Florence Sabin (1871 - 1953)
First woman graduate of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the first woman to teach there. A talented anatomist and researcher, Sabin performed pioneering work in embryology, the lymphatic system and tuberculosis.
Sacagawea (c. 1790 - ?)
A Shoshone woman who served as a guide to Lewis and Clark during their exploration of the American West, Sacagawea was an instrumental part in the success of this legendary Expedition.
Margaret Sanger (1879 - 1966)
Nurse and social reformer. After seeing many poor women in New York City damaged and dying from attempts to end unwanted pregnancies, she fought for reform. Sanger underwent arrests and imprisonment for distributing information on birth control and contraception.
Katherine Siva Saubel (1920 - )
Founder of the Malki Museum at the Morongo Reservation in California. Born on a reservation in great poverty, Saubel became determined to preserve her tribe's culture and language, despite overwhelming odds. She has become a learned ethno anthropologist, and was a founder of this first museum run by Native Americans.
Betty Bone Schiess (1923 - )
Religious leader. Schiess led the successful effort in 1974 to have women ordained as priests in the Episcopal Church in America, elevating the position of women in the Episcopal Church at all levels.
Patricia Schroeder (1940 - )
Served as the senior woman in Congress, first elected in 1972 from Colorado. Schroeder worked to establish a national pro-family policy, promoting issues such as parental leave, child care and family planning.
Felice N. Schwartz (1925 - 1996)
Founder in 1962 of Catalyst, the premier organization working with corporations to foster women's leadership. She published studies (Women in Corporate Leadership in 1990 and Women in Engineering in 1992) illustrating the barriers to women's workplace progress and then provided samples of model corporate practices to help women advance. Her work has had a lasting impact on the composition of American corporate leadership.
Blanche Stuart Scott (1889 - 1970)
Born in Rochester, New York, Scott was a pioneering aviatrix, becoming the first American woman to take a solo hop into the air, although her flight is not regarded as official. In 1910, she became the first woman to drive an automobile coast to coast in her car - the “Lady Overland”. Scott was also the first and only woman to take flying lessons from Glenn Curtiss, later flying with the Curtiss Exhibition Team and earning the nickname “Tomboy of the Air”.
Florence B. Seibert (1897 - 1991)
Scientist who made it possible to test for tuberculosis and who pioneered safe intravenous therapy. Siebert also devoted many years to cancer research.
Elizabeth Bayley Seton (1774 - 1821)
The first native-born American woman to be canonized a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. After raising a family, "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.
Reverend Doctor Anna Howard Shaw (1847 - 1919)
A leader in the women's suffrage movement, Shaw was a master orator for social justice, and the first woman to be ordained by the Protestant Methodist Church. She was the first living American woman to be awarded the U.S. Distinguished Service Medal.
Catherine Filene Shouse (1896 - 1994)
Known for her visionary work in education, arts, politics and women's affairs, Catherine Filene Shouse was the first woman to receive a Masters Degree in Education from Harvard University and the first woman appointed to the Democratic National Committee in 1919. Ten years later, she launched the Institute for Women's Professional Relations. An ardent supporter of the arts and arts education, Catherine Filene Shouse founded and was the major benefactor of the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in Vienna, Virginia - the first and only national park dedicated to the performing arts. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Gerald R. Ford in 1977.
Eunice Mary Kennedy Shriver (1921 - 2009)
Founder of the Special Olympics (1968). She helped establish the National Institute for Child Health and Development and the President's Committee on Mental Retardation (1961). She established a network of mental retardation research centers at major medical schools across the United States and created "Community of Caring," a program for the reduction of mental retardation among babies of teenagers, developing 16 model centers and 150 programs in public schools.
Muriel Siebert (1932 - )
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.
Beverly Sills (1929 - 2007)
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, guiding the Center to become one of the nation's most important institutions. She was not only directly responsible for the discovery and launch of many young performers, but was also actively involved in a myriad of humane works, including the National Victim Center and (as National Chair) the March of Dimes Mothers March on Birth Defects.
