16th CENTURY

Christine de Pisan -- a 15th century writer 

Malinche--Guide for Cortez (and saved his life)--1519

​

17th CENTURY

Lady Deborah Moody – 1st modern city planner 1645

Margaret Brent – 1st advocate for Women's Rights in America  1647

Anne Bradstreet – 1st published poet in America 1650 

Margaret Fell - Advocate for men & women ordination in Quakers 1652 

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz--Defends women's rights as a human being--1669

​

18th CENTURY

Hannah Callowhill Penn--Ran Pennsylvania Colony after husband's stroke--1712

Anne Bonny--Legendary pirate--1715

Elizabeth Elstob--First Anglo-Saxon grammar published--1715

Laura Bassi--First woman physics professor--1732

Ann Smith Franklin--first female newspaper editor--1737

Benigna Countess von Zinzendorf—started 1st school for young women in US--1742

Eliza Lucas Pinckney--First to grow indigo in US--1744

Barbara R. Heck--First Canadian Methodist Church--1753

Lydia Chapin Taft--first woman to legally vote--1756

Phillis Wheatley--First African-American woman poet--1770

Mercy Otis Warren--1st woman playwright--1772

Penelope Barker--Led 1st political action by women against British--1774

Mother Ann Lee--Founding mother of the Shaker sect--1774

Mary Katherine Goddard--Printer of the Declaration of Independence--1776

Margaret Corbin--Fought in Revolutionary War, granted pension--1776

Jane McCrea--Her murder turned Americans against British--1777

Sybil Ludington--Warned colonists Redcoats were coming--1777

Polly Cooper--Taught Washington's troops to make soup and medicine--1777

Molly Pitcher--Fought in Revolutionary War--1778

Deborah Sampson--First woman to enlist in US armed forces--1782

Olympe de Gouges--Wrote Declaration of the Rights of Women--1791

Mary Wollstonecraft--Wrote the Vindication of the Rights of Woman--1792

Catherine Lidfield Greene--Have the idea for the cotton gin--1793

Hannah Slater--First US patent granted to a woman--1793

Anne Parrish--First charitable org for women operated by women--1795

Marie-Denise Villers--Portrait painter—1799

​

19th CENTURY

Sacagawea --Guide for Lewis and Clark expedition--1804

Mary Moody--Aunt who inspired Ralph Waldo Emerson--1811

Mary Young Pickersgill--Made flag flown at Ft. McHenry--1813

Sophie Germain--Key contribution to construction of Eiffel Tower--1816

Emma Hart Willard--Open 1st school of higher education for women--1821

Rebecca Pennock Lukens--Ran the Lukens Steel Company when husband died--1825

Sojourner Truth--1st African-American woman to sue a white man and win--1826

Fanny Wright--Called for women's suffrage, birth control, abolition of slavery--1829

Margaret Fuller--First self-supporting woman journalist--1830

Mary Lyon--Established Wheaton College and Mt. Holyoke College--1834

Angelina Grimke--National Female Anti-Slavery Society founder--1834

Laura Bridgman--First deaf-blind taught to communicate--1836

Lady Caroline Norton--Got Infants’ Custody Act passed in England--1838

Catherine Brewer--1st woman to receive a Bachelor's Degree--1840

Dorothea Dix--leader in prison reform and mental hospital care for needy--1840

Ada Lovelace--1st computer programmer (for Analytic Engine)--1842

Lucy Stone--first woman in Mass. to earn a college degree--1847

Maria Mitchell--discovered Comet 1847 VI--1847

Elizabeth Jane Wimmer--First identified gold in California--1848

Lucretia Mott--Organized First Women's Convention; Swarthmore College--1848

Elizabeth Blackwell--First woman doctor in US--1849

Harriet Beecher Stowe--Antislavery novel, selling 300,000 copies in 1st years--1852

Antoinette Brown Blackwell--First women ordained in US--1853

Jane Cunningham Croly--one of first women to write a syndicated column--1855

Elizabeth J. Graham--won 1st legal victory public transportation discrimination--1855

