1902	Stanton (and important friend Susan B. Anthony) fought for women’s suffrage when the 14^th and 15^th amendments excluded gender equality.
Biddy Mason	Business, real estate and philanthropy	1818-1891	Winning freedom from slavery, she worked as a nurse/midwife, and became a canny, wealthy entrepreneur. She lavished money on charities.
Lucy Stone	Women's suffrage and abolition	1818-1893	A pioneer in the movement for women's rights, she lectured against slavery and advocated equality for women. Famous for becoming the first woman in Massachussets to earn a college degree.
Julia Ward Howe	Author, suffragist, abolitionist	1819-1910	A poet, lecturer, author of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." She also helped form the National American Woman Suffrage Association.
Susan B. Anthony	Abolition and women’s rights	1820-1906	A tireless campaigner for gender equality, Anthony (and friend Elizabeth Cady Stanton) inspired a nationwide suffrage movement.
Harriet Tubman	Abolition	1820-1913	A “conductor” on the Underground Railroad, she led more than 300 slaves to freedom. Also served Union forces in coastal South Carolina.
Elizabeth Blackwell	Education, medicine	1821-1910	The first woman physician in the U.S. (MD, Geneva College, 1849). She opened a slum infirmary and trained women in medicine.
Mary Baker Eddy	Religion, writing	1821-1910	Founder of the [3823:Church of Christ, Scientist]. Wrote Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, her famous adjunct to the Bible.
Clara Barton	Aid to soldiers and free education	1821-1912	Organized and delivered important aid to Union and Confederate soldiers. Started the American Red Cross. Started a free school in New Jersey.
Mary Walton	Pollution control, invention	1829-1906	This Manhattan inventor devised a method to reduce factory smoke emissions and reduced the track noise from elevated trains.
Louisa May Alcott	Writing, women's suffrage	1832-1888	An American literary icon of the 19^th century, Alcott was also involved in women's suffrage.
Hetty Green	Finance	1835-1916	She inherited her father’s fortune and invested it so cannily that she was reputed to be the richest woman in the world at the time.
Mary Harris "Mother" Jones	American Labor Movement	1837-1930	“Mother” Jones was present as a labor organizer and speaker at many significant labor struggles of the 19^th and 20^th centuries.
Frances Elizabeth Willard	Temperance and women’s suffrage	1839-1898	A tireless campaigner, she was a founder and president of important organizations that fought for prohibition. Also work for women’s suffrage.
Ellen Swallow Richards	Chemistry and engineering	1842-1911	First woman to enroll in a technical institute (MIT), in 1870. Founded the science of home economics and promoted science for women.
Carry A. Nation	Temperance	1846-1911	Notorious for violent disruption of alcohol sales. She was jailed often, but her courage and eloquence impressed many people.
Annie Smith Peck	Women’s suffrage, mountaineering	1850-1935	She scaled the 21,812-foot Peruvian mountain Huascaran, the loftiest Western Hemisphere peak climbed by an American man or woman.
Annie Oakley	Sharp-shooting and entertainment	1860-1926	Gifted with uncanny marksmanship and star of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, she established herself as a famous western folk legend.
Jane Addams	Social Reform	1860-1935	Noted for Hull House, an influential haven for disadvantaged people. Active in a variety of causes, she shared the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize.
Grandma Moses	Folk Art	1860-1961	Discovered by the New York art world in 1939, Moses’ style is noted for evocative themes and pleasing figure arrangement.
Florence Bascom	Geology	1862-1945	First woman and female geologist to earn a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins. A pioneer in microscope viewings of minerals and rocks.
Winifred Edgerton Merrill	Mathematics, education	1862-1951	First U.S. woman to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics (Columbia, 1886; highest honors). Founded the famous Oaksmere School for Girls in 1906.
Nellie Bly	Social justice, investigative journalism	1864-1922	As an often-undercover journalist, Bly sided with poor and marginalized people. Also noted for a famous 72-day race around the world in 1889.