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. The "Empress of the Blues," made more than 160 recordings with many of the country's finest jazz musicians.
Margaret Chase Smith (1897 - 1995)
Beginning her political career by assuming her deceased husband's seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, she ran for and became a U.S. Senator from Maine. Margaret Chase Smith served four terms and was an advocate for a strong national defense.
Sophia Smith (1796 - 1870)
Born to a family known for its frugality and thrift, she was left at the age of 65 as the sole survivor of her immediate family, and with the funds to endow the establishment of Smith College, an institution that she hoped would provide undergraduate education for young women equal to that provided at the time for young men.
Hannah Greenebaum 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. It later became the National Council of Jewish Women, to which she was elected its first president.
Susan Solomon (1956 - )
An internationally recognized leader in the field of atmospheric science, Susan Solomon pioneered the theory explaining how and why the ozone hole occurs in Antarctica, and obtained some of the first chemical measurements that established man-made chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as its cause. Solomon is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 1999 National Medal of Science and the Asahi Foundation of Japan’s Blue Planet Prize in 2004. From 2002-2008, Solomon served as the co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Albert Gore, Jr. in 2007. Solomon’s current research as a senior scientist with the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration focuses on climate change, ozone depletion and the links between the two.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815 - 1902)
Suffragist and reformer. Stanton noticed from her earliest years that women were not treated equally with men. In 1848, she and others convened the first Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, bringing 300 individuals together, including Frederick Douglass. Stanton determined that the right to vote was the key to women's equality. Throughout her life and partnership with Susan B. Anthony, she wrote and argued brilliantly for women's equality through the right to vote.
Gloria Steinem (1934 - )
Feminist leader, writer and social activist. A founder of Ms. Magazine, Steinem also co-convened 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 - 1994)
Athlete who set a world record and won two track and field gold medals at the 1936 Olympics. As an amateur, Stephens 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)
Research biologist who identified 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)
Early suffrage leader who began as an anti-slavery public advocate, followed by a lifetime of work for women's right to vote. Stone was a sophisticated political tactician and founded The Women's Journal, a fascinating archive of women's history published from 1870 to 1893.
Kate Stoneman (1841 - 1925)
Katherine “Kate” Stoneman was the first woman admitted to practice law in New York State. In 1885, she became the first female to pass the New York State Bar Exam, but her 1886 application to join the bar was rejected because of her gender. Stoneman immediately launched a lobbying campaign to amend the Code of Civil Procedure to permit the admission of qualified applicants without regard to sex or race, and was successfully admitted to the bar later the same month. In 1898, she became the first female graduate of Albany Law School, and was the first woman to receive a bachelor’s degree from any department of Union University.
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811 - 1896)
Author and daughter of a minister, Stowe became one of the first women to earn a living by writing, publishing the best-seller Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852. Although she wrote much more, her best-seller was often acclaimed as a major factor in the drive to abolish slavery.
Harriet Williams Russell Strong (1844 - 1926)
An inventor of water-conservation techniques, she was also a very successful businesswoman. Her water irrigation systems are credited with being one of the factors in the development of southern California as a major agricultural region.
Anne Sullivan (1866 - 1936)
Best known as the woman who taught Helen Keller to read, write and minimally speak, Anne Sullivan lost her own sight to trachoma at an early age. She went on to graduate from Perkins School for the Blind in Boston and eventually receive medical treatment that restored her sight. Both Sullivan and Keller became role models for thousands of physically challenged people around the world.
Henrietta Szold (1860 - 1945)
The daughter of Hungarian immigrants, educator and social pioneer Henrietta Szold was an important figure in both American and Jewish history. In 1889, she opened a night school to educate immigrants in English and civics, creating a model for other night schools and immigrant education programs. Her groundbreaking work in the American Jewish community continued with her founding of Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, in 1912. Ms. Szold moved to pre-state Israel in 1920, continuing her work with the American Zionist Medicat Unit, which she organized in 1918.
