National Women’s Hall of Fame

The National Women’s Hall of Fame is located in a historic knitting factory in Seneca, NY. It resides across from the Wesleyan Chapel, where the 1848 first women’s convention took place, kicking off the women’s suffrage movement.

Two new people are heading up NWHF, hoping to jump-start this vital organization. Currently, there are only 293 inductees. There isn’t a National Mens’ Hall of Fame, although there is a Hall of Fame for Great Americans. There are only 11 women in the Hall of Fame for Great Americans. I find it hard to believe that is all there is. There are certainly more than 293 too.

I have searched through the website of NWHF, and because I am obsessed with this topic, I know many of these women, but there are also many I have never heard of. Why? When I explore through the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, aka men, I know many of their names.

It is time for people to acknowledge and know the many women who have impacted our country. The narrative continues to be that men are the people who have led for change in each genre. It isn’t true. Think about this, Catherine Greene devised the cotton gin, and Eli Whitney built it. That is one of the numerous points of our history where the woman is the real innovator, entrepreneur, rabble-rouser behind the man who gets his name in the history books.

Isn’t it time for this to change?