Known as “America’s first female cryptanalyst,” Elizebeth Smith Friedman’s pioneering work in the field of codebreaking helped the country through pivotal moments in the 20th Century.

Frances “Frankie” Kathleen Oldham Kelsey. Kelsey was universally credited with sparing the US the damage inflicted by the drug thalidomide to the human nervous system by refusing to approve the drug for distribution in the US.

Eleanor Holmes Norton was the first woman appointed to chair the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and continues to fight for DC statehood in her third decade as a congresswoman.