Past Recipients

 

In 2009, the Women of Distinction Series honored Gloria Steinem, who plays a leading role in promoting a world in which, as she has stated, “There are no roles other than those chosen or those earned.” O’Keeffe was unique, both in her contributions to art and in how she lived her life; and like O'Keeffe, Gloria Steinem has made an equally unique contribution to our culture.  As a writer, lecturer, editor, and feminist activist, she travels nationally and internationally as an organizer and lecturer, and is a frequent media spokeswoman on issues of equality. She is the founder and original publisher of Ms. Magazine, and helped found the Women's Action Alliance, a pioneering national information center that specializes in nonsexist, multiracial children's education, as well as the National Women's Political Caucus, a group that works to advance the numbers of pro-equality women in elected and appointed office at the state and national levels.

In 2007, the Women of Distinction Series honored Gail Sheehy, a cultural observer and best-selling author of 15 books, who has helped millions of people change the way they look at their lives. Her original landmark work, Passages, made history: it remained on the New York times best-seller list for more than three years and was reprinted in 28 languages. A Library of Congress survey named Passages one of the ten most influential books of our time. A contributing editor to Vanity Fair since 1984, Sheehy won the Washington  Journalism Review Award for Best Magazine Writer in America for her in-depth character portraits of national and world leaders. She is a seven-time recipient of the New York Newswomen's Club Front Page Award for distinguished journalism, and is one of the founders of the Women's Commission for Refugee women. Sheehy also is a provocative speaker on women's health issues, and on how companies can survive global competition.

In 2007, the Women of Distinction Lecture Series hosted The Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg in conjunction with the Museum's 10th Anniversary Celebration. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice, was born in Brooklyn, New York, March 15, 1933. She received her B.A. from Cornell Univ., attended Harvard Law School, and received her LL.B. from Columbia Law School. She was a Professor of Law at Rutgers Univ. from 1963-72 and at Columbia form 1972-80, and a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Stanford, CA., from 1977-78. In 1971, she was instrumental in launching the Women's Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, and served as the ACLU's General Counsel from 1973-80 and on the National Board of Directors from 1974-80. She was appointed a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1980. President Clinton nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and she took her seat August 10, 1993.