Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 25, 1994 TAG: 9409270137
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SENECA FALLS, N.Y. LENGTH: Medium
``I was running not because I happened to be a woman but because I was a woman,'' said the feminist icon, one of 25 women inducted Saturday into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
Someday women will be honored for their efforts and won't need such awards, she said.
``We won't have to have a Hall of Fame. Every woman's mirror in the home will be the Hall of Fame,'' she said.
Abzug served two terms as a congresswoman from New York, helped found the National Women's Political Caucus and ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 1976. At 74, she now heads a nonprofit group dedicated to women's issues, the Women USA Fund.
Seven of the nine living inductees attended the ceremony. Talk show host Oprah Winfrey and Olympic champion Wilma Rudolph did not attend. Winfrey had a scheduling conflict and Rudolph, the first American woman and first black to win three Olympic gold medals in track and field, is seriously ill with cancer.
``I feel humbled and honored to be inducted ... with such a distinguished group,'' Winfrey said in a statement read at the ceremony.
Attending were Geraldine Ferraro, former congresswoman and 1984 vice presidential candidate; Dr. Antonia Novello, first woman and first Hispanic named U.S. Surgeon General; philanthropist Helen Hunt; Catherine East, a career federal employee who helped push the Equal Rights Amendment through Congress in 1972; Muriel Siebert, who in 1967 became the first woman to hold a seat on the New York Stock Exchange; and the Rev. Betty Bone Schiess, one of the first women to be ordained as an Episcopal priest in America in 1974.
And the inductees are . . .
Bella Abzug, congresswoman
Ella Baker, civil rights leader
Myra Bradwell, women's advocate in the legal profession
Annie Jump Cannon, astronomer who developed stellar classification system
Jane Cunningham Croly, journalist and founder of women's groups
Catherine East, a career federal employee who helped push the Equal Rights Amendment through Congress in 1972
Geraldine Ferraro, congresswoman and 1984 vice presidential candidate
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, women's rights movement reformer, author and theoretician
Grace Hopper, admiral, computer science pioneer and inventor who died in 1992
Helen Hunt, philanthropist
Zora Neale Hurston, 20th-century novelist, folklorist, anthropologist and preserver of black folk customs and history
Annie Hutchinson, 17th-century advocate of free speech and freedom of religion
Frances Wisebart Jacobs, welfare worker and charity group organizer whose work led to the creation of United Way
Suzette La Flesche, Native American rights champion, artist and author
Louise McManus, nursing leader who established nursing training in colleges
Maria Mitchell, first female professional astronomer in America
Dr. Antonia Novello, first woman and first Hispanic American named U.S. Surgeon General
Linda Richards, first professionally trained American nurse
Wilma Rudolph, first American woman and first black woman to win three Olympic gold medals in track and field
The Rev. Betty Bone Schiess, one of the first women to be ordained as an Episcopal priest in America in 1974
Muriel Siebert, first woman to hold a seat on the New York Stock Exchange
Nettie Stevens, biologist, theoretical scientist and educator
Sarah Winnemucca, Native American rights leader, reformer, author and educator
Oprah Winfrey, talk show host
Fanny Wright, human rights reformer and author
by CNB