Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame
The Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame (CWHF) recognizes women natives or residents of the U.S. state of Connecticut for their significant achievements or statewide contributions.
The CWHF had its beginnings in 1993 when a group of volunteers partnered with Hartford College for Women to establish an organization to honor distinguished contributions by female role models associated with Connecticut. The first list of inductees contained forty-one women notable to Connecticut's history and culture, many of whom broke down barriers by becoming the first women to establish themselves in fields that had been previously denied to their gender. Alice Paul, who had a role in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and later wrote the first version of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment, was on the 1994 list of women. Also on that first list were actress Katharine Hepburn and her mother Katharine Martha Houghton Hepburn, who was a pioneer in women's rights and planned parenthood issues. Three of the Beecher clan are on that first list, Hartford Female Seminary founder Catharine Beecher, suffragist Isabella Beecher Hooker, and abolitionist author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Governor Ella T. Grasso was honored in 1994, as was Estelle Griswold, whose landmark Griswold v. Connecticut before the United States Supreme Court resulted in Connecticut's anti-birth control statute being declared unconstitutional.
In the ensuing two decades, the list has more than doubled. Artist Laura Wheeler Waring, who found fame by creating portraits of prominent African Americans during the Harlem Renaissance, was added in 1997. Abstract artist Helen Frankenthaler became part of the list in 2005. African American opera divas are on the list, Marian Anderson in 1994 and Rosa Ponselle in 1998. Ambassador, politician and playwright Clare Boothe Luce's 1994 appearance on the list was later joined by 19th century free black woman journalist Maria W. Stewart in 2001 and by war correspondent and human rights activist Jane Hamilton-Merritt in 1999. In 2008, the list gained Nobel Prize in Medicine winner, geneticist Barbara McClintock. The Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction winner Annie Dillard was added to the list in 1997.
The CWHF provides educational resources through two traveling exhibits, the Inductee Portrait Exhibit, and its We Fight For Roses, Too, a set of twenty-two standing panels displaying the stories of the inductees. The CWHF also provides speakers upon request.
Inductees
| Name | Image | Birth–Death | Year | Area of achievement | Ref(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lisa Cortés | 2023 | Director, producer | |||
| Laura Cruickshank | 2023 | Master Planner and Chief Architect and Associate Vice President, University of Connecticut | |||
| Carla Squatrito | 2023 | Founding president of Carla’s Pasta | |||
| Regina Winters-Toussaint | 2023 | Architect, founder of Zared Enterprises, LLC | |||
| Cora Lee Bentley Radcliffe | (1922-2010) | 2022 | Founded the Tigerettes, the first black female basketball and softball team | ||
| Jennifer Rizzotti | 2022 | President of the Connecticut Sun American professional basketball team . Rizzotti was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013. | |||
| Lhakpa Sherpa | 2022 | Woman’s World Record for 10 summits of Mt. Everest | |||
| Suzy Whaley | 2022 | First woman President of the PGA in 2018 | |||
| Enola G. Aird | 2021 | Founder and president of Community Healing Network | |||
| Patricia Baker | 2021 | Founding leader of the Connecticut Health Foundation | |||
| Josephine Bennett | (1880–1961) | 2020 | Suffragist | ||
| Donna Berman | 2021 | Charter Oak Cultural Center, revamping and refocusing its purpose | |||
| Khalilah L. Brown-Dean | 2021 | Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs and Professor of Political Science at Quinnipiac University | |||
| Frances Ellen Burr | (1831–1923) | 2020 | Suffragist | ||
| Glynda C. Carr | 2021 | Political strategist and entrepreneur for empowering Black women. | |||
| Callie Gale Heilmann | 2021 | Founder, President, and Co-Director of Bridgeport Generation Now | |||
| Jerimarie Liesegang | (1950–2020) | 2021 | Advocate for transgender rights | ||
| Kica Matos | 2021 | VP of Initiatives at the Vera Institute of Justice | |||
| Marilyn Ondrasik | 2021 | Advocate for social and economic justice | |||
