In 1986, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced its first group of inductees: Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, James Brown, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke and the Everly Brothers. Since then, the Hall has added a new class of inductees each year in four categories: Performers, Non-Performers, Sidemen and Lifetime Achievers. The category in which the Hall is most conspicuously lacking, however, is women. Fewer than 100 female performers have been added since the Hall admitted its first woman—Aretha Franklin—on January 3, 1987.
In its second 10 years, women fared better with the Hall of Fame as artists like the Jefferson Airplane (1996), Joni Mitchell (1997), Bonnie Raitt (2000) and the Pretenders (2005) became eligible for induction. Stevie Nicks made history in 2019 by being the first female artist to be inducted twice (first with Fleetwood Mac, in 1998, then as a solo artist).
