Honored: 1986 (1902 - 1992)
Geneticist who pioneered work in maize genetics and the complex mechanisms which control and regulate cell development. McClintock helped to advance scientific understanding of this important field. In 1983 she received the first unshared Nobel Prize in medicine ever awarded to a woman.
Honored: 2011 (1936 - )
The first female Democratic United States Senator elected in her own right, Barbara Mikulski has been a political trailblazer for more than thirty years. During her tenure as a Senator, Mikulski has developed and supported legislation promoting equal healthcare for American women, Medicare reform, better care for veterans, greater student access to quality education, increased funding for scientific research, and more. Senator Mikulski currently serves as the Dean of the Women in the Senate, and is a senior member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee; a senior member of the Appropriations Committee; and a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. In 2011, Senator Mikulski officially became the longest serving female Senator in United States history.
Honored: 1993 (1921 - 2005)
Attorney and jurist who, after performing landmark work with the NAACP with Thurgood Marshall and others, became the first African American woman elected to the New York State Senate. Motley was the first woman and African American to become Manhattan Borough President; she was the first African American women named to the federal bench.
Honored: 2000 (1845 - 1906)
Founder and organizer of the Collar Laundry Union in 1864, she led a strike of 200 laundresses in Troy, NY, which resulted in a 25% wage increase and improvement of working conditions. Her efforts to organize women in New York City and financially assist both male and female unions were rewarded when she was appointed as an assistant secretary of the National Labor Union, making her the first female to hold a national labor post.
Honored: 1998 (1875 - 1967)
Co-founder (with Carrie Chapman Catt) of the League of Women Voters in 1920, after ratification of the 19th Amendment. A graduate of MIT in 1904, she funded MIT's first on-campus residence for women. She devoted her late husband's wealth to contraceptive research and her own resources and energy to opening up doors for women in science and engineering.
Honored: 1994 (1896 - 1993)
First American nurse to earn a Ph.D. Louise McManus was central to the establishment of schools of nursing in colleges and universities, providing the fundamental basis for nursing science growth.
Honored: 1983 (1793 - 1880)
Quaker anti-slavery advocate, who, after meeting Elizabeth Cady Stanton, became a leader in the women's right's movement. Mott was a planner of the first Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls in 1848, and she remained true to her sense of justice for African Americans and women throughout her life.
Honored: 1976 (1901 - 1978)
Trailblazing anthropologist whose book, Coming of Age in Samoa, caused scientific and social rethinking of adolescence. Mead's career included the study of numerous tribes as well as extensive and innovative field work.
Honored: 1994 (1818 - 1889)
An astronomer who discovered a new comet in 1847, Maria Mitchell 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.
Honored: 1996 (1906 - 1972)
First U.S. woman and second woman ever to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. The Prize was awarded for developing the shell model of the nucleus of the atom, the basic model for the description of nuclear properties. Goeppert Mayer was also a member of the team that first isolated fissionable uranium 235.
