Women’s Hall of Fame at Seneca Falls announces 2023 inductees

SENECA FALLS, N.Y. — The National Women’s Hall of Fame at Seneca Falls announced eight inductees for 2023. They include laser cataract surgery pioneer Patricia Bath and Jewish theologian and author Elouise Pepion Cobell.

The women will be officially inducted at a ceremony at Smith Opera House in Geneva on Saturday, Sept. 30. You can get tickets for the ceremony here or watch it on the YouTube channel for the National Women’s Hall of Fame. Here’s a list of the inductees:

Patricia Bath: Bath is an American ophthalmologist and humanitarian who pioneered early laser cataract surgery. She was the first Black woman to receive a medical patent, which she received in 1986 for the Laserphaco Probe and technique for cataract removal.

Elouise Cobell: Cobell is a banker for the Blackfeet Nation who advocated for Native American Tribal Nations to have control over their finances. Cobell was the treasurer for the Blackfeet Nation and went on to found the Blackfeet National Bank, now part of the Native American Bank. It was the first national bank located on a Native American reservation and established by a Tribe.

Kimberlé Crenshaw: Crenshaw is a scholar and writer on civil rights. In 1987, she coined the term “intersectionality” to describe the double bind of simultaneous racial and gender prejudice.

Peggy McIntosh: McIntosh is an author on race relations and feminism. She is also the founder of the National SEED (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity) Project on Inclusive Curriculum, the nation’s largest interdisciplinary program for peer-led professional development of educators.

Judith Plaskow: Plaskow is known for being the first Jewish feminist theologian. She launched the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion in 1985 and served as the journal’s editor for its first 10 years and from 2012 to 2016.

Loretta Ross: Ross is a professor and activist for reproductive justice. In 2022, she became a MacArthur Fellow for her work as an advocate for reproductive justice and human rights.

Sandy Stone: Stone is an author, multi-instrumentalist, and academic. She made a career in the late 1960s and 70s as a sound engineer working alongside well-known musicians like Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead, and Van Morrison.

Anna Wessels Williams: Williams, who died in 1954, pioneered the study of immune responses to infectious diseases in the 20th century. She worked on developing vaccines and treatments for diseases including diphtheria, rabies, scarlet fever, smallpox, influenza, and meningitis.