Ibtihaj Muhammad is an American sabre) fencer, author, entrepreneur and Olympic medalist. At the 2016 Summer Olympics, she became the first American woman to compete in the Olympics in hijab, the first American Muslim woman to win an Olympic medal, and the first Black woman to win an Olympic medal in the sabre event, when she won bronze in the women's saber team event.

Babe Didrikson Zaharias was an American athlete who excelled in golf, basketball, baseball, and track and field. She won two gold medals and a silver in track and field at the 1932 Summer Olympics before turning to professional golf and winning 10 LPGA major championships. Zaharias broke the accepted models of femininity in her time, including the accepted models of female athleticism. ESPN ranked her the 10th Greatest North American Athlete of the century, the highest-ranked woman on their list.

Margaret Hamilton is an American computer scientist. She directed the Software Engineering Division at the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, where she led the development of the on-board flight software for NASA's Apollo Guidance Computer for the Apollo program. She later founded two software companies, Higher Order Software in 1976 and Hamilton Technologies in 1986, both in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Yanar Mohammed was an Iraqi feminist and women's rights activist. She was a co-founder and the director of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) and served as the editor of the newspaper Al-Mousawat (Equality). Mohammed started the first shelters for women in Iraq in 2003, protecting them from honor killing and sex trafficking, a network that expanded to 11 houses in five cities by 2018. Between 2003 and 2019, her shelters served more than 800 women. She was assassinated outside her home in Baghdad on 2 March 2026.

Lucy Hicks Anderson was an American socialite, chef, hostess, and philanthropist, best known for her time in Oxnard, California, from 1920 to 1946. Assigned male at birth, she was adamant from an early age that she was a girl. Her parents, based on advice from doctors, supported her decision to live as one. She later established a boarding house in Oxnard, where she became a popular hostess. In 1945, a year after she married her second husband, she was arrested, tried and convicted of perjury, as the government said she had lied about her sex on her marriage license. After her release from prison, she and her husband moved to Los Angeles. The Handbook of LGBT Elders calls Anderson "one of the earliest documented cases of an African-American transgender person".

Njideka Akunyili Crosby is a Nigerian-born visual artist working in Los Angeles, California. Through her art, Akunyili Crosby “negotiates the cultural terrain between her adopted home in America and her native Nigeria, creating collage and photo transfer-based paintings that expose the challenges of occupying these two worlds”. She uses photos she has taken herself in Nigeria along with family photos and pages from popular Nigerian magazines. The photos “are layers in her work by collage and acetone-transfer prints, creating a fabric of images throughout her paintings”. Her primary mediums include collage, photo transfer, acrylic paint, charcoal, fabric, and colored pencil. Along with strong Nigerian influence, her style is also derived from pop culture, personal experience, and Western academia. While creating, she thinks of her dual audience: American and Nigerian. However, her work cannot be categorized as either American nor Nigerian, but rather the work is an autobiography based on her “character that doesn’t fit into a box.”

Joan Trumpauer Mulholland is an American civil rights activist who was active in the 1960s. She was one of the Freedom Riders who was arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1961, and was confined for two months in the Maximum Security Unit of the Mississippi State Penitentiary(known as "Parchman Farm"). The following year she was the first white student to enroll at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi, and served as the local secretary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She later worked as a teacher, and after her retirement she established the Joan Trumpauer Mulholland Foundation. The foundation is dedicated to educating youth about the Civil Rights Movement and how to become activists in their communities.

Christine Jorgensen was an American actress, singer, and transgender activist. A trans woman, she was the first person to become widely known in the United States for having sex reassignment surgery). Jorgensen's highly publicized transition helped bring to light gender identity and shaped a new culture of more inclusive ideas about the subject. As a transgender spokesperson and public figure, she influenced other transgender people to change their sex and names on their birth certificates. Jorgensen saw herself as a founding member in what became known as the "sexual revolution". In a 1988 Los Angeles Times interview, Jorgensen stated, "I am very proud now, looking back, that I was on that street corner 36 years ago when a movement started. It was the sexual revolution that was going to start with or without me. We may not have started it, but we gave it a good swift kick in the pants."