Elizabeth Palmer Peabody--First English-language kindergarten in US--1860

Catherine Coffin--Helped 2000 slaves across border to Canada--1861

Harriet Tubman--Rescue 300 slaves on Underground Railroad--1861

Harriet Jacobs--first to highlight the struggles of rape within slavery--1861

Anna Ella Carroll--Military strategy helped North win the Civil War--1861

Rose O'Neal Greenhow--Spy for Confederates; helped them win Bull Run--1861

Anne Wittenmeyer--Special Diet Kitchen for Union soldiers--1861

Mary Bickerdyke--Efficient care for Union soldiers--1861

Sally Louise Tompkins--Ran Confederate hospital with 95% survival rate--1861

Mary Livermore--Saved Grant's troops from scurvy--1862

Julia Ward Howe--Write the Battle Hymn to the Republic--1862

Mary Edwards Walker--Surgeon in Civil War, Congressional Medal of Honor--1863

Rebecca Lee Crumpler—1st African-American woman to receive M.D. degree--1864

Kate Mullany--formed the Collar Union, the nation's first all-female union--1864

Sarah Edmonds--Spy and soldier for Union Army, published autobiography--1865

Margaret Gretchell LaForge--Built Macy's Dept. Store into world's largest--1866

Lucy Hobbs Taylor--first female dentist--1866

Arabella Babb Mansfield--First woman lawyer--1869

Esther Hobart Morris--First woman Justice of the Peace--1869

Margaret Knight--Invented grocery bag (and 26 other things)--1870

Abigail Duniway--Began the fight for women's suffrage in Northwest--1871

Cynthia Leonard--Organized the Good Samaritan Society--1871

Charlotte E. Ray—1st African-American woman lawyer--1872

Victoria Woodhull--First woman to run for US presidency--1872

Eliza Tibbetts--Brought navel trees to California--1873

Ellen Swallow Richards--first woman awarded a degree at MIT--1873

Frances Willard-- Women's Christian Temperance Union--1874

Delia Haskett Rawson--first female stage driver--1875

Laura Wylie--First women graduate student at Yale--1876

Maria Speltarini--First to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope--1876

Helen Magill White--1st woman to receive a Ph.D. in U.S. --1877

Isabella Beecher Hooker--Wrote Married Women's Property Rights Bill in CT--1877

Eudora C. Atkinson--1st woman supt., US women's state reformatory--1877

Mother (Mary) Jones--Began organizing labor strikes--1877

Belva Lockwood--First woman to practice law before US Supreme Court--1879

Mary Baker Eddy--First head of Church of Christ, Scientist--1879

Sarah Winnemucca--Protest conditions on Indian reservations--1880

Lydia Hasbrouck--First woman elected to office--1880

Louise Bethune--First woman architect--1881

Amelia Stone Quinton--Found Women's National Indian Association --1881

Helen Hunt Jackson--Publish A Century of Dishonor (about Native Americans) --1881

Mary Lucinda Bonney--Found Women's National Indian Association --1881

Clara Barton--Establish the American Red Cross--1881

Emily Roebling—Finished constructing the Brooklyn Bridge--1883

Alice Austen--first American woman photojournalist--1884

Maud Watson--First winner of Wimbledon women's singles championship--1884

Nellie Bly--Original muckraker--1885

Sarah Goode-- 1st patent African-American woman--1885

Anandibai Joshee --1st Indian woman to earn a medical degree --1886

Suzanne Madora Salter--First woman to become a Mayor--1887

Anna Connelly--Patented first fire escape--1887

Harriet Williams Russell Strong--Patented water storage dam and reservoir--1887

Jane Addams--Found Hull House, one of first settlement houses in US--1889

Susan LaFlesche Picotte—1st Native Amer. woman to receive medical degree--1889

Josephine Cochran--Invented first working dishwasher--1889

Anna Howard Shaw—1st ordained female Methodist minister in US--1889

Elizabeth Cady Stanton—1st pres. National Amer. Woman Suffrage Association--1890

Frances Ellen W. Harper--1st published novel by African-American woman--1890

Matilda Joslyn Gage--Founder of Women's National Liberal Union--1890

Queen Liliuokalani--first and only queen of the Hawaiian Kingdom--1891

Anna Julia Cooper--wrote A Voice from the South (on Black feminism)--1892

Ida Wells-Barnett--Journalist; Campaign against African-American lynchings--1892

Bertha Palmer-- Women’s Building at Chicago's World Columbian Exhibition--1893

Kate Waller Barrett-- Crittendon House to keep mothers and children together--1893