Anne Sullivan	Teacher	1866-1936	Overcame childhood obstacles to become Helen Keller's teacher and lifelong companion.
Emily Greene Balch	Social Activism	1867-1961	1947 Nobel Peace Prize winner, founder the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and was an important woman advocate for peace during WWI and WWII.
Molly Dewson	Women's suffrage, politics	1874-1962	An author, and head of the Democratic National Committee's Women's Division, Dewson also fought for a minimum wage law.
Margaret Sanger	Social reform and family planning	1879-1966	Dismayed by infant mortality, Sanger became a vocal advocate of contraception and established an important medically supervised family planning clinic.
Helen Keller	Social reform, writing and lecturing	1880-1968	Deafened and blinded by a childhood disease, she overcame her disabilities, then worked for the blind and numerous progressive causes.
Jeannette Rankin	Politics	1880-1973	Jeannette Rankin was the first woman ever elected to Congress. She was one of few congressional members to vote no on WWI and WWII.
Frances Perkins	Politics	1882-1965	Perkins was the first woman Cabinet member in the U.S. She served as FDR's Secretary of Labor, and played a key role in New Deal legislation.
Eleanor Roosevelt	Activism, traveling and speaking	1884-1962	Enormously effective wife of FDR, she was a Democratic Party activist, worked for racial equality and was U.S. Representative to the U.N.
Georgia O'Keeffe	Painter	1887-1986	Widely regarded as one of the great modernist painters of the 20^th century, O'Keeffe was a major figure in American art for more than 70 years.
Aimee Semple McPherson	Broadcast evangelism	1890-1944	Southern California evangelist famous for her Temple and “illustrated sermons.” Founded International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.
Zora Neale Hurston	Writing	1891?-1960	Folklorist, anthropologist and novelist. Most prolific black woman writer of the 1930s.
Pearl S. Buck	Adoption advocacy, writing	1892-1973	Author of books reflecting her life in China. Won the 1938 Nobel Prize in Literature. Buck worked for the adoption of unwanted children.
Amelia Earhart	Aviation	1897-1937	Famous for flying across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. She attempted to fly around the world, then disappeared July 2, 1937.
Dorothy Day	Catholic-based Social Service, writing	1897-1980	Founded Catholic Worker Movement with Peter Maurin in 1933, an important outreach to disadvantaged and marginalized people.
Marian Anderson	Racial amity, singing	1897-1993	She used her rare voice to advance race relations. First black Metropolitan Opera star. Alternate U.N. delegate. Honored many times.
Margaret Chase Smith	Politics	1897-1995	Maine’s first congresswoman and re-elected four times, she was U.S. senator from 1949-73. Remembered for independence and character.
Louise Nevelson	Sculpture	1899-1988	Best known for her abstract-expressionist boxes grouped together to form a new creation. She used found objects and everyday items. One of her works stands three stories high.
1900s	top of page
Margaret Mead	Anthropology and psychology	1901-1978	She became famous for her gender role studies of the cultures of the Pacific Islands, Russia and the U.S. Authored several classic books.
Ella Baker	Human and civil rights	1903-1986	Helped form Southern Christian Leadership Conference of which Martin Luther King Jr. was president, important for organizing Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
Clare Boothe Luce	Writing, politics and diplomacy	1903-1987	She was managing editor of Vanity Fair and author of several successful plays, including The Women. Ambassador to Italy, 1953-56.
Esther Ross	Native American rights	1904-1988	Ross devoted 50 years to winning federal recognition of the Stillaguamish Tribe in the Puget Sound area of Washington State.
Margaret Bourke-White	Photography and photojournalism	1904 or 1906-1971	Important international photographic chronicler of people and events in war and peace. One famed picture: "Gandhi at His Spinning Wheel."
Ayn Rand	Fiction, philosophy	1905-1982	Russian-born, Rand wrote important fiction, notably The Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged. She espoused a philosophy of rational self-interest.
Grace Hopper	Computer science	1906-1992	A Ph.D. from Yale (1934), Rear Adm. Hopper was one of the earliest computer programmers and a leader in software development concepts.
