# Corrected: Greatest American Woman (Elimination Game) **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Created:** [December 23, 2017, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corrected-greatest-american-woman-elimination-game/805167 "2017-12-23T21:51:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2018, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corrected-greatest-american-woman-elimination-game/805167/41 "2018-01-11T00:29:46Z")
2 Willa Cather – I appreciate her work, but I find her slightly less accomplished than most of the other women. 2 Martha Graham – I understand that she was a pioneer, and many people have benefited from the trails she blazed, but I think her own work wasn’t all that great. 1 Georgia O’Keefe – Personal preference, again. I don’t especially like her work. But I understand why other people do (as opposed to Martha Graham, who I think was mainly a novelty act). So I just gave her one. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2018, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corrected-greatest-american-woman-elimination-game/805167/42 "2018-01-11T00:31:32Z")
> [@Tread](#): > > 2 Susan Sontag Because Crash Davis believes the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap They kinda are, but she coined the word “camp.” Eventually, I supposed she’ll have to go, but I hope she hangs on for a while just because of that. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2018, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corrected-greatest-american-woman-elimination-game/805167/43 "2018-01-12T20:19:32Z")
Backing people who already have some votes… Susan Sontag - 2 - Not seeing anything great in her bio. Didn’t like the modern world. Chose to stay in it. Convinced people to like bad things (camp). Cornelia Clapp - 1 - Teacher of the year, maybe. Greatest American woman, no way. Martha Graham - 2 - Snobbish of me, but I prefer art to dance, so a dancer needs to go before a painter. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2018, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corrected-greatest-american-woman-elimination-game/805167/44 "2018-01-12T20:38:31Z")
Looking over Georgia O’Keefe’s Wikipedia page again, I’ll admit that I don’t see anything about her life beyond that she was an artist. She made paintings. People bought them. But, and maybe this is a bit one-dimensional, if you look at the list of most expensive paintings: > **[List of most expensive paintings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_paintings)** > > This is a list of the highest known prices paid for paintings. The current record price is approximately US$450.3 million (which includes commission), paid for Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi (c. 1500). The painting was sold in November 2017, through the auction house Christie's in New York City. > The most famous paintings, especially old master works created before 1803, are generally owned or held at museums, for viewing by patrons. Since the museums rarely sell them, they are considered p... Georgia is the highest earning woman, and yet she isn’t even listed in the table of top-selling artists. There are too many paintings ahead of her, all by men. And while I may not care for her art terribly much, I feel like her art should at least be competitive with Amedeo Modigliani. If that dude can make it on the list, she should as well. So I’d like her to stay in at least one more round because the heck with you Amedeo Modigliani! ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2018, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corrected-greatest-american-woman-elimination-game/805167/45 "2018-01-12T22:21:39Z")
Marian Anderson 2 Cornelia Clapp 2 Martha Graham 1 ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2018, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corrected-greatest-american-woman-elimination-game/805167/46 "2018-01-12T23:51:43Z")
2 - Wilma Mankiller -I almost got to her when considering “firsts” that might not be great just based on it being a small group. She at least led a group with limited sovereignty so I didn’t. She did some good things for the part of the Cherokee she led; there’s **two** federally recognized Cherokee tribes. Then I clicked through to the [Cherokee Freedmen controversy.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherokee_freedmen_controversy) She advocated for removing membership from all but “Cherokee by blood.” That included the former black slaves that the tribe had owned and had been granted membership after the Civil War. That included those whose formal tie for membership was the name on the Freedman List, even when they demonstrably had Cherokee blood in their lineage. Ignoring the Freedmen list didn’t kick all the African-American/Cherokee mixed race people out, but everyone losing membership in the tribe had African-American ancestry. Just tagging on with a couple others where I have either given my reason, and I get new votes, or others gave one that’s close enough. 1 point each to: -Susan Sontag -Willa Cather -Georgia O’Keefe -Georgia Neese Clark (maybe I just hate the name Georgia today) ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2018, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corrected-greatest-american-woman-elimination-game/805167/47 "2018-01-13T00:25:48Z")