Lillian Wald--Founded Henry Street Settlement for poor immigrant families--1893

Hill sisters--Wrote Happy Birthday song--1893

Katharine Lee Bates--Wrote America the Beautiful--1893

Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin--editor Woman's Era- for African-American women--1894

Annie Smith Peck--First to climb 21,812-ft Mt. Huascaran--1895

Alice Guy-Blache--First fiction film--1896

Mary Church Terrell--co-founder National Association of Colored Women--1896

Fanny Farmer--First person to use specific measurements in cooking--1896

Florence Bascom--First woman geologist with US Geological Survey--1896

Alice McLellan Birney--Found PTA--1897

Lena Jordan--First triple somersault on trapeze--1897

Ida Husted Harper--Susan B. Anthony's biographer—1898

​

20th CENTURY

Charlotte Cooper--First women's gold medal in Olympics--1900

Mileva Maric--Helped develop theory of relativity--1901

Annie Edson Taylor--First over Niagara Falls in a barrel--1901

Violet Oakley--first American woman to receive a public mural commission--1902

Ida M. Tarbell--Journalist who exposed Standard Oil--1902

Maggie Lena Walker—1st African American woman in U.S. to charter a bank--1903

Mary Anderson--Invented windshield wiper--1903

Mary Kenney--founded National Women's Trade Union League--1903

Anonymous woman--Invented ice cream cone--1904

Anna Jarvis--Creator of Mother's Day--1905

Nettie Stevens--Discovered X and Y sex chromosomes --1905

Mary Harris Jones--co-founded the Industrial Workers of the World--1905

Emma Goldman--Fought for free speech; Published Mother Earth magazine--1906

Florence Kelley--helped pass Pure Food and Drug Act; helped found NAACP--1906

Marietta Pierce Johnson--Founder of progressive School of Organic Education--1907

Mary Pennington--Developed refrigeration--1907

Margaret Dreier--Leader in Women's Trade Union League--1907

Hannah Kent Schoff--International Conference on Child Welfare--1908

Sarah Rooke--Saved Folsom, New Mexico residents from drowning--1908

Henrietta Swan Leavitt--established standards for measuring galaxies--1908

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn-- helped organize the ACLU--1909

Mary B. Talbert--founded National Assn. Advancement of Colored People--1910

Alice Stebbins Wells--First policewoman in US--1910

Florence Lawrence--First movie star--1910

Jane Bowne Haines--founded Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women--1911

Jovita Idar Vivero--first president of the League of Mexican Women--1911

Katharine Ryan Gibbs--founded Katherine Gibbs College--1911

Mignon Talbot--first woman to discover and name a non-bird dinosaur--1911

Clara Elizabeth Chan Lee--First Chinese-American woman to vote in us--1911

Margaret Brown--Hero of the Titanic--1912

Julia Lathrop--First woman to head a US Federal Bureau--1912

Juliette Low--founder of the Girl Scouts of U.S.A.--1912

Rose O'Neill--Kewpie Doll designer--1913

Georgia Broadwick--First intentional parachute jump--1914

Mary Phelps Jacob--designed the first modern bra--1914

Anna Hyatt Huntington--created first public monument by a woman in NYC--1915

Helen Keller--on committee to found American Civil Liberties Union--1915

Lillian Moller Gilbreth --1st industrial psychologist--1915

Anita Loos--First dialogue titles for silent films--1916

Alice Paul--founded National Woman’s Party--1916

Jeannette Rankin--First woman elected to Congress--1916

Lucy Burns--Formed National Women's Party--1916

Margaret Sanger--Opened first family planning clinic--1916

Madam C.J. Walker--First African-American female millionaire--1917

Anna Coleman Ladd--Established facial prosthetics workshop (anaplastology)--1917

Elizebeth Smith Friedman--first female cryptanalyst--1917

Lise Meitner--Discovered element Protactinium--1917

Leola N. King--first female traffic cop--1918

Julia Morgan--Architect of Hearst Castle--1919

Alice Hamilton--first woman appointed to faculty of Harvard University--1919

Susan Glaspell--Founded Provincetown Players--1919

Louise Pearce--Wipe out sleeping sickness—1919

Freda Ehmann--Invented California olive industry--1920

Georgia O'Keefe--Landscape and flower painter--1920

Adela Rogers St. Johns--Exposed corruption in LA government--1920

Rose Schneiderman--founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union--1920

