In 1994 the Freedom From Religion Foundation honored her with its Freethought Heroine Award. “We went to church every Sunday,” she said in her acceptance speech, recalling her childhood. “And every Sunday my father’s habit was to count how many times they passed the hat. Frankly, I think I learned in that period the importance of separation of church and state. Discrimination on the basis of ethnicity and religion is a very serious quarrel with me.” The Feminist Caucus of the American Humanist Association named her its 2008 Humanist Heroine for all of her work and dedication to women’s rights, and in 2015 Smeal was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.