> [@DinoR](#): > > 2 - Wilma Mankiller -I almost got to her when considering “firsts” that might not be great just based on it being a small group. She at least led a group with limited sovereignty so I didn’t. She did some good things for the part of the Cherokee she led; there’s **two** federally recognized Cherokee tribes. Then I clicked through to the [Cherokee Freedmen controversy.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherokee_freedmen_controversy) She advocated for removing membership from all but “Cherokee by blood.” That included the former black slaves that the tribe had owned and had been granted membership after the Civil War. That included those whose formal tie for membership was the name on the Freedman List, even when they demonstrably had Cherokee blood in their lineage. Ignoring the Freedmen list didn’t kick all the African-American/Cherokee mixed race people out, but everyone losing membership in the tribe had African-American ancestry. > > Just tagging on with a couple others where I have either given my reason, and I get new votes, or others gave one that’s close enough. 1 point each to: > -Susan Sontag > -Willa Cather > -Georgia O’Keefe > -Georgia Neese Clark (maybe I just hate the name Georgia today) That would be 6 points? Do you want to drop one of your 1s or reduce Wilma into a 1? ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2018, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corrected-greatest-american-woman-elimination-game/805167/48 "2018-01-13T01:04:21Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Do you want to drop one of your 1s or reduce Wilma into a 1? :smack: Drop Wilma to 1 for at least a cool tradition based name. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2018, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corrected-greatest-american-woman-elimination-game/805167/49 "2018-01-14T10:10:32Z")
Bolded names are eliminated. **Martha Graham - 5 Susan Sontag - 5 Cornelia Clapp - 4 Georgia O’Keeffe - 4** Willa Cather - 3 Marian Anderson - 2 Georgia Neese Clark - 2 Mary Cassatt - 1 Jacqueline Cochran - 1 Zora Neale Hurston - 1 Wilma Mankiller - 1 Dorothy Parker - 1 Total: 30 points. 15 to remove. Updated list: **Bella Abzug** - U.S. Representative and a leader of the Women’s Movement. Founded the National Women’s Political Caucus **Abigail Adams** - Wife and advisor of the second President. Advocate for womens rights and abolitionist. **Jane Addams** - Co-founder of the ACLU, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and founder of social work as a profession in the USA **Marian Anderson** - Classical singer (contralto). First African American person to perform at the Metropolitan Opera. **Maya Angelou** - Prolific author, poet, dancer, actress, singer, director, and producer **Susan B. Anthony** - Abolitionist, leader of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, backer of the 19th Amendment **Clara Barton** - Founded the American Red Cross **Nellie Bly** - Undercover investigative journalist, circled the Earth in 72 days, industrialist and inventor **Mary Bowser** - Former slave turned anti-Confederate spy during the Civil War **Pearl S. Buck** - Author, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Spread knowledge of Asia and China to the US **Annie Jump Cannon** - Astronomer who developed the stellar classification system. **Rachel Carson** - Environmentalist, wrote Silent Spring **Mary Cassatt** - Painter, one of the original Impressionist painters **Willa Cather** - Author, won the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours. **Shirley Chisholm** - First African American woman elected to Congress, first major-party black candidate for President of the United States **Georgia Neese Clark** - Actress, Banker, First woman Treasurer of the United States **Jacqueline Cochran** - Aviator and racing pilot. Helped to form the Women’s Auxilliary Army Corps and Women Airforce Service Pilots. **Bessie Coleman** - First African-American woman pilot **Emily Dickinson** - One of American’s most reknowned poets **Gertrude Belle Elion** - Winner of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for research into AIDS and immunosuppressants **Ella Fitzgerald** - Jazz singer, winner of 14 Grammies **Dian Fossey** - Conservationist. Writer of Gorillas in the Mist. **Betty Friedan** - Initiated the second wave of 20th century feminism **Katharine Graham** - First woman CEO in the Fortune 500, Pulitzer Prize winner, head of the Washington Post during the Watergate scandal **Virginia Hall** - WWII spy for British and later with the American CIA. Recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross **Billie Holiday** - Pioneering jazz singer and songwriter. **Grace Murray Hopper** - Programmer. Inventor