Hattie Caraway, from Jonesboro, was the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate in 1932; Dorothy Shaver, from Centerpoint, served as head of Lord & Taylor from 1945-1959; Sister Rosetta Tharpe, from Cotton Plant, made music that influenced Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan; Barbara Hendricks, from Stephens, is an African American opera singer who has performed with major opera companies in the U.S. and across Europe. She’s currently a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The list of prominent, successful women from Arkansas is long, and impressive. Ask Lynnette Watts about them and she will happily share these stories and many more with you.*
“So many women have gone before us and blazed trails, and the average person on the street in Arkansas doesn’t know about them,” says Watts. “I think it would be inspiring for the person on the street to know these things, as well as for the young women coming up and looking for role models, or who it is they want to be.”
Many know Watts as the executive director of the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas (WFA), a post she’s held since 2009. Before that, the Memphis native worked for a handful of institutions and nonprofits in Little Rock, including a stint as development director at Mount St. Mary Academy, founded by Catherine McAuley’s Sisters of Mercy.
“Her whole thing, from the very beginning when she founded the Sisters of Mercy, is that no greater good could be done for society than to educate its women,” Watts says. “I just really believed that — women should be educated to the point that they can make intelligent decisions for themselves and their families.”
So when the WFA executive director position opened up, Watts felt compelled to apply, then accept the job.
“This gave me the opportunity to use my voice to speak for women and to advance the notion that having educated women would be a way to solve a lot of the problems that face Arkansas today,” she says.
In addition to her duties at the WFA, Watts has signed on as a board member for the Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame (HOF), which will be a mobile, interactive exhibit that tells the incredible stories of Arkansas women who have made a significant impact in the state and nation. This year is the HOF’s inaugural; the first class of inductees will be announced this month and honored at a dinner and ceremony Thursday, August 27, at the Statehouse Convention Center.
A joint project of Arkansas Business Publishing Group and the North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce, the Women’s Hall of Fame has been in its incubation stage for several years, ever since the idea was a mere flicker in the mind of Terry Hartwick, president and CEO of the North Little Rock Chamber.
Hartwick noticed that of the 68 inductees to the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame, only three have been women: Johnelle Hunt in 2001, along with her husband, Thelma Joshua in 2007, along with her husband, and Millie Ward in 2015.
“Then, I thought about my mom,” he says. “My dad died real young. She won’t be in the hall of fame, but she got up every day, cooked breakfast, got the kids to school, went to work, picked the kids up, made dinner, did homework, put them to bed and did it all over again the next day. It just hit me: Why don’t we have a women’s hall of fame to celebrate all women and what they’ve done, and what they’ve contributed to our state and nation?”
He was further inspired when former Mexican First Lady Margarita Zavala visited North Little Rock. Gesturing to one of his office chairs, Hartwick said, “She sat right there in that chair and looked at me and said, ‘What’s right for the women is what’s right for the men, and what’s good for the women is good for the men.’” He continues, “All women should be celebrated. We should be paid the same, we should have the same rights. Why should we not have an Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame?”
Hartwick discussed the idea with respected women like Watts, Margaret Ellibee, Jo Blatti and others, then reached out to Arkansas Business Publishing Group for more help.
“I knew I needed a statewide publication that was very well thought of to help me get this off the ground,” he says. “I’m getting to the age where I might be [at the Chamber] another year or two, but Arkansas Business can perpetuate this for years to come, and it will be in safe hands.”
Mitch Bettis, president of Arkansas Business Publishing Group, says partnering with the chamber to create the Women’s Hall of Fame aligns with the company’s history of recognizing contributions women have made across the state.
“Twenty years ago, Arkansas Business started publishing a magazine honoring the top 100 women in Arkansas as a way to call attention to the accomplishments of women in our state,” he says. “That effort led our CEO Olivia Farrell and Pat Lile to lead the charge to establish the Arkansas Women’s Foundation. For decades our company has tried to highlight the achievements of women in all fields of work, so being a key partner to produce the Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame was something that just fits our DNA.”