Mamie Smith--first African American artist to make vocal blues recordings--1920

Edith Wilson--Controlled the White House after Wilson's stroke--1920

Carrie Chapman Catt--Founder of League of Women Voters--1920

Bessie Coleman--first African-American woman to hold a pilot license--1921

Sylvia Beach--Published James Joyce's Ulysses--1922

Nina Otero-Warren--first Latina to run for Congress--1922

Edith Clarke--first woman professionally employed as electrical engineer in US--1922

Nellie Ross--First woman to become a Governor--1924

Lois Lilley Howe--first woman admitted to A.I.A, architecture inst.--1926

Lotte Reiniger--First full-length animated film--1926

Janet Gaynor--first woman to win Oscar for Best Actress--1927

Amelia Earhart--First woman to fly solo across Atlantic--1928

Marjorie Henderson Buel--Little Lulu cartoon--1930

Dorothy Eustis--First to bring seeing eye dogs to US--1930

Ruth Graves Wakefield--Invented chocolate chips--1930

Ida Henrietta Hyde--Invented microelectrode--1930

Gladys Tantaquidgian--co-founded oldest museum by Native Americans--1931

Katherine Sui Fun Cheng-- 1st Asian-American woman aviator--1932

Dorothy Day--co-founded The Catholic Worker newspaper--1933

Florence Price—1st work by African-Amer. woman played by major orchestra--1933

Florence P. Kahn--1st woman appointed to US House Appropriations Cmte--1933

Frances Perkins--First woman Cabinet Post--1933

Hattie Caraway--First woman elected to Senate--1933

Grace Abbott--Helped to draft the Social Security Act--1934

Dorothy Height--president National Council of Negro Women for 40 years--1935

Margaret Mead--Wrote Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies--1935

Beryl Markham--First to fly non-stop from England to North America--1936

Martha Graham--first dancer to perform at the White House--1938

"Babe" Didrikson Zaharias--Only woman ever to make the PGA Tour cut--1938

Emma Tenayuca--led the 1938 San Antonio Pecan Shellers Strike--1938

Luisa Moreno--convened Congreso de Pueblos de Habla Española--1939

Lise Meitner--Discovered nuclear fission--1939

Doris Fleeson--First woman political columnist--1940

Fumiko Hayashida--iconic photo became symbol for WWII Japanese interment--1942

Annie G. Fox--first woman awarded Purple Heart medal for combat--1942

Barbara L. Stratton--first woman commissioned officer in U.S. Coast Guard--1942

Lillian Hellman—1st female screenwriter to get Academy Award nomination--1943

Anna Mac Clarke--first African American women to be a commanding officer--1943

Chien-Shiung Wu--Only Chinese-American to work Manhattan Project--1944

Helen Brooke Taussig--Solved 'blue baby' problems--1945

Eleanor Roosevelt--First Chairperson of the UN Human Rights Commission--1946

Tye Leung Shulze—1st Chinese American woman to pass civil service exams--1946

Gerty Cori--first woman to win Nobel Prize in Medicine--1947

Edith Clarke--first female professor of electrical engineering in the U.S.--1947

Mary Church Terrell—1st black member of American Assn University Women--1948

Alice Coachman--first African-American woman to win an Olympic Gold Medal--1948

Eugenie Anderson--First woman US ambassador--1949

Dorothy Vaughn--first African-American supervisor at NACA--1949

Georgia Lusk--Introduced free textbooks into New Mexico schools--1950

Juanita Hall--First African American to win Tony Award--1950

Gwendolyn Brooks--1st African-American to receive Pulitzer Prize for Poetry--1950

Hattie Alexander--Treat bacterial meningitis--1950

Marion Donovan--Invented disposable diaper--1950

Althea Gibson--First African-American to play at Wimbledon--1950

Christine Stevens--founded Animal Welfare Institute--1951

Marguerite Higgiins—1st woman Pulitzer Prize for Foreign Correspondence--1951

Rosalind Franklin--Photographed the double helix of DNA--1951

Bessie Nesmith--Invented liquid paper--1951

Virginia Apgar--Develop medical tests for newborns--1952

Grace Murray Hopper --1st compiler for programming languages--1952

Mary G. Ross--first woman engineer at Lockheed’s Missiles Systems Division--1952

Peace Pilgrim--walked across US for 28 years (25,000 miles) to promote Peace--1953