of COBOL and “debugging” **Zora Neale Hurston** - Author and influential libertarian, best known for her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. **Virginia E. Johnson** - Pioneer of the medical and scientific investigation of sex and sexual disfunction **Barbara Jordan** - First southern black female elected to the United States House of Representatives **Christine Jorgenson** - First popular voice for transgender issues **Hedy Lamarr** - Actress, inventor of frequency-hopping spread spectrum technology **Dorothea Lange** - Photojournalist and originator of documentary photography **Mary Lyon** - Teacher focused on STEM training for women. Founded Wheaton College and Mount Holyoke College. Provided education to the poor. **Wilma Mankiller** - First woman chief of the Cherokee Nation. Improved relations between the US Federal government and Cherokee. **Barbara McClintock** - Cytogeneticist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. **Patsy Mink** - First woman of color and the first Asian American woman elected to Congress, first Asian American to seek the presidential nomination **Lucretia Mott** - Pacifist, women’s rights activist, abolitionist, and writer of the Declaration of Sentiments **Madalyn Murray O’Hair** - Activist for atheism. Stopped Bible-reading in schools. **Flannery O’Connor** - Southern Gothic writer of Complete Stories, 1972 National Book Award for Fiction. **Annie Oakley** - Sharpshooter and entertainer from the Wild West. Promoted women in the military and womens self defense. **Dorothy Parker** - Editor for The New Yoker, poet and wit, nominee for the Academy Award for Screenplays. **Rosa Parks** - Activist, symbol of the Civil Rights Movement **Alice Paul** - Principal champion of the 19th Amendment **Frances Perkins** - Secretary of Labor, first woman appointed to the US Cabinet, executor of the New Deal **Florence Price** - First African American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer and have her music played by a major orchestra. **Marion Pritchard** - Worked with the Dutch underground movement against the Nazis, estimated to have saved 150 lives through her work **Jeannette Rankin** - First woman to hold Federal office, serving two terms in the House of Representatives **Eleanor Roosevelt** - Longest serving First Lady, first chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights **Deborah Sampson** - Served (in disguise) as part of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War **Margaret Sanger** - (More-or-less) founder of Planned Parenthood **Edna St. Vincent Millay** - Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and feminist. **Elizabeth Cady Stanton** - Initiated the first organized women’s rights and women’s suffrage movements in the United States **Harriet Beecher Stowe** - Author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Abolitionist. **Ida Tarbell** - Pioneer of investigative journalism, muckraker, wrote The History of the Standard Oil Company **Sojourner Truth** - Former slave, women’s rights speaker **Harriet Tubman** - Former slave, Union spy, abolitionist, and Underground Railroad operator **Elizabeth Van Lew** - Abolitionist. Founder and operator of an anti-Confederate spy ring during the Civil War **Mercy Otis Warren** - Writer and propagandist of the Revolutionary War. Compiled one of the first histories of the war. **Ida B. Wells** - Inventor (?) of data journalism, used data mining to demonstrate the financial causes of the lynching of African Americans **Edith Wharton** - Author of The Age of Innocence, first woman Pulitzer Prize winner **Frances Willard** - Campaigner for temperance and suffrage. Lead to the creation of the 18th and 19th amendments to the Constitution Next vote will be tallied EOD Wednesday the 17th! ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2018, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corrected-greatest-american-woman-elimination-game/805167/50 "2018-01-14T19:56:01Z")
**1** Rachel Carson – Maybe she was a little more an alarmist than a fair reporter, and I realize she didn’t live a long life, but I feel she isn’t as accomplished as the other women on the list. More accomplished than me, sure, but she’s up against some tough competition. **1** Willa Cather – Another I just don’t think is as outstanding as the others. **2** Harriet Beecher Stowe – I actually thought about voting her down even earlier. Being an abolitionist by itself is not a great achievement, and while \*Uncle Tom’s Cabin \*was a daring book to write, it actually isn’t very good, looked at strictly for its literary merits. **1** Annie Oakley – Again, I like all her opinions, and everything she did. I just don’t think she deserves the laurels. She was an expert shooter, and I’d certainly like to have her in a foxhole with me, but it’s a pretty narrow set of skills compared to some of the other women here. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corrected-greatest-american-woman-elimination-game/805167/51 "2018-01-17T18:21:56Z")
Unless we get more votes today, I’ll hold off on the tally and see if I can advertise the thread a bit more. Personal votes: Marian Anderson - 2 Hedy Lamarr - 1 Flannery O’Connor - 1 Mercy Otis Warren - 1 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corrected-greatest-american-woman-elimination-game/805167/52 "2018-01-17T18:50:16Z")
