Athlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee wins Olympic gold medals in the heptathlon in 1988 and 1992.
Debi Thomas is the first black woman to win a figure skating medal at the Winter Olympics.
Sarah Brady becomes a leader in the gun control movement after her husband, Jim Brady, is permanently injured during an attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan.
Prolific writer Amy Tan publishes The Joy Luck Club. The daughter of Chinese immigrants, Tan serves as co-producer and co-screenwriter for the film adaptation of her novel.
Amy Domini creates the Domini 400 Social Index; later she starts the Domini Social Equity Fund, the oldest socially and environmentally screened index fund in the United States.
Businesswoman Steffie Allen founds the AthenA Group; she later begins the nonprofit Women’s Vision Foundation to transform the American workplace to become more supportive of all employees.
Julia Chang Bloch is the first Asian American to become a U.S. ambassador, to Nepal; she later is the president of the nonprofit organization U.S.-China Education Trust.
Playwright Wendy Wasserstein enjoys big success with The Heidi Chronicles, which describes women’s changing roles.
Choreographer, dancer, and artistic director Judith Jamison is the first black woman to head a major dance company.