Annie Dodge Wuaneka--head Navajo Tribal Council Health and Welfare Comte--1953

Katherine Johnson--one of 1st African-American women NASA scientist--1953

Jacqueline Cochran--first woman to break the sound barrier--1953

Clair Booth Luce--first woman appointed to an ambassadorial role abroad--1953

Norma Sklarek--1st African American woman licensed as an architect--1954

Septima Pointsette-- Citizenship Schools for voter registration literacy tests--1954

Dorothy Dandridge --1st African Amer woman nominated Best Actress Oscar--1954

Louise Boyd--First woman to fly over North Pole--1955

Christine Stevens--mother of Animal Welfare Act and Endangered Species Act--1955

Rosa Parks--Icon of Civil Rights Movement--1955

Elizabeth Eckford—1st African-Amer. student to integrate white southern HS--1957

Daisy Bates--Leading role in Little Rock Nine crisis--1957

Gertrud Belle Elion--developed the first immunosuppressant agent--1957

Mary Jackson--NASA's first African-American female engineer--1958

Mary Leakey--Found 1.75 million-year old 'missing link'--1959

Nancy Grace Roman--known as “Mother of Hubble” at NASA--1959

Rosalyn Sussman Yalow--Invented radioimmunoassay--1959

Wilma Rudolph—1st American woman to win 3 Gold Medals in Olympics--1960

Esther Peterson--Women's Bureau Dept. of Labor; nutrition labels on food--1961

Norma Yaeger--first woman stockbroker on floor of New York Stock Exchange--1962

Frances Kelsey--Stopped thalidomide sales in US--1962

Martha Wright Griffith—1st woman on House Ways and Means Comte--1962

Rachel Louise Carson--Wrote Silent Spring; lead to nationwide ban on DDT--1962

Dolores Huerta--cofounder of United Farm Workers Union--1962

Edith Quimby--first to establish radiation levels human body could tolerate--1962

Maria Goeppert Mayer--2nd female Nobel Laureate in Physics--1963

Aileen Hernandez--first woman on Equal Employment Opportunity Council--1964

Phyllis Schlafly--Wrote A Choice, Not An Echo--1964

Lillian Moller Gilbreth –1st woman elected National Academy of Engineering--1965

Barbara "Dusty" Roads--filed the first anti-discrimination complaint to EEOC --1965

Patsy Takemoto Mink --1st Asian-American woman elected to Congress--1965

Betty Friedan--co-founded NOW--1966

Lorraine Schneider-- War Is Not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things--1966

Constance Baker Motley—1st Afri. Amer. woman appointed federal judiciary--1966

Muriel F. Siebert--first woman to hold a seat on the N.Y.  Stock Exchange--1967

Mildred Loving--landmark victory inter-racial marriage Supreme Court case --1967

Elizabeth Duncan Koontz—1st African-American pres. National Education Assn--1967

Barbara Dulinsky --1st woman Marine ordered to a combat zone--1967

Kathrine Switzer--first woman to run the Boston Marathon--1967

Coretta Scott King--founded MLK Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change--1968

Shirley Chisolm--first African-American woman elected to U.S. Congress--1968

Joan Ganz Cooney--founder of Children's Television Network--1969

Edna Hibel--pioneered secret process of lithographs on porcelain--1970

Edna Beach--founder of the Coalition of 100 Black Women--1970

Gracia Molina de Pick--Co-founded first national feminist Chicana Association--1970

Maggie Kuhn--founded Gray Panthers--1970

Graciela Olivarez--first woman to graduate from Notre Dame Law School--1970

Marcia Devins Greenberger--first full-time Women’s Rights Lawyer in D.C--1970

Anna Mae Hays --1st woman general in US military--1970

Bernice 'Bunny' Sandler--The 'godmother' of Title IX--1970

Kathleen C. Taylor--developed catalytic converters for cars--1970

Patricia Palinkas--first woman to play professional football—1970

Judy Heumann-- civil rights advocate for people with disabilities--1970

Sally Reed--won Supreme Court case prohibiting differential treatment--1971

Helen Reddy--Co-wrote "I Am Woman" - anthem of the women's movement--1971

Bella Abzug--co-organize National Women's Political Caucus--1971

Dorothy Pitman Hughes--Co-founded Women’s Action Alliance--1971

Florynce Kennedy--Co-organizer of Women's Political Caucus--1971

Myrlie Evers-Williams--Co-organize National Women's Political Caucus--1971

Stephanie Louise Kwolek--Invented kevlar (used in bulletproof vests)--1971

Katherine Graham--1st woman CEO of Fortune 500 company--1972

Gloria Steinem--Founding editor of Ms. Magazine--1972

Ethel L. Payne—1st female African-American commentator national network--1972

Shirley Chisolm—1st Afric.-Amer. candidate major party's nomination US Pres--1972

