Belatedly, I have pulled out (nearly) all of the women who were proposed for greatness in this thread. (Technically, the were proposed for the $20 bill, but I feel like that’s a close enough comparison.)
The format is similar to the former Greatest Military Leader thread that was run some years ago. My hope is that people will learn a bit more about each of these women, so I would hope that you will write some defense or prosecution as you feel fit, from your knowledge or as you learn about them.
Each player has 5 votes per round. They can assign up to 2 points per person that they want to eliminate. I will tally votes every three days at Midnight PST. Any person who receives 5 or more votes will be eliminated.
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
Louisa May Alcott - Writer of Little Women
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
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
Cornelia Clapp - Pre-eminent zoologist of the late 19th century.
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
Amelia Earhart - Aviator. First woman pilot to cross the Atlantic solo
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
Martha Graham - Modern dancer and choreographer. Created the Graham technique for dance. Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction
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
Helen Keller - Deaf-blind woman turned author and campaigner for women’s suffrage, labor rights, socialism, and pacificism.
Dorothy 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.
Carrie Nation - Radical member of the temperance movement. Fan of hatchets.
Georgia O’Keeffe - Artist, “Mother of American Modernism”. Most expensive painting by a woman in the world.
Annie Oakley - Sharpshooter and entertainer from the Wild West. Promoted women in the military and womens self defense.
Rosa Parks - Activist, symbol of the Civil Rights Movement
Alice Paul - Principal champion of the 19th Amendment
Florence Price - First African American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer and have her music played by a major orchestra.
Ayn Rand - Author, founder of Objectivism
Sally Ride - Physicist and astronaut. First American woman in space.
Eleanor Roosevelt - Longest serving First Lady, first chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights
Betsy Ross - Creator of the American flag
Deborah Sampson - Served (in disguise) as part of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War
Margaret Sanger - (More-or-less) founder of Planned Parenthood
Susan Sontag - Essayist, writer and filmmaker, teacher and political activist
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.
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.
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
Edith Wilson - Functional Executive of the United States 1919-21
Note: I removed from the original thread anyone who was still alive or was fictional. I also removed all of the artists (actors, musicians, etc.) who did not seem to have some verifiable first, started a school of thought, holds a set of awards, or otherwise has a claim to greatness. Since there is a yearly Oscar for the Best Actress, I discluded the Oscar Awards. I may have overcropped, but I didn’t want half the list to be 50s Starlets. I also removed some women who had similar accomplishments as one another, in favor of the one who seemed more impressive. If there is someone who you truly honestly think should have been in here, please let me know before the first round of voting finishes.
First tally will be EOD Friday.
I had figured the previous thread would have been reasonably complete.