Maria Goeppert-Mayer	Science	1906-1972	Goeppert-Mayer won the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physics, professor of Physics at UCSD, La Jolla, California, National Academy of Sciences member.
Rachel Carson	The environment, marine biology	1907-1964	Author of lucidly written books on ecological themes. Most famous for Silent Spring, a critical examination of chemical pesticides.
Virginia Apgar	Obstetrics	1909-1974	Dr. Apgar developed the Apgar Score, whose five items help physicians and nurses to determine if a newborn requires emergency care. The score is now standard worldwide.
Katharine Hepburn	Stage and screen	1909-2003	Four-time Academy Award winner for best actress, Hepburn combined her statuesque looks with a bold, plucky acting style.
Babe Didrikson Zaharias	Multiple athletics	1911-1956	This superathlete won three track and field Olympic medals and 31 LPGA titles. Famed for self-confidence and competitive spirit.
Claudia Taylor (Lady Bird) Johnson	Politics, environment	1912-2007	First lady during Lyndon B. Johnson's administration; instrumental in promoting the Highway Beautification Act, founded Lady Bird Wildflower Center.
Patricia Ryan Nixon	Politics	1912-1993	First lady during Richard M. Nixon's administration; after her father's death at 18, Pat worked part time to obtain her degree, graduating cum laude from USC.
Barbara Tuchman	History	1912-1989	Tuchman was a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize (The Guns of August, and Stillwell and the American Experience in China: 1911-45).
Rosa Parks	Civil rights	1913-2005	Parks' refusal to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, on December 1, 1955, sparked the modern civil rights movement.
Daisy Gatson Bates	Civil rights and journalism	1914-1999	After segregation was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, she led the fight to integrate Little Rock, Arkansas, schools from 1954-1957.
Martha Raye	Entertainment	1916-1994	An actor, comedienne and singer, Raye entertained and even nursed troops for 50 years. Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree.
Florence Chadwick	Swimming	1917-1995	The premier distance swimmer of the1950s, she became the first woman to swim the English Channel both ways (1950, ’51, ’55).
Katharine Graham	Newspaper and magazine publishing	1917-2001	She was the influential president and publisher of the Washington Post from 1963-93. The paper is famed for its Watergate investigation.
Ella Fitzgerald	Jazz singing	1918-1996	Master of scat singing, she toured with such greats as Duke Ellington and the Oscar Peterson Trio. She performed internationally.
Elizabeth Bloomer Ford	Social activism	1918-2011	First lady during Gerald R. Ford's presidency, co-founder of the country's leading treatment center for alcoholism and drug dependency.
Bella Abzug	Political activism, writing	1920-1997	Attorney and Congresswoman, Abzug worked for a variety of progressive causes, especially women’s issues. She was a noted author.
Marie Maynard Daly	Biochemistry	1921-2003	First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry (Columbia University, 1948). Holder of various professorships. Focus: nucleic acids.
Betty Goldstein Friedan	Feminism	1921-2006	Author of the revolutionary book: Feminine Mystique, co-founder of National Organization for Women (NOW).
Nancy Davis Reagan	Social activism	1921-2016	First lady during Ronald Reagan's presidency and championed the "Just Say No" to drugs program for school-aged children.
Rosalyn Sussman Yalow	Physics, Medicine	1921-2011	Co-winner of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology, assisted in developing a technique to measure minute quantities of insulin in the blood.
Judy Garland	Entertainment	1922-1969	Made famous as Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz," Garland was one of the greatest stars of Hollywood's Golden Era of musical film.
Helen Gurley Brown	Feminism and writing	1922-2012	Author of Sex and the Single Girl, a book about the positive benefits of single life; revived foundering Cosmopolitan magazine
Alice Coachman	Track and field	1923-2014	At the 1948 Olympics in London, Coachman was the first black woman and only American woman to win a gold medal in that year's Games.