Sally Jean Priesand--1st woman ordained as a rabbi in U.S.--1972

Norma McCorvey--plaintiff in landmark Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision--1973

Julia Phillips--first woman to win Oscar for Best Picture--1973

Margaret Sloan-Hunter—1st president National Black Feminist Organization--1973

Marian Wright Edelman--founded Children's Defense Fund--1973

Anne Legendre--First female cochair of Rep National Committee--1974

Ella Grasso--First woman elected governor in her own right--1974

Rev. Katie G. Cannon—1st Afri-Amer. woman ordained United Presbyn Church--1974

Jill Ker Conway--first female president of Smith College--1975

Maria Roy--Started Abused Women's Aid in Crisis in New York--1975

Elizabeth A. Seton—1st native-born American saint in Roman Catholic Church--1975

Barbara C. Jordan—1st African-American keynote address Dem. Nat. Conv.--1976

Helen Hayes--first woman to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award--1977

Frances Kissling--founding president of the National Abortion Federation--1977

Ethelene Crockett—1st woman president of the American Lung Association--1977

Barbara Mikulski—1st Democratic woman Senator elected in her own right--1977

Patricia Roberts Harris --First African-American woman cabinet member--1977

Janet Guthrie--first women in Indy 500--1977

Lois Marie Gibbs--founded Love Canal Homeowners Association--1978

Nancy Duff Campbell--co-Founder of the National Women’s Law Center--1978

Judy Chicago--first epic feminist artwork, symbolic history of women in history--1979

Elaine Showalter-- founder of gynocritics--1979

Lorrie Otto--initiated "Wild Ones", founder of natural landscaping movement--1979

Peggy Schirmer--founded Concerned Educators Allied for a Safe Environment--1979

Beverly Kelley --1st woman commander of a US military ship--1979

Ingrid Newkirk--co-founder of P.E.T.A., world's largest animal rights org.--1980

Bettina Werner--invented textured colorized salt crystal technique in art--1980

Joyce D. Miller—1st woman elected to the executive board of the AFL-CIO--1980

Brooksley Born—1st woman ABA’s Standing Committee on Federal Judiciary --1980

Wilma Vaught—1st woman brigadier general in the comptroller career field--1980

LaDonna Vita Tabbytite Harris—1st Native American woman to run for VP--1980

Danica Patrick—1st woman to win the pole position at the Daytona 500--1980

Maya Lin--designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.--1981

Sandra Day O'Connor--First woman to serve on Supreme Court--1981

Rebecca S. Halstead—1st female graduate West Point general officer--1981

Samantha Smith--at age 10 accepted invitation to visit Soviet Union--1982

Patricia Joy Numann--founder of the Association of Women Surgeons--1982

Sally Ride--1st U.S. woman astronaut in space--1983

Barbara McClintock-- only woman unshared Nobel Prize in Medicine--1983

Roxanne Quimby--co-founded Burt's Bees personal care products--1984

Barbra Streisand--first woman to win the Golden Globe for best director--1984

Isabell Masters--started political party, Looking Back, ran for pres 5 times--1984

Geraldine Ferraro--first woman candidate for VP of a major political party --1984

Jean Arden Eversmeyer--founded Lesbians Over Age Fifty--1985

Flossie Wong-Staal--first to clone HIV and determine the function of its genes--1985

Wilma ManKiller--First woman chief of the Cherokee Nation--1985

Mary Guinan—1st woman chief scientific advisor at Center Disease Control--1986

Lenore Janis—1st woman dir Bureau Building Management NYC Dept Sanitn--1986

Lillian Vernon—1st female-founded company publicly traded Amer. Stock Exc--1987

Susan Solomon--solo leader and only woman on National Ozone Expedition--1987

Aretha Franklin--first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame--1987

