Hall of Famers: 9 Women for the Ages

“Until we have an environmental, economic and social policy that is based on the impact on the seventh generation from now, we will still be living in a society based on conquest, not on survival.” Winona Laduke, 2007 National Women’s Hall of Fame Inductee

By Taylor Mallory

It may not have the hallowed reputation of Cooperstown (yet), but just two and a half hours from the home of baseball’s greatest is a shrine of another sort: the National Women’s Hall of Fame (greatwomen.org), the first national membership organization celebrating the accomplishments of outstanding American women. This month at its exhibition gallery in Seneca Falls, N.Y., the Hall adds nine extraordinary women to its ranks of 217, each of them honored at the birthplace of the U.S. feminist movement. (Seneca Falls hosted the first Women’s Rights Convention in 1848.)

Among the nine are two environmental voices: Winona LaDuke, a Native American working to preserve both her native land and heritage, and Catherine Filene Shouse, who founded the first and only national park for performing arts. And while sustainability isn’t currently a criterion for selection, Hall President Christine Moulton tells PINK, “In the last 10 years, we have certainly been receiving more nominations of women working for the environment.”

Moulton says this year’s group is particularly special because two of the women — Swanee Hunt and Martha Coffin Wright — have sisters who are members. The inductee who most inspires her? Wright, who helped found the women’s rights movement, which, Moulton says, “allowed me to pursue a profession I love, voice my opinions through the voting process and be an invested part of society.”

This article originally appeared in the October 2007 issue of PINK Magazine.