| Pamela Selders | 2021 | Activist, owner of Pam’s Personals holistic products and services | |||
| Teresa C. Younger | 2021 | Activist, past director of the Connecticut General Assembly’s Permanent Commission on the Status of Women and as executive director of the ACLU of Connecticut. | |||
| Catherine Flanagan | (1889–1927) | 2020 | Suffragist | ||
| Sarah Lee Brown Fleming | (1876–1963) | 2020 | African American suffragist, civil rights activist | ||
| Clara Hill (suffragist) | (1838–1939) | 2020 | Suffragist | ||
| Elsie Hill | (1883–1970) | 2020 | Suffragist | ||
| Helena Hill | (1875 –1958) | 2020 | Suffragist | ||
| Emily Pierson | (1881 –1971) | 2020 | Physician, suffragist | ||
| Marian Chertow | 2019 | Professor of industrial environmental management at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies | |||
| Nell Newman |
|
2019 | Founder of Newman's Own Organics pet food | ||
| Martha Langevin | (1901–1978) | 2019 | With her sister Elizabeth Plouffe, the two last remaining Pequots to live on the Pequot Reservation | ||
| Elizabeth George Plouffe | (1895–1973) | 2019 | With her sister Martha Langevin, the two last remaining Pequots to live on the Pequot Reservation | ||
| Lucia Chase | (1897–1986) | 2018 | Co-founder of American Ballet Theatre | ||
| Anika Noni Rose |
|
(b. 1972) | 2018 | Singer, actress | |
| Tina Weymouth |
|
(b. 1950) | 2018 | Musician, author, founding member of Talking Heads | |
| Kristen Griest |
|
2017 | Along with Shaye Haver, one of the first two women to graduate from U.S. Army Ranger School. | ||
| Ruth A. Lucas |
|
(1920–2013) | 2017 | First black female Air Force colonel | |
| Regina Rush-Kittle | (b. 1961) | 2017 | Deputy Commissioner for the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security. | ||
| Rebecca Lobo |
|
(b. 1973) | 2016 | American television basketball analyst and former women's basketball player in the Women's National Basketball Association | |
| Jane Pauley |
|
(b. 1950) | 2016 | American television anchor and journalist | |
| Joyce Yerwood | (1909–1987) | 2016 | First African American woman physician in Fairfield County | ||
| Margaret Bourke-White | (1904–1971) | 2015 | American photographer and documentary photographer | ||
| Carolyn Miles | 2015 | CEO and president of Save the Children | |||
| Indra Nooyi |
|
(b. 1955) | 2015 | CEO of PepsiCo | |
| Beatrix Farrand |
|
(1872–1959) | 2014 | Landscape architect | |
| Jennifer Lawton | 2014 | 3D printing pioneer | |||
| Marian Salzman | 2014 | Public relations person | |||
| Rosa DeLauro |
|
(b. 1943) | 2013 | U.S. Representative for Connecticut's 3rd District | |
| Barbara Franklin |
|
(b. 1940) | 2013 | President and CEO of Barbara Franklin Enterprises, 29th U.S. Secretary of Commerce | |
| Linda Lorimer | 2013 | Vice President of Yale University | |||
| Augusta Lewis Troup | (1848–1920) | 2013 | Union organizer, journalist and promoter of the suffrage movement | ||
| Anne Garrels | (1951–2022) | 2012 | Foreign correspondent for National Public Radio | ||
| Annie Leibovitz |
|
(b. 1949) | 2012 | Portrait photographer | |
| Faith Middleton | (b. 1948) | 2012 | Connecticut public radio talk show host | ||
| Isabelle M. Kelley | (1917–1997) | 2011 | Director Food Stamp Program and principal author of the program | ||
| Denise Lynn Nappier | (b. 1951) | 2011 | First woman elected state treasurer in Connecticut history, first African American woman elected state treasurer in the nation, and first African American woman elected to statewide office in Connecticut | ||
| Patricia M. Wald |  |
(1928–2019) | 2011 | Jurist, Chair of the Open Society Institute's Criminal Justice Initiative, Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs for the U.S. Department of Justice, first woman to sit on the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, subsequently serving as its Chief Judge | |
| Anne M. Mulcahy | (b. 1952) | 2010 | Former CEO of Xerox Corporation | ||
| Martha Parsons | (1869–1965) | 2010 | Executive secretary of Landers, Frary and Clark Co. | ||
| Maggie Wilderotter | (b. 1955) | 2010 | Chairman and CEO of Frontier Communications | ||
| Martha Minerva Franklin | (1870–1968) | 2009 | Role model for black nurses | ||
| Carolyn M. Mazure | (b. 1949) | 2009 | Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology, and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at Yale School of Medicine; created Women's Health Research at Yale | ||
| Helen L. Smits | (b. 1937) | 2009 | Advocate for quality healthcare | ||
| Jewel Plummer Cobb | (1924–2017) | 2008 | Educator, cancer researcher | ||
