Michelle Obama joins former first ladies Eleanor Roosevelt, Abigail Adams, Betty Ford, Eleanor Rosalynn Smith Carter, and Hillary Clinton as members of the National Women’s Hall of Fame.  Joining Obama this year will be two other Americans of African descent, the late NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson and the late author Octavia Butler.

"Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most influential and iconic women of the 21st century," the National Women's Hall of Fame said in a statement. "The National Women's Hall of Fame will celebrate the inclusion of these extraordinary women into the Hall at the biennial in-person induction ceremony on Saturday, October 2, 2021."

Six other women, including former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, legendary women’s soccer player Mia Hamm, career servicemember Rebecca Halstead, poet Joy Harjo, and artist Judy Chicago will join them. The Hall of Fame will also include Emily Howland, famed for teaching freed slaves how to read and write at refugee camps set up during the Civil War. Howland died in 1929.

The National Women’s Hall of Fame, in Seneca Falls, New York, says it is the United States' oldest membership organization dedicated to honoring and celebrating the achievements of distinguished American women.

Note: On December 10, 2020 the National Women’s Hall of Fame (NWHF) hosted its first Virtual Induction Series. A lack of nominations of Black women and other women of color promoted the virtual series. See National Women Hall of Fame Inducts Six Black Women Plus Produced Downloadable Materials.