18 Nominees Chosen for National Women's Hall of Fame

EIGHTEEN women, including Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, have been elected to the National Women's Hall of Fame.

Nancy Woodhull, the Hall of Fame president, announced that the women chosen this year will be inducted into the organization on Oct. 14.

Among the others selected were Ann Bancroft, the first woman to reach the North and South Poles across the ice, and Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman justice of the United States Supreme Court.

The Hall of Fame, established in 1969, selects members on three criteria:

* The value of their contributions to society, to groups, or to freedom of women.

* Contributions to art, athletics, business, government, philanthropy, the humanities, science, and education.

* Their contributions' enduring value.

A number of those chosen are still active in their fields, including US Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D) of Colorado and Elizabeth Hanford Dole, president of the American Red Cross. Others chosen include:

Virginia Apgar, a physician and humanitarian best known for her invention of lifesaving techniques for newborns.

Amelia Bloomer, a suffragist and social reformer who founded The Lily, the first newspaper devoted to equality for women.

Mary Brockinridge, founder of the Frontier Nursing Service, created to provide health care in rural areas.

Eileen Collins, the first woman space shuttle pilot.

Anne Dallas Dudley, a leader in the fight for passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

Ella Fitzgerald, singer.

Margaret Fuller, author, feminist, Transcendentalist leader, and teacher.

Matilda Joslyn Gage, suffragist, author.

Lillian Moller Gilbreth, industrial engineer.

Nannerl O. Keohane, first woman president of Duke University, first woman to head a major women's college (Wellesley).

Maggie Kuhn, founder of the Gray Panthers.

Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, abolitionist, anti-lynching crusader.

Hannah Greenebaum Solomon, founder of the National Council of Jewish Women.

The induction next month will take place at Seneca Falls, N.Y., site of the first Women's Rights Convention in 1848.

Mrs. Eddy, who established The Christian Science Monitor, was chosen as ''the only American woman to found a lasting American-based denomination,'' according to a statement from the Hall of Fame. It noted that Mrs. Eddy ''emerged from obscurity to make an indelible mark on religion, medicine, and journalism.''