64 Women Who Deserve to Be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

There are close to 1,000 people in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Fewer than 100 of them are women.

In 1987, one year after the Rock Hall’s inaugural induction ceremony, the very first woman was inducted. That was Aretha Franklin, who did not attend the event, but speeches were instead given by two men, Keith Richards and Clive Davis.

“The dictionary has been used up. There’s no superlatives left. And there’s nothing to read anyway,” Richards said in a jumbled address that really didn’t make Franklin or Richards look good. “What can I say about Aretha? You’re in, baby! My turn next? Oh, God forbid. Come on. A little levity doesn’t go down bad, right?”

READ MORE: The 10 Worst Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Snubs

In the decades that have followed, more and more concerted efforts have been made to recognize the essential work and art done by women in the world of rock ‘n’ roll.

“My biggest hope is that I have opened the door due to the fact that there’s 22 men who have gone in twice and zero women,” Stevie Nicks said in 2019 when she was inducted into the hall for a second time. At the time of this writing in early 2026, a total of 24 men have been inducted twice for their contributions to bands as well as solo careers, while just three women — Nicks, Carole King and Tina Turner – have received the same honor.

“I think that’s really a little off balance,” Nicks continued. “That’s what I’m hoping, that what’s happened here to me will give all the little rock and roll stars that are just waiting out there a little hope that they can also do what I do.”

In the below gallery, we’ve come up with a whopping 64 women and all-girl groups that we feel deserve a place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — listed in very loose chronological order, though not exact by any means for there is much overlap in timing. For the purposes of organization, we haven’t included mixed-gender bands like the B-52’s, Sonic Youth, Primal Scream, Mazzy Star, the Cranberries, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Tedeschi Trucks Band, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, New Order and so many more. They also deserve places, but for now we’re focusing on solo women and (mostly) all-female acts.

Some housekeeping notes before we begin: the merits one person believes to be worthy of inclusion into the Rock Hall may be different from someone else’s. This writer personally believes that the following 64 women, though not all straightforward rock recording artists, have played a significant role in the overall shaping of the music. Rock ‘n’ roll, as far as we’re concerned, was born as a conglomeration of sounds and continues to be a fluid genre as new techniques, voices and tools appear.

Additionally, this is not an exhaustive gallery, only some of the most prominent names currently missing from the Rock Hall. There is always room for more.