Good idea for a thread! Annie Jump Cannon (never heard of her before) - 2 Georgia Neese Clark (ditto) - 1 Wilma Mankiller (have heard of her, but she’s not in the same league as many other names on the list) - 1 ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corrected-greatest-american-woman-elimination-game/805167/53 "2018-01-17T19:29:59Z")
Annie Jump Cannon 2 Georgia Neese Clark 2 Wilma Mankiller 1 ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corrected-greatest-american-woman-elimination-game/805167/54 "2018-01-17T19:38:09Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Annie Jump Cannon (never heard of her before) - 2 There were a number of women, in the early 20th and late 19th century who worked as “computers” and “lab assistants” in various scientific endeavors, who may have done the bulk of the work up to and including coming up with a lot of the big ideas. I don’t know that Ms. Cannon is the best representative of these lost great scientists that failed to get the recognition that they deserved in their own time, but she does seem to be the only one on the list. (Maybe most of the others are European?) > **[Harvard Computers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Computers)** > > The Harvard Computers were a team of women working as skilled workers to process astronomical data at the Harvard College Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The team was directed by Edward Charles Pickering (1877 to 1919) and, following his death in 1919, by Annie Jump Cannon. > The women were challenged to make sense of these patterns by devising a scheme for sorting the stars into categories. Annie Jump Cannon's success at this activity made her famous in her own lifetime, a... ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corrected-greatest-american-woman-elimination-game/805167/55 "2018-01-17T20:24:35Z")
As in _Hidden Figures_ - got it. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corrected-greatest-american-woman-elimination-game/805167/56 "2018-01-18T03:31:01Z")
I don’t care for “first x to do something lots of white men did”, either. So I’ll vote for: Jeanette Rankin Florence Price Patsy Mink Barbara Jordan Shirley Chisholm Bessie Coleman Hmm, that’s six. I’ll spare Price, on the theory that even though I’ve never heard of her, her music must have been pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corrected-greatest-american-woman-elimination-game/805167/57 "2018-01-18T03:33:00Z")
I’m sad Georgia O’Keefe was eliminated. I rather likes her art, and feel like she did things that no one has done before. I also have the sense that some of the more influential women got axed first, because posters had heard of them. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corrected-greatest-american-woman-elimination-game/805167/58 "2018-01-18T12:35:59Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Good idea for a thread! > > Annie Jump Cannon (never heard of her before) - 2 > Georgia Neese Clark (ditto) - 1 > Wilma Mankiller (have heard of her, but she’s not in the same league as many other names on the list) - 1 You only voted 4 points worth. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corrected-greatest-american-woman-elimination-game/805167/59 "2018-01-18T12:42:43Z")
The author that “caused” the Civil War has fallen! I think with one or two more votes, we’ll start getting into the big leagues. Bolded names are eliminated. **Annie Jump Cannon - 4 Georgia Neese Clark - 3 Marian Anderson - 2 Wilma Mankiller - 2 Harriet Beecher Stowe - 2** Rachel Carson - 1 Willa Cather - 1 Shirley Chisholm - 1 Bessie Coleman - 1 Barbara Jordan - 1 Hedy Lamarr - 1 Patsy Mink - 1 Flannery O’Connor - 1 Annie Oakley - 1 Jeanette Rankin - 1 Mercy Otis Warren - 1 Total: 24 points. 12 to remove. Updated list: **Bella Abzug** - U.S. Representative and a leader of the Women’s Movement. Founded the National Women’s Political Caucus **Abigail Adams** - Wife and advisor of the second President. Advocate for womens rights and abolitionist. **Jane Addams** - Co-founder of the ACLU, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and founder of social work as a profession in the USA **Maya Angelou** - Prolific author, poet, dancer, actress, singer, director, and producer **Susan B. Anthony** - Abolitionist, leader of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, backer of the 19th Amendment **Clara Barton** - Founded the American Red Cross **Nellie Bly** - Undercover investigative journalist, circled the Earth in 72 days, industrialist and inventor **Mary Bowser** - Former slave turned anti-Confederate spy during the Civil War **Pearl S. Buck** - Author, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Spread knowledge of Asia and China to