Tennessee Women's Hall of Fame

The Tennessee Women's Hall of Fame is a non-profit, volunteer organization that recognizes women who have contributed to history of the U.S. state of Tennessee.

The organization was founded and incorporated as a non-profit organization in 2010 to recognize accomplished women who have impacted the development of the state of Tennessee and improved the status of other women.^[1] It is the brainchild of the Women's Economic Council Foundation, Inc. and the Tennessee Economic Council on Women.^[2]

The criteria for induction into the Tennessee Women's Hall of Fame is that women were born in and achieved recognition within the state; are or have a resident in Tennessee for an extended period of time or adopted Tennessee as their home state. Additional criteria includes women who,:^[3]

• Have made significant, unique and permanent contributions to the economic, political and cultural betterment of Tennessee;
• Have elevated the status of women;
• Have promoted other women and women’s issues;
• Have been advocates for those issues which are important to women and families

The hall inducts new members annually or bi-annually and includes both contemporary and historical women or organizations which benefit women.^[4]

Tennessee Women's Hall of Fame

Name	Image	Birth–Death	Year	Area of achievement
Joy Bishop		(1934–2023)	2015	First career Air Force woman appointed to the Senior Executive Service[5] and served as the Women's Program Coordinator.[6]
Lizzie Crozier French		(1851–1926)	2015	Founder of the Knoxville Female Institute and the Tennessee Suffrage Association[7]
Elizabeth Rona		(1890–1981)	2015	First woman to teach chemistry in any university in Hungary, in the United States, she served on the Manhattan Project[8]
Janice M. Holder		(1949–)	2015	First woman Chief Justice of Tennessee[9]
Rosetta Miller-Perry		(1934–)[10]	2015	Founder of the Greater Nashville Black Chamber of Commerce, and co-founder, publisher and journalist of Perry & Perry Publishing Company[11]
Margaret Rhea Seddon		(1947–)	2015	One of the inaugural group of women astronauts of NASA[12]
Zulfat Suara			2015[13]	Chair and founder of the American Muslim Council of Tennessee[14]
Carol Gardner Transou		(1936–2021)[15]	2015	1987 Tennessee Teacher of the Year and first Tennessee Teacher-Scholar of the National Endowment for the Humanities[16]
Margaret L. Behm		(c. 1951–)[17]	2013	Co-founded Shipley & Behm, the first all-woman law firm in Nashville[18]
Wilsie S. Bishop		(1949–)[19]	2013	First woman Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of East Tennessee State University[20]
M. Inez Crutchfield		(c. 1925–)[21]	2013	First African American to hold an appointed and elected statewide position in the Tennessee State Federation of Democratic Women[22]
Shirley C. Raines		(1945–)[23]	2013	President of the University of Memphis[24]
Becca Stevens		(1963–)	2013	Founder of Magdalene House[25]
Jocelyn Wurzburg		(1940–)[26]	2013	Orchestrated an interfaith and inter-racial group response to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.[27]
Pat Summitt		(1952–2016)	2011	Most all-time wins for a coach in NCAA basketball history of either a men's or women's team in any division[28]
Martha Craig Daughtrey		(1942–)	2010	First Tennessee woman to be appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit[29]
Jane G. Eskind		(1933–2016)	2010	First woman to win a statewide election in Tennessee[30][31]

• Freeman, Sarah Wilkerson; Bond, Beverly Greene; Helper-Ferris, Laura (2009). Tennessee Women Their Lives and Times. Vol. 1. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-2948-2.
• Freeman, Sarah Wilkerson; Bond, Beverly Greene (2015). Tennessee Women Their Lives and Times. Vol. 2. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-3742-5.

• "Welcome to the Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture".