Attorney/author/former First Lady and native Chicagoan Michelle Obama was among nine women celebrated on Sept. 23-25 as they were inducted into The National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York.
Other inductees included science-fiction writer Octavia E. Butler (1947-2006), artist/feminist/educator Judy Chicago (also connected with the Windy City), retired military commander Rebecca Halstead, soccer icon Mia Hamm, multidisciplinary artist Joy Harjo, women’s-rights activist Emily Howland (1827—1929), pioneer/NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson (1918—2020) and business executive Indra Nooyi.
“From a very young age these women taught me that I matter,” Obama said in a recorded acceptance speech, according to CBS 46 News. “That I was never just a little girl or a child. I was always someone special in my own right. Someone with a big heart and a big brain. Someone who had value, someone limited only by her own imagination for herself.”
Events included a community festival and fireworks on Sept. 23, a watch party on Sept. 24 and a museum open house on Sept. 25.
After the ceremony, there are now 312 women in the Hall of Fame.