Nine women, including Michelle Obama, inducted into Hall of Fame

NEW YORK (WHAM) – From a 19th century equal activist to a former first lady, the nine women recently inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame have all left their mark on history.

One of the women inducted was Rebecca Halstead, the first woman in U.S. military history to command combat at a strategic level. For her, the Hall connects generations of women to what’s possible.

“Young girls can come through here and they can see all the different walks of life, and they are going to connect maybe to arts or sports and then they are going to see how that path connected us all,” Halstead said.

After the ceremony, there are now 312 women in the Hall of Fame.

Another woman who received the honor was former first lady Michelle Obama. In a recorded acceptance speech, she credited the community around her for making all she has accomplished attainable.

“From a very young age these women taught me that I matter,” Obama said. “That I was never just a little girl or a child. I was always someone special in my own right. Someone with a big heart and a big brain. Someone who had value, someone limited only by her own imagination for herself.”

The former secretary of state Hillary Clinton was one woman who presented during the ceremony. In her speech, Clinton reflected on the current struggles women face, and all that needs to be done.

“It saddens and yes angers me that my granddaughter Charlotte may grow up in a world where she may have fewer rights than my daughter Chelsea, but that also motivates me to keep going, fighting, speaking out, and standing up,” Clinton said. “And I know I am in good company, not only with the inductees but with all of you.”