Shirley Chisholm	Social activism, politics	1924-2005	A Democrat, she was the first black woman elected to Congress (1968). Also the first black woman to run for president in a major party (1972).
Phyllis Schlafly	Political activism, writing	1924-2016	Republican activist against the feminist movement. Testified against the Equal Rights Amendment. Author of several books.
Barbara Pierce Bush	Politics	1925-2018	First lady during George H.W. Bush's presidency, warmly received by public and press as "everybody's grandmother;" mother of six children; articulately frank.
Marilyn Monroe	Acting	1926-1962	Completing 30 motion pictures, Monroe became an American icon and worldwide sensation before her mysterious death.
Rosalynn Smith Carter	Activism	1927-	First lady during Jimmy Carter's presidency, vice chair of The Carter Center, which promotes peace and human rights worldwide.
Maya Angelou	Writing, civil rights	1928-2014	A poet, historian, author, civil rights activist, producer and director, she composed and read verse at the Clinton inauguration in 1993.
Sarah Caldwell	Opera direction and conducting	1928-2006	She founded the Opera Company of Boston in 1957. In 1976, she became the first woman to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera House.
Shirley Temple Black	Diplomacy, acting	1928-2014	Becoming a diplomat later in life, Shirley Temple was perhaps the most famous child star in history.
Audrey Hepburn	Aid to needy children; actor	1929-1993	Special ambassador to UNICEF, she worked to help poor children. 1953 Academy Award winner for Best Actress in “Roman Holiday.”
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis	Politics, society	1929-1994	First lady during John F. Kennedy's presidency. By "inspir[ing] an attention to culture never before evident at a national level," she brought grace and sophistication to the White House.
Coretta Scott King	civil rights, music	1929-2006	Known as the First Lady of civil rights, Coretta carried on the dreams of her husband, Martin Luther King Jr.
Carolyn Shoemaker	Discovery, astronomy	1929-2021	Holder of the record for the most comet discoveries (32) as well as more than 800 asteroids. Took up astronomy at the age of 51.
Sandra Day O'Connor	Law, justice	1930-	She became the first woman justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. She felt the court's role was to interpret the law, not legislate it.
Barbara Harris	Religion, social outreach, civil rights	1930-2020	She became the first woman bishop of the Episcopal Church (also a first for Anglicanism, Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy).
Mary Dawson	Paleontology, mammals	1931-	Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, 1970. Arnold Guyot Prize honoree for Arctic research.
Alice Rivlin	Federal budget	1931-2019	The founding director of the Congressional Budget Office (1975), she has held several other governmental and professorial positions.
Barbara Walters	Television journalism	1931-	The first woman to anchor TV nightly news, on ABC. Correspondent, then co-anchor of 20/20. She has interviewed numerous famous people.
Toni Morrison	Literature	1931-2019	Won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature and a Pulitzer Prize in 1988, she is a master of dialog and richly depicts Black America.
Sylvia Plath	Literature	1932-1963	Plath wrote poems of stark self-realization and confession, was the first to win the Pulitzer Prize posthumously.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg	Literature	1933-2020	First Jewish woman on the Supreme Court. Strong advocate for women's rights and civil rights in general.
Gloria Steinem	Feminism, journalism	1934-	Articulates women’s issues with lectures and on TV. Helped found several women’s organizations. Founder of Ms. Magazine.
Marian Wright Edelman	Children’s and civil rights	1939-	Founder and president of Children’s Defense Fund. Originally a 1960s civil rights activist. Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Wilma Rudolph	Track and Field	1940-1994	Winner of three gold medals in the 1960 Olympics in Rome.
Wilma Pearl Mankiller	Tribal Leader	1945-2010	First female chief of Cherokee, brought social and economic changes to her people. Received the Presidential Medal of Honor in 1998 and featured on the quarter in 2022.

Space does not allow a complete list of all the important and famous women in American history, but from the days when women could not be one of the "founding fathers" and annual awards would exclude women when calculating the "Man of the Year," important women have made huge strides, the significance of which cannot be overestimated.