A Movable Tribute
Nominations for the Women’s Hall of Fame ended last month and are currently being vetted by an independent committee. Inductees will be announced this month and will consist of both living and deceased Arkansas women. But the number of inaugural inductees won’t be set.
“We believe right now that our most important thing is that we induct a really excellent class the first time,” says HOF board chair Nan Snow. “Recognition is so overdue. Think about how many years we have to make up.”
The women will come from all careers and lifetimes, “because we think it’s important to highlight the whole range of activities that women have been involved in,” Snow says. She references female athletes and women involved in the arts as examples of the types of women that might be inducted.
As a mobile, interactive piece, the exhibit will set itself apart from some other hall of fame exhibits in the state. Hartwick envisions a serpentine-shaped exhibit, equipped with televisions and/or iPads that will tell the stories of inductees.
“I don’t want just pictures on a wall,” he says. “If you’re at Centennial Bank [the event’s presenting sponsor], or at Crystal Bridges, or at Power of the Purse and the display is there, you can actually go interact with it and understand why these women were nominated and what their causes were.”
The exhibit will be unveiled at the August 27 dinner, then Watts says the WFA will host it at the Power of the Purse luncheon in September. It will be on display in November when the Southeast Women’s History Association is in town, and after that it will travel the state until the board finds it a permanent home. Even then Watts says the exhibit will continue to travel Arkansas.
Hartwick believes wherever it goes, the exhibit will serve as an economic engine. A person in his role (he’s also a former mayor of North Little Rock) can’t help but think of the potential dollars a project like this could bring to the state.
“People hear about it and want to see it. They come to town, they view it, they eat, they buy gas, they do other things,” he says. “I see it being an economic engine, but that’s not why I did it. We’re doing this because it’s the right thing.”
Inspiring the Future
While the overarching goal of the Women’s HOF is to honor the state’s accomplished women and educate Arkansans, Snow says there’s more to it than that.
“We not only want to celebrate the past and present, but hopefully publicizing the accomplishments of these women will inspire young women. They need to see strong role models, and have mentors. I see young women today, and I ask them ‘Do you know what women have done in Arkansas?’ Essentially, they do not. That’s not their fault, and I think they’re eager to learn,” Snow says, adding that the board feels strongly about the exhibit visiting Arkansas schools.
The need for Arkansas women to succeed is great, especially when it comes to sustaining the state’s economy. Watts says currently in Arkansas only 25 percent of businesses are owned by women; 80 percent of women earn less than $50k per year; and only 19 percent of Arkansas women hold a bachelor of arts degree or higher. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
“There are women recognized in the boardroom, but it’s still dominated by white men,” says Olivia Farrell, CEO of ABPG. “There are more women at other levels of organizations than there were when we did Top 100 Women, but at the very top of the pyramid, be it business or politics, they’re still under-represented. The No. 1 way to nurture, empower and inspire women is to have women in the company in positions of power. They bring their own networks.”
Hopefully, the Hall of Fame can help change existing perceptions and staggering statistics. It won’t happen overnight, but it can spur incremental change that will impact future generations. At the very least, it will showcase some of the state’s most important history before it’s lost forever.
“Today seems to be the perfect time to turn a spotlight on the many contributions of Arkansas women to our state,” Watts says. “Having a visual reminder of these women, their lives and legacies, will provide us all with a deeper understanding of our state’s rich history, and serve as inspiration for young women growing up in Arkansas today.”
Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame Dinner
When/ 7 p.m. Thursday, August 27
Where/ Statehouse Convention Center
Tickets/ $200 each; $2,000 per table of 10
Info/ 372-1443, ARWomensHallOfFame.com
* The women listed are not necessarily inductees into the Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame, but are examples of some of the state’s accomplished females.