If the 1970s were a mixtape, these women would be the power ballads, the anthems, the songs you crank up.
They didn’t “fit in,” but stood up loudly and proudly, and made it count. This is your front-row pass to 15 legends who rewrote the rules. You may know a few names, but you’ll feel like you’ve personally met them by the end.
Betty Ford
Betty Ford walked into the White House and said, “Let’s be honest.” She talked openly about breast cancer and opened up about addiction.
In doing so, she cracked open the shame women carried for decades. She wasn’t just First Lady; she was the first to say out loud what no one else would. What came after? The Betty Ford Center and a legacy of healing truth.
Bella Abzug
She ran for office in the ’70s and made Congress look louder. Bella Abzug brought grit, brains, and that signature wide-brimmed hat. She fought for civil rights, LGBTQ+ rights, women’s equality, and peace (all before brunch).
Bella wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and thank goodness for that. She didn’t aim to blend in, but to be heard.
Dolores Huerta
If you’ve heard “Sí, se puede,” that’s Dolores Huerta. It’s not only a chant, but a call to action. While others rallied, she organized. Farmworkers weren’t invisible to her; they were family.
She fought for fair pay, safe work, and respect, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with César Chávez. Dolores refused to stay in anyone’s shadow — she cast her own.
Jane Roe, aka Norma McCorvey
Jane Roe wasn’t a movement leader. She was a young, struggling woman who became a legal landmark.
The Roe v. Wade decision changed reproductive rights in America, and Norma McCorvey’s name was etched into history, even if the woman behind it stayed in the shadows.
She became the voice for millions who needed legal protection, even if she never got peace herself.
Carol Burnett
She pulled her ear at the end of every show — a little nod to her grandma, and a big wink to those watching. Long before women were supposed to be funny, Carol Burnett stepped onstage.
She didn’t just make people laugh—she made them see women differently. With a mop bucket or a ball gown, Carol showed that humor could be heartfelt and smart.
Barbara Jordan
Barbara Jordan didn’t speak often, but the whole room stopped when she did. Her 1974 Watergate speech was precise, principled, and impossible to ignore.
The first Black woman from the South elected to Congress brought dignity to politics and clarity to chaos. Barbara didn’t need to shout; her words carried weight because her integrity spoke volumes.
Billie Jean King
She didn’t swing a racket; she swung a wrecking ball through sexism in sports. Billie Jean King fought for equal pay, LGBTQ+ rights, and female athletes before it was a hashtag.
She founded the Women’s Tennis Association, faced off with a man on live TV, and beat him. She proved women could compete, win, and draw a crowd doing it.
Gloria Steinem
Before podcasts, blogs, or hashtags, there was Ms. magazine—and behind it, Gloria Steinem, journalist, organizer, and icon (with better hair than most).
She gave feminism a voice people couldn’t ignore and a face people couldn’t forget. But Gloria wasn’t just style — she was strategy. Her activism didn’t stop at speeches. It led to real policy, real change, and conversations people still have.
Shirley Chisholm
“Unbought and unbossed” was Shirley Chisholm’s whole being. In 1972, she ran for President; a Black woman in America. She didn’t run to win, but to prove she could. It was to show others they could, too.
Her campaign was gritty and gutsy. She shattered expectations like glass and made room for every woman who ever dared to dream big.
Katharine Graham
Katharine Graham didn’t grow up dreaming of running a newspaper — but when duty called, she picked up the phone and the pen. As publisher of The Washington Post, she greenlit the Pentagon Papers and took on Watergate.
She reported the truth and defended it, even when it upset the White House. In a world of men with power, she became the woman who printed it.
Karen DeCrow
When Karen DeCrow took over at the National Organization for Women in the mid-70s, she gave feminist ideals legal teeth. She fought for girls to play Little League, for men to have parental rights, and for women to earn more than “just enough.”
She also had the receipts (and lawsuits) to back it up. She was serious about fixing a system built to exclude.
Robin Morgan
Robin Morgan made rage eloquent. A poet, a protestor, and a publisher, she edited Sisterhood Is Powerful, the feminist anthology on every 1970s bookshelf.
Robin didn’t stop at words; she founded Ms. with Gloria Steinem, launched the Women’s Media Center, and called out sexism wherever it hid. She reminded women everywhere that their voices aren’t too loud; the room is just not used to hearing them.
Barbara Walters
Barbara Walters remodeled the news desk. She was the first female co-anchor of a network evening news show and the highest-paid one (at that). She walked into rooms where women weren’t welcome and made herself essential.
Interviews with everyone from Gaddafi to Gaga? Classic Walters. Smart questions, soft voice, steel spine. She made space for women in media, and then filled it like a pro.
Dorothy Height
You might not see her in the front-row photos of the 1960s marches, but Dorothy Height was always there — organizing, advising, pushing civil rights forward one meeting, one policy, one conversation at a time.
She worked with MLK, Eleanor Roosevelt, and seven U.S. presidents. Dorothy didn’t care for credit; she cared about change and made it happen.
Sally Ride
When NASA asked who wanted to go to space, Sally Ride raised her hand. She wasn’t there to be a symbol. She was there to work; to calculate, train, and launch.
She was the first American woman in space, had a Ph.D. in Physics, and trailblazed a path for women in STEM. Later, she founded Sally Ride Science, giving girls the tools to explore beyond boundaries.