| Patricia Goldman-Rakic |
|
(1937–2003) | 2008 | Yale University School of Medicine, pioneer in working memory research | |
| Barbara McClintock |
|
(1902–1992) | 2008 | Geneticist and first woman who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine unshared | |
| Joan Steitz | (b. 1941) | 2008 | Yale University professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemestry | ||
| Dorothy Hamill |
|
(b. 1956) | 2007 | Olympic gold medalist skater | |
| Joan Joyce | (1940–2022) | 2007 | Multi-sports athlete | ||
| Glenna Collett Vare |
|
(1903–1989) | 2007 | Champion golfer | |
| Helen Keller |
|
(1880–1968) | 2006 | Educator, author | |
| Mary Townsend Seymour | (1873–1957) | 2006 | First African American woman to run for state office | ||
| Anne Stanback | (b. 1958) | 2006 | Founder of Love Makes a Family, advocate LGBT community | ||
| Martha Coolidge | (b. 1946) | 2005 | First female president (2002) Directors Guild of America | ||
| Helen M. Frankenthaler | (1928–2011) | 2005 | Abstract expressionist artist | ||
| Rosalind Russell |
|
(1906–1976) | 2005 | Actress | |
| Dotha Bushnell Hillyer | (1843–1932) | 2003 | Built Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts as a memorial to her father | ||
| Clarice "Dollie" McLean | (b. 1936) | 2003 | Founder of The Artists Collective, a training center for the performing arts | ||
| Florence Griswold | (1850–1937) | 2002 | Patron of American Impressionism art, Florence Griswold Museum, the Old Lyme Art Colony was headquartered in her home | ||
| Eileen Kraus | (1938–2017) | 2002 | Business executive | ||
| Miriam Therese Winter | (b. 1938) | 2002 | Roman Catholic nun, music composer, author | ||
| Laura Nyro | (1947–1997) | 2001 | Singer, songwriter | ||
| Catherine Roraback |
|
(1920–2007) | 2001 | Civil liberties attorney | |
| Maria Miller Stewart | (1803–1879) | 2001 | Free black woman journalist, abolitionist, women's rights advocate | ||
| Emily Dunning Barringer |
|
(1876–1961) | 2000 | First female ambulance surgeon and first woman medical resident at New York City's Gouverneur Hospital | |
| Adrianne Baughns-Wallace | (b. 1944) | 2000 | News anchor | ||
| Mary Goodrich Jenson | (1907–2004) | 2000 | Aviation pioneer, newspaper reporter | ||
| Jane Hamilton-Merritt | (b. 1947) | 1999 | Photo journalist, war correspondent, human rights advocate, nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize | ||
| Sophie Tucker |
|
(1884–1966) | 1999 | Vaudeville singer and actress | |
| Antonina Uccello | (1922–2023) | 1999 | Elected mayor of Hartford in 1967, first female mayor in both the city and the state | ||
| Florence Wald | (1916–2008) | 1999 | Pioneered hospice care, National Women's Hall of Fame, Dean of Yale School of Nursing, American Academy of Nursing's Living Legend Award | ||
| Dorrit Hoffleit |
|
(1907–2007) | 1998 | Astronomer who discovered more than 1,000 variable stars, author, Bright Star Catalogue, The General Catalogue of Trigonometric Stellar Parallaxes | |
| Constance Baker Motley | (1921–2005) | 1998 | African American civil rights activist, lawyer, judge, New York State Senator | ||
| Rosa Ponselle | (1897–1981) | 1998 | Opera singer, honored on a U.S. postage stamp | ||
| Lillian Vernon |
|
(1927–2015) | 1998 | Founded the Lillian Vernon Company | |
| Mabel Osgood Wright |
|
(1859–1935) | 1998 | Founder and first president of Connecticut Audubon Society; established first bird sanctuary in U.S. in Fairfield, CT | |
| Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt | (1826–1905) | 1997 | Widow of Samuel Colt, donated her entire art and firearms collection to Wadsworth Atheneum Museum, and provided funding to erect a Colt Memorial wing of the museum | ||
| Annie Dillard |
|
(b. 1945) | 1997 | Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek | |
| Margo Rose | (1903–1997) | 1997 | American Puppet Theater | ||
| Laura Wheeler Waring | (1887–1948) | 1997 | Educator and artist who created portraits of prominent African Americans during the Harlem Renaissance | ||
| Edythe J. Gaines | (1922–2006) | 1996 | Superintendent of schools (first female and first African American) Hartford, director Hartford National Corp. | ||
| Madeleine L'Engle | (1918–2007) | 1996 | Newbery Award for children's literature | ||
| Susanne Langer | (1895–1985) | 1996 | Educator, philosopher | ||
| Helen M. Feeney | (1919–2004) | 1995 | Roman Catholic Chancellor of the Archdiocese | ||
| Caroline Maria Hewins | (1846–1926) | 1995 | Children's library services | ||
