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.
This is an excerpt from an article appeared on Ultimate Classic Rock, if you want to see the complete list of the 64 artists click here
Lesley Gore
When singer Lesley Gore was just 16 years old, she recorded the iconic "It's My Party," a No. 1 hit in 1963. And that was only the beginning. Gore followed that up with another 10 Top 40 hits, including "You Don't Own Me," a symbol for the women's empowerment movement. She was also one of the first relatively openly gay women in the music industry, living her life honestly during a time when homophobia ran rampant in the United States.
Barbra Streisand
We couldn't possibly sum up Barbra Streisand's 60-year career and its enormous influence in just a paragraph. She has 10 Grammys to her name, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and the Grammy Legend Award, and is also an EGOT winner. Among the people who have collaborated with her over the years is Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Donna Summer, Neil Diamond, Ray Charles, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, James Taylor, Sting and many more. We'll put it this way: there probably would not have been a Celine Dion, Adele, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston or any other similar "diva" without Streisand.
Patti LaBelle
The first portion of Patti LaBelle's glamorous career involved being the frontwoman for the Bluebelles, an all-girl soul group who eventually changed their name to simply LaBelle — you probably know them via the 1974 hit "Lady Marmalade." But even after LaBelle split up in 1977, Patti LaBelle continued on with a solo career that featured singles like "If Only You Knew," "New Attitude" and "Stir It Up," plus a No. 1 hit duet with Michael McDonald called "On My Own." "Patti's such a formidable live performer and such an artist at improvisation," McDonald later told People. "And that's pretty much her thing. I don't think she sings any song the same way twice. It's always in that moment that she's creating the melody and the feel of the song. And she's very good at it."
Marianne Faithfull, for years, has been most closely associated with the Rolling Stones. After all, her U.K. Top 10 single "As Tears Go By" was penned by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. But there's much more to her 21-album career. Her 1979 comeback album Broken English received a nomination for a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance and she was also a talented interpreter of songs written by others. When one considers powerful and influential women of '60s rock, Faithfull is near the top of the list.
Nico, real name Christa Paffgen, was one of Andy Warhol's stars, which is more or less how she came in contact with the Velvet Underground and sang with them during what's usually considered their most fruitful period. It's interesting then that although the Velvet Underground was inducted into the hall decades ago, Nico herself has been left out. Nico continued recording her own solo albums and continues to be a heavily-cited figure in the world of art rock.
Christine McVie
Fleetwood Mac as an entire band was inducted into the Rock Hall in 1998. Just over 20 years later, Stevie Nicks was inducted for a second time for her work as a solo artist. Christine McVie, to be fair, did not release as many solo albums as Nicks, but she was an accomplished blues musician before even joining Fleetwood Mac, a well-known name around circles in London in an era where women playing blues music was not at all common. For that, we think McVie, the yin to Nicks' yang, also deserves a second induction.
Diana Ross
Here is another example of a woman deserving of a second induction. Back in 1988, the Supremes were the very first girl group to be inducted into the hall with the lineup of Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard. Rightfully so. But Ross in particular went on to have one of the biggest and most glamorous careers of anyone in the business. In the span of approximately 15 years, she recorded four Top 10 albums, plus landed six No. 1 hits: "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," "Touch Me in the Morning," "Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)," "Love Hangover," "Upside Down" and "Endless Love," which made her the female solo act with the most No. 1 songs in the United States at that time.
The Pointer Sisters
Between the years 1973 and 1987, the Pointer Sisters amassed 13 Top 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 — more specifically, "Automatic," "Jump (For My Love), "Fire," "He's So Shy," "Slow Hand," a remixed version of "I'm So Excited" and "Neutron Dance" all went to No. 1. They also performed on 1985's "We Are the World" charity single.
TheRunaways
The Runaways were known for songs like "Cherry Bomb," "Hollywood," "Queens of Noise" and their cover of the Velvet Underground's "Rock & Roll," yet they were never all that successful from a commercial standpoint. However, what they lacked in charting hits, they more than made up for in overall influence as one of the first harder rocking all-female bands on the market. "I knew it was possible to be in an all-girl rock band when I first heard the Runaways," Belinda Carlisle of the Go-Go's told The Guardian in 2021.
Alison Krauss 
It's true that Alison Krauss' background is mostly in bluegrass music, but her career has shifted across genre lines for years, most notably when she collaborated with Robert Plant for two critically-acclaimed albums. She is a prolific recording artist, with 27 Grammy Awards to her name out of 46 nominations, making her the 5th most-nominated person in Grammy history and up until 2021, Krauss had the most Grammys of any woman. Not that awards mean everything — Krauss' tireless work in the studio and on the road has given bluegrass music and the intersectional roots it shares with rock 'n' roll a well-deserved spotlight.
Bikini Kill 
Hole wasn't the only female-focused grunge band to help usher in a new generation of tough-as-nails women songwriters. There was also Bikini Kill, a pioneer of the riot grrrl movement with Kathleen Hanna as lead singer. Bikini Kill's name really didn't appear on any charts apart from the No. 12 spot in the U.K. with their 1993 album Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah. But commercial success wasn't the important part. At their exhilarating live shows, the band told women specifically to come to the front of the crowd, passing them lyric sheets and generally encouraging an atmosphere where women were not literally and figuratively pushed to the background.
Annie Lennox 
We've got one more woman on this list who fits into the category of possible double inclusion into the Rock Hall. That would be Annie Lennox, who was inducted as part of Eurythmics in 2022, but the rest of her solo career deserves the same treatment. Every one of her six solo albums reached the Top 20 in the U.K. and the Top 35 in the U.S. She has won the Brit Award for Best British Female Artist six times, has four Grammys, one Oscar and one Golden Globe.
