As co-founder and president of the Feminist Majority/Feminist Majority Foundation and former president of the National Organization for Women, Eleanor Smeal has played a pivotal role in defining the debate, developing the strategies, and charting the direction of the modern women's movement. She was the first to identify the "gender gap" and popularized its usage in election and polling analyses to enhance women's voting clout.

Ms. Smeal was a leader of the drive to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment and called the first national abortion rights march in Washington, DC. Most recently, she was one of the principal organizers of the March for Women's Lives in Washington, DC in 2004. As publisher of Ms. magazine, her commitment to achieving equality for women and her vision of Ms. as the voice of the feminist movement brings new life into the 33-year history of the magazine.