| Donna Lopiano | (b. 1946) | 1995 | Athlete, gender equality in sports advocate | ||
| Maria C. Sanchez | (1926–1989) | 1995 | First Hispanic woman elected to the Connecticut General Assembly | ||
| Mary Jobe Akeley | (1886–1966) | 1994 | Explorer | ||
| Anni Albers | (1899–1994) | 1994 | Textile artist | ||
| Marian Anderson |
|
(1897–1993) | 1994 | Opera singer who broke ground for African Americans | |
| Beatrice Fox Auerbach | (1887–1968) | 1994 | Philanthropist, president and director of G. Fox & Co., from 1938 to 1959 she made her store available to Connecticut College for Women as a training program for retail education. | ||
| Emma Fielding Baker | (1828–1916) | 1994 | Mohegan medicine woman, tribal historian and documentarian | ||
| Evelyn Longman Batchelder |
|
(1874–1954) | 1994 | Sculptor | |
| Catharine Beecher |
|
(1800–1878) | 1994 | Proponent of education for women, founded Hartford Female Seminary | |
| Jody Cohen | (b. 1954) | 1994 | Rabbi | ||
| Prudence Crandall |
|
(1803–1890) | 1994 | Abolitionist who accepted black students into her female academy in Canterbury, Connecticut | |
| Katharine Seymour Day | (1870–1964) | 1994 | Preservationist who rescued historic homes | ||
| Fidelia Hoscott Fielding | (1827–1908) | 1994 | Last native speaker of the Mohegan Pequot language | ||
| Charlotte Perkins Gilman |
|
(1860–1935) | 1994 | Sociologist and author | |
| Dorothy Goodwin | (1914–2007) | 1994 | Five-term Democratic state representative | ||
| Ella Tambussi Grasso |
|
(1919–1981) | 1994 | Governor of Connecticut | |
| Estelle Griswold | (1900–1981) | 1994 | Griswold v. Connecticut, United States Supreme Court ruled that Connecticut's anti-birth control statute was unconstitutional | ||
| Mary Hall |
|
(1843–1927) | 1994 | After passing the Connecticut Superior Court exam, won an 1882 ruling from Chief Justice John Park of the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors that women were entitle to equal protection under Connecticut statutes and entitled to practice law in the state. | |
| Alice Hamilton |
|
(1869–1970) | 1994 | First woman appointed to the faculty of Harvard University | |
| Katharine Hepburn |
|
(1907–2003) | 1994 | Actress | |
| Katharine Martha Houghton Hepburn |
|
(1878–1951) | 1994 | Women's rights and Planned Parenthood | |
| Isabella Beecher Hooker |
|
(1822–1907) | 1994 | Founder of the Connecticut Women's Suffrage Association | |
| Emeline Roberts Jones |
|
(1836–1916) | 1994 | Dentist, considered by some to be the first woman dentist in America | |
| Barbara Kennelly |
|
(b. 1936) | 1994 | United States House of Representatives | |
| Clare Boothe Luce |
|
(1903–1987) | 1994 | United States Ambassador to Brazil, United States Ambassador to Italy, United States House of Representatives, Presidential Medal of Freedom, playwright, novelist | |
| Rachel Taylor Milton | (1901–1995) | 1994 | Co-founder of the Urban League of Greater Hartford | ||
| Alice Paul |
|
(1885–1977) | 1994 | Suffragist, founder National Woman's Party | |
| Ellen Ash Peters | (b. 1930) | 1994 | First woman Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court | ||
| Ann Petry | (1908–1997) | 1994 | Author | ||
| Sarah Porter |
|
(1813–1900) | 1994 | Founder Miss Porter's School, private college prep school for girls | |
| Theodate Pope Riddle | (1867–1946) | 1994 | Architect | ||
| Edna Negron Rosario | (b. 1955) | 1994 | Educator | ||
| Margaret Fogarty Rudkin | (1898–1967) | 1994 | Founder of Pepperidge Farm | ||
| Susan Saint James |
|
(b. 1946) | 1994 | Actress, philanthropist | |
| Lydia Huntley Sigourney |
|
(1791–1865) | 1994 | Poet | |
| Virginia Thrall Smith | (1836–1903) | 1994 | Women's and children's rights advocate | ||
| The Smiths of Glastonbury | 1994 | Sisters Hannah, Hancy, Cynrinthia, Laurilla, Julia and Abby. Family of early suffragists. Their home Kimberly Mansion is listed on the NRHP for Glastonbury. | |||
| Hilda Crosby Standish | (1902–2005) | 1994 | Connecticut's first birth control clinic | ||
| Harriet Beecher Stowe |
|
(1811–1896) | 1994 | Abolitionist, author | |
| Gladys Tantaquidgeon | (1899–2005) | 1994 | Mohegan anthropologist, author, council member, and elder | ||
| Betty Tianti | (1929–1994) | 1994 | First female president of a state AFL-CIO | ||
| Hannah Bunce Watson | (1750–1807) | 1994 | Newspaper publisher whose printed output supported the American Revolutionary War | ||
| Chase Going Woodhouse |
|
(1890–1984) | 1994 | First female Connecticut Secretary of State, United States House of Representatives |