In 1979, the office of Governor Bruce Babbitt worked with the Arizona Women's Commission to create the Hall of Fame.

A steering committee would each year select a varying number of women to be inducted.

The 1991 inclusion of Planned Parenthood creator Margaret Sanger resulted in disapproval being heard from some in the Arizona Legislature, and funding dried up.

With the lone exception of María Urquides in 1994, there were no Hall of Fame inductees for over a decade.

In 2023, AZWHF created a scholarship awarded to an individual pursuing a degree in a museum program or a history discipline with an emphasis on women.