Firsts in Women's Achievement ( A tribute)
Ann Teresa Mathews First woman whose invention received a patent (for cleaning and curing corn) - it was granted to her husband 1715
Mary Katherine Goddard First woman postmaster 1775
Betsy Ross First person to be a U.S. flagmaker 1776/77
Hannah Adams First woman to become professional writer 1784
Lucy Brewer First woman marine 1812
Elizabeth Blackwell First woman to receive a medical degree 1849
Amelia Jenks Bloomer Publisher/editor of first prominent women's rights newspaper 1849
Harriet Tubman First woman to run underground railroad to help slaves escape 1850
Lucy Hobbs First woman to graduate from dental school 1866
Susan B. Anthony Co-Founder of first US woman's suffrage organization 1869
Arabella Mansfield Babb First woman admitted to the bar 1869
Frances Elizabeth Willard First woman to become a college president (Evanston College) 1871
Victoria Chaflin Woodhull First woman to be presidential candidate 1872
Helen Magill First woman to receive a Ph.D. degree (Boston University) 1877
Belva Ann Lockwood First woman to practice law before U.S. Supreme Court 1879
Clara Barton Founder of the American Red Cross 1881
Maud Booth Co-Founder of Salvation Army and Volunteers of America 1887/96
Suzanna Madora Salter First woman mayor (Argonia, Kansas) 1887
Mary McLeod Bethune First woman to establish secondary school that became 4-year accredited college 1904
Founder of National Council of Negro Women 1935
Blanche Scott First woman to fly an airplane 1910
Jeannette Rankin First woman U.S. House Representative (Montana) 1916
Kate Gleason First woman president of a national bank 1917
Jeannette Rankin First woman in Congress 1917
Florence E. Allen First woman judge 1920
Hallie Ferguson First woman governor of U. S. state (Texas) 1924
Katherine Bement Davis First person to conduct national survey of sexual attitudes 1929
Jane Addams First woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize 1931
Hattie Wyatt Caraway First woman elected to U.S. Senate 1932
Amelia Earhart First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean 1932
Ruth Bran Owen First woman foreign diplomat 1933
Pearl S. Buck First woman to win a Nobel Prize for Literature 1935
Hattie McDaniel First African-American of any gender to win an Academy Award (she won for Best Supporting Actress in the film, Gone with the Wind). 1939
Linda Darnell First woman to sell securities on the New York Stock Curb Exchange 1941
Conchita V. Cintron First U.S. woman bullfighter in Spain 1949
Georgia Nesse Clark First woman treasurer of the United States 1949
Muriel Siebert First woman to own seat on the New York Stock Exchange 1967
Janice Lee York Romary First woman to carry U.S. flag at the Olympic Games 1968
Mary Clarke First woman to be named major general in U.S. Army 1978
Ella Grasso First woman govenor to be re-elected (Connecticut) 1978
Sandra Day O'Connor First woman a justice of the U. S. Supreme Court 1981
Joan Benoit (Samuelson) First woman to win an Olympic marathon 1984
Penny Harrington First woman police chief of major U. S. city (Portland, OR) 1985
Ann Bancroft First woman to walk to North Pole 1986
Christa McAuliffe First woman citizen passenger on a space mission 1986
Lt. Col. Eileen Collins First American woman to pilot a Space Shuttle 1995
Madeleine K. Albright First woman Secretary of State and highest ranking woman in the U.S. government 1997
Hillary Rodham Clinton Only First Lady ever elected to the United States Senate 2000
Halle Berry First African-American woman to win a Best Actress Oscar 2002
Condoleezza Rice First African-American woman to be appointed Secretary of State
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