Marine biology expert Dr. Sylvia Earle holds the record for deepest walk on the sea floor, and was the first woman to lead the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.

Winona LaDuke, a Native American activist, economist, and author, has devoted her life to advocating for Indigenous control of their homelands, natural resources, and cultural practices.

Throughout her long life, Hedgeman advocated for civil rights, education, social justice, poverty relief, and women.

As one of the newest members of Congress, Bush pushes for progressive legislative goals that will benefit her constituents—people just like her.

As a poet, writer, activist, organizer, legal theorist, and priest, Murray was directly involved in, and helped articulate, the intellectual foundations of two of the most important social justice movements of the twentieth century.

Abrams is now one of the most prominent African American female politicians in the United States.

A veteran of the 1969 Stonewall Inn uprising, Sylvia Rivera was a tireless advocate for those silenced and disregarded by larger movements.

Though a high school teacher discouraged her from writing because of her poor spelling, Suzan-Lori Parks went on to become one of the most successful playwrights in the United States.

Harlem Renaissance poet Anne Spencer lived her entire life in Virginia, where she tended her garden, worked as a librarian and teacher, hosted luminaries of Black intellectual and cultural life, and fought for equal rights for African Americans. 

Often called the “Mother of the Blues,” Ma Rainey was known for her deep-throated voice and mesmerizing stage presence that drew packed audiences and sold hit records in the early twentieth century.

Jazz pianist and singer Hazel Scott was not only the first African-American woman to host her own television show, but she also bravely stood up to the House Un-American Activities Committee and the Hollywood studio machine.

On May 2, 1963, 9 year old Audrey Faye Hendricks became the youngest known person arrested during the Civil Rights Movement. 

As the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against the New York Times in 1974, Wade transformed the industry and newsrooms across the nation. 

Joyce Parrish O'Neal is a Civil Rights activist, social worker, and the first African American elected to the Alabama State Personnel Board.

Lillian D. Wald helped to bring health care to the residents of New York’s Lower East Side at the turn of the twentieth century.

As a life-long Detroiter, and one of the first Muslim-Americans, as well as the first Palestinian-American woman, ever elected to the United States Congress, Tlaib advocates for issues that affect the working-class.

Kamala D. Harris became the first woman, the first Black woman, and the first person of Asian-American descent to become the Vice-President Elect of the United States of America.

Amanda Blackhorse is a member of the Navajo, a social worker, and the plaintiff in Blackhorse et al v. Pro-Football Inc.

In 1870, 70-year-old Louisa Ann Swain became the first woman to legally cast a ballot in a general election since 1807.

Considered the Guardian of Heron Indian Cemetery, her appearance made her the third woman, and the first Native American, to argue a case in front of the Supreme Court.