the US **Rachel Carson** - Environmentalist, wrote Silent Spring **Mary Cassatt** - Painter, one of the original Impressionist painters **Willa Cather** - Author, won the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours. **Shirley Chisholm** - First African American woman elected to Congress, first major-party black candidate for President of the United States **Jacqueline Cochran** - Aviator and racing pilot. Helped to form the Women’s Auxilliary Army Corps and Women Airforce Service Pilots. **Bessie Coleman** - First African-American woman pilot **Emily Dickinson** - One of American’s most reknowned poets **Gertrude Belle Elion** - Winner of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for research into AIDS and immunosuppressants **Ella Fitzgerald** - Jazz singer, winner of 14 Grammies **Dian Fossey** - Conservationist. Writer of Gorillas in the Mist. **Betty Friedan** - Initiated the second wave of 20th century feminism **Katharine Graham** - First woman CEO in the Fortune 500, Pulitzer Prize winner, head of the Washington Post during the Watergate scandal **Virginia Hall** - WWII spy for British and later with the American CIA. Recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross **Billie Holiday** - Pioneering jazz singer and songwriter. **Grace Murray Hopper** - Programmer. Inventor of COBOL and “debugging” **Zora Neale Hurston** - Author and influential libertarian, best known for her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. **Virginia E. Johnson** - Pioneer of the medical and scientific investigation of sex and sexual disfunction **Barbara Jordan** - First southern black female elected to the United States House of Representatives **Christine Jorgenson** - First popular voice for transgender issues **Hedy Lamarr** - Actress, inventor of frequency-hopping spread spectrum technology **Dorothea Lange** - Photojournalist and originator of documentary photography **Mary Lyon** - Teacher focused on STEM training for women. Founded Wheaton College and Mount Holyoke College. Provided education to the poor. **Barbara McClintock** - Cytogeneticist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. **Patsy Mink** - First woman of color and the first Asian American woman elected to Congress, first Asian American to seek the presidential nomination **Lucretia Mott** - Pacifist, women’s rights activist, abolitionist, and writer of the Declaration of Sentiments **Madalyn Murray O’Hair** - Activist for atheism. Stopped Bible-reading in schools. **Flannery O’Connor** - Southern Gothic writer of Complete Stories, 1972 National Book Award for Fiction. **Annie Oakley** - Sharpshooter and entertainer from the Wild West. Promoted women in the military and womens self defense. **Dorothy Parker** - Editor for The New Yoker, poet and wit, nominee for the Academy Award for Screenplays. **Rosa Parks** - Activist, symbol of the Civil Rights Movement **Alice Paul** - Principal champion of the 19th Amendment **Frances Perkins** - Secretary of Labor, first woman appointed to the US Cabinet, executor of the New Deal **Florence Price** - First African American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer and have her music played by a major orchestra. **Marion Pritchard** - Worked with the Dutch underground movement against the Nazis, estimated to have saved 150 lives through her work **Jeannette Rankin** - First woman to hold Federal office, serving two terms in the House of Representatives **Eleanor Roosevelt** - Longest serving First Lady, first chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights **Deborah Sampson** - Served (in disguise) as part of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War **Margaret Sanger** - (More-or-less) founder of Planned Parenthood **Edna St. Vincent Millay** - Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and feminist. **Elizabeth Cady Stanton** - Initiated the first organized women’s rights and women’s suffrage movements in the United States **Ida Tarbell** - Pioneer of investigative journalism, muckraker, wrote The History of the Standard Oil Company **Sojourner Truth** - Former slave, women’s rights speaker **Harriet Tubman** - Former slave, Union spy, abolitionist, and Underground Railroad operator **Elizabeth Van Lew** - Abolitionist. Founder and operator of an anti-Confederate spy ring during the Civil War **Mercy Otis Warren** - Writer and propagandist of the Revolutionary War. Compiled one of the first histories of the war. **Ida B. Wells** - Inventor (?) of data journalism, used data mining to demonstrate the financial causes of the lynching of African Americans **Edith Wharton** - Author of The Age of Innocence, first woman Pulitzer Prize winner **Frances Willard** - Campaigner for temperance and suffrage. Lead to the creation of the 18th and 19th amendments to the Constitution Next vote will be tallied EOD Sunday the 21st! ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corrected-greatest-american-woman-elimination-game/805167/60 "2018-01-18T16:17:22Z")
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