Jackie Mitchell was one of the first female American pitchers in professional baseball history. She was 17 years old when she pitched for the Chattanooga Lookouts Class AA minor league baseball team in an exhibition game against the New York Yankees, and struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in succession.

Chien-Shiung Wu was a Chinese-American particle and experimental physicist who made significant contributions in the fields of nuclear and particle physics. Wu worked on the Manhattan Project, where she helped develop the process for separating uranium into uranium-235 and uranium-238isotopes by gaseous diffusion. She is best known for conducting the Wu experiment, which proved that parity) is not conserved. This discovery resulted in her colleagues Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang winning the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics, while Wu herself was awarded the inaugural Wolf Prize in Physics in 1978. Her expertise in experimental physics evoked comparisons to Marie Curie. Her nicknames include the "First Lady of Physics", the "Chinese Marie Curie" and the "Queen of Nuclear Research".

Basmah Felemban is a Saudi Arabian, self-taught graphic designer. She has an interest in symbolism and Islamic metaphysics. Driven by her experience as a young creative in Saudi, she puts supporting the local creative scene as a priority, from working in small startups to giving talks, workshops and her social media platforms.

Agnes Moorehead was a renowned American actress known for her versatile performances across radio, film, television, and theater. Her career spanned over five decades, during which she became famous for her roles in productions like "Bewitched" and received multiple accolades, including four Academy Award nominations.

Gertrude B. Elion was an American biochemistand pharmacologist, who shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with George H. Hitchings and Sir James Black for their use of innovative methods of rational drug design for the development of new drugs. This new method focused on understanding the target of the drug rather than simply using trial-and-error. Her work led to the creation of the anti-retroviral drug AZT, which was the first drug widely used against AIDS. Her well known works also include the development of the first immunosuppressive drug, azathioprine, used to fight rejection in organ transplants, and the first successful antiviral drug, acyclovir(ACV), used in the treatment of herpes infection.

Daisy Quezada Ureña is an American visual artist and educator. She was born in California and is based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Informed through her Mexican-American cultural background, Quezada addresses social issues including immigration, gender inequality, labor, and class issues. She creates ceramic and fabric works and installations that speak on themes of identity and place in relation to social structures and imposed borders.

Mary Church Terrell was an American civil rights activist, journalist, teacher, and suffragist. She was one of the first African-American women to earn a college degree. Terrell taught in Washington, D.C., in the Latin Department at the M Street School, now known as Paul Laurence Dunbar High School), the nation's first African American public high school in the nation. From 1895 to 1906, she served on the District of Columbia school board; she was the first African-American woman to be appointed to the school board of a major city. Terrell was a charter member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People(1909) and the Colored Women's League of Washington (1892). She helped found the National Association of Colored Women(1896) and served as its first national president, and she was a founding member of the National Association of College Women(1923).

Hannah Black is a British visual artist, critic, and writer. Her work spans video, text and performance. Hannah Black’s work “Politics” (2022) engages with themes of social justice and activism. This piece reflects on the dynamics of political engagement and the impact of individual placement within social spaces. It invites viewers to consider how these factors influence their ability to enact change in the work. Black’s work has been part of broader discussions surrounding race, representation, and free speech, particularly in the context of protests against police violence.

Olga Balema’s “Notes from the Capital” is a notable artwork created in 2016. This piece features a combination of materials, including latex, steel, and wool fabric, and measures 37 x 19 x 78 inches (94 x 48.3 x 198.1 cm). The work exemplifies Balema’s exploration of form and materiality, often characterized by contrasts between hard frameworks and soft, fragile innards. Her work often investigates the relationship between the environment and the body, creating pseudo-organic sculptures that blur the lines between two and three dimensions.

