Janet Lippe Norwood (December 11, 1923 – March 27, 2015) was an American statistician and the first female Commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) when she was appointed in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, they lived in Luxembourg and Brussels, where she and their two children accompanied him on assignment to the U.S. Mission to the European Communities.

She took on management of the agency soon after the Nixon White House ordered the Bureau to cease holding press conferences on the occasion of the monthly release of employment and unemployment data.

Norwood developed a reputation for what the Committee cited, at the time of her retirement from Government service in 1991 and completion of 137 appearances over 13 year before it, her “integrity, professionalism, and impartiality.” Norwood helped bring recognition to female presence and leadership, in a context where she was frequently the only woman at government agency and professional association meetings.

During both her service as Commissioner of Labor Statistics or following government retirement, she served as head, board member, or senior adviser of professional organizations, including the American Statistical Association, the International Statistical Institute, the Urban Institute, the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago (NORC), the Conference Board, the statistical organization State of the USA Inc. (SOUSA), the Institute of Global Ethics, the Consortium of Social Science Associations, the Committee of National Statistics of the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences (CNSTAT), the Advisory Council on Unemployment Compensation, and served on the corporate boards of Republic National Bank, History Associates, Inc., and MidAtlantic Medical Services, Inc. (MAMSI).

[6] Since 2002, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, School of Public Health has a "Janet L. Norwood Award" to recognize outstanding women in statistics annually.

Since 2018, The Pennsylvania State University, Eberly College of Science has a "Science of Achievement Janet L. Norwood Graduate Scholarship in Statistics" awarded annually to an incoming Statistics Ph.D. student who has shown leadership, particularly in advancing careers for women, and research excellence.