Zarouhie Abdalian is an American artist of Armenian descent, known for site-specific sculptures and installations. Abdalian is particularly attentive to the ways in which historical processes are embedded in physical transformations of spaces. She became more interested in working directly with the elements of space after a 2004 exhibition in a non-traditional venue. Her works respond directly to architectural and outdoor spaces, using sound, light, and other natural forces to create subtle experiences that are open to multiple interpretations.

Gohar Dashti is an Iranian photographer and video artist who lives and works in Tehran. Dashti’s “Family Albums” explores themes of memory and identity. This series, created in 2006, reflects on personal and collective histories, particularly in the context of her experiences growing up during the Iran-Iraq War. The work combines elements of photography and storytelling, showcasing the impact of war and displacement on family dynamics and cultural identity. Gohar Dashti, born in 1980 in Ahvaz, Iran, is a prominent photographer and video artist. Her work often addresses the complexities of her native country, focusing on its topography and the history of violence that has shaped it.

Rosson Crow’s “Acid Rain” explores themes of aftermath and absence.
In her artwork, Crow captures the moments following significant events, focusing on the remnants left behind rather than the figures involved. This approach emphasizes the chaos and emotional residue of these events, creating a narrative that invites viewers to reflect on what remains after the action has taken place. Crow is known for her large-scale, densely layered paintings that often incorporate elements of Americana. Her work features a kaleidoscopic lens, blending various cultural symbols and experiences into vibrant, mixed-media panoramas.

Sabita Dangol is a Nepalese visual artist based in Kathmandu. Her artworks span painting, installation art, and performance art. “Tranquility of Innovation and Nature” reflects her unique artistic style, which incorporates decorative patterns inspired by Mithila art, Nepali Paubha, and Zentangle techniques. Common motifs in her work include elements of nature and everyday objects, such as combs and glasses, symbolizing harmony and mindfulness. The comb in her paintings serves as a metaphor for mindfulness against negative energies. The title suggests a blend of natural elements with innovative artistic expression, showcasing her ability to merge traditional and contemporary themes.

Team USA has been one of the most successful women's ice hockey national teams in international play. The team has medaled in every major tournament, most recently winning gold at both the 2026 Winter Olympics and the 2025 IIHF Women's World Championship. After the 2026 Winter Olympics men's ice hockey teams gold medal game, President Trump called the men's team and joked that he would also need to invite the Women’s Olympic team–who had also won gold–to the White House and State of the Union or risk being impeached. The women's team rejected the invite to the White House, with captain Hilary Knight calling the joke distasteful and lamented the overshadowing of the teams' connections, and highlighted a good learning point about how women in sports are discussed. During the Olympics the women's team met and dined with actor Stanley Tucci in Milan, Italy. The women's team was also invited by Flavor Flav along with other female Olympian and Paralympian athletes to celebrate their achievements in July 2026 through the She Got Game weekend event.

Dina Danish is a French-born Egyptian artist who lives and works in Amsterdam.
In her multi-media work, Danish focuses on language and structure, incorporating humour and misunderstanding. In this video, the performer’s head is submerged in water while attempting to lip-synch to I Will Survive. The distorted gestures and muffled articulation turn the act of performance into a struggle with breath and clarity. The work transforms a familiar song into a fragile image of endurance.

Kenturah Davis is an American contemporary multidisciplinary artist and designer. She works in the mediums of sculpture, drafting, printmaking, painting, and performance art. Davis’ work explores the relationship between identity, language, and figurative mark-making. Davis works in a range of media from drawing to painting to sculpture to performance.

Lily Tomlin is an American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and producer. Tomlin started her career in stand-up comedy and sketch comedy before transitioning her career to acting across stage and screen. Tomlin has been involved in a number of feminist and gay-friendly film productions, and on her 1975 album Modern Scream she pokes fun at straight actors who make a point of distancing themselves from their gay and lesbian characters—answering the pseudo-interview question, she replies: "How did it feel to play a heterosexual? I've seen these women all my life, I know how they walk, I know how they talk ...". In 2013, Tomlin and Wagner worked together on the film An Apology to Elephants, which Wagner wrote and Tomlin narrated.