Lenora Fulani—1st woman and Afr. Amer on every state's ballot as Indep--1988

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen--1st Hispanic woman elected to Congress--1989

Barbara Clementine Harris--First female Episcopal bishop--1989

Darlene C. Hine--introduced concept Black women's Culture of Dissemblance--1989

Lorna Simpson—1st African Amer woman solo exhibition Mus. Modern Art--1990

Helen Greiner--co-founded iRobot--1990

Wendy Kopp--founder of Teach for America--1990

Antonia Novello--1st woman & 1st Hispanic U.S. Surgeon General --1990

Sylvia A. Earle—1st female chief scientist U.S. Nat. Ocean Atmospheric Admin--1990

Betsy Damon--founded Keepers of the Waters--1991

Marna Tucker--First woman president National Conference of Bar Presidents--1991

Vivian W. Pinn--first director of NIH Office of Research Women's Health--1991

Sharon Pratt Dixon--first black woman to serve as mayor of major city--1991

Jane Goodall--founded Tchimpouga Chimpanzee Rehibilitation Center--1992

Agatha Tiegel Hanson--first president of O.W.L.S. (Phi Beta Kappa)--1992

Phyllis Glazer--founded Mothers Organized to Stop Environmental Sin--1992

Rebecca Walker--coined "third wave feminism"--1992

Alexis Herman--first African-American to hold office of U.S. Secretary of Labor--1992

Ellen Ochoa--first Hispanic woman in space--1993

Ada Deer--first woman to head the Bureau of Indian Affairs--1993

Janet Reno--1st woman U.S. attorney general--1993

Toni Morrison—1st Afric-Amer. woman awarded Nobel Prize in Literature --1993

Alice Waters--founded Chez Panisse Foundation, Edible Schoolyard program--1996

Amy Goodman--co-founded Democracy Now! The War and Peace Report--1996

Dorothea Lange--MoMA 1st retrospective solo exhibit female photographer--1996

Madeleine Albright --First woman Secretary of State--1997

Anne Sullivan--lifelong teacher and companion to Helen Keller--1998

Rita R. Colwell--first female director of the National Science Foundation--1998

Florence Griffith Joyner--fastest woman of all time--1998

Julie Taymor--first woman to win a Tony Award for best direction of a musical--1998

Lt. Col. Eileen Collins—1st woman astronaut command space shuttle mission—1999

 

21st CENTURY

Hillary Rodham Clinton--first First Lady to run for public office--2000

Okolo Rashid--co-founder first Islamic culture and history museum in U.S.--2001

Elaine Chao--1st Asian-American woman Cabinet member--2001

Sister Dorothy Stang--recognized by the Vatican as a modern day martyr--2005

Cristeta Comerford—1st woman White House executive chef--2005

Tarana Burke--started #MeToo movement--2006

Osprey Orielle Lake--founder Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network Intl--2006

Drew Gilpin Faust--first woman president at Harvard University--2007

Lauren Bush--founder of FEED Projects, a social business to fight world hunger--2007

Kathryn Bigelow--1st woman to win Oscar for Best Director--2008

Ann E. Dunwoody-- 1st US female four-star general--2008

Peggy Whitson-- only woman to command International Space Station twice--2008

Elinor Ostrom--first woman to win Nobel Prize in Economics--2009

Sonia Sotomayor-- 1st Hispanic woman U.S. Supreme Court Justice--2009

Nikki Haley—1st Asian Amer and Indian Amer woman to serve as governor--2010

Susana Martinez--first Latina woman to serve as governor of American state--2010

Jessica Watson--Youngest person to sail solo and unassisted around world--2010

Ginni Rometty--only female CEO of IBM--2012

Sheryl Sandberg--first female member of Facebook board of directors--2012

Elizabeth MacDonough--first female ever named as Senate parliamentarian--2012

Tammy Duckworth--first woman with a disability elected to Congress--2012

Patrisse Cullors--co-founder of Black Lives Matter--2013

Mary Barra--first female CEO of GM, first woman to lead a major automaker--2014

Admiral Michelle Howard--first woman Four-Star Admiral--2014

Mia Love--first African American Republican woman U.S. House of Reps.--2014

Lauryn Williams—1st Amer. woman medal in Summer & Winter Olympics--2014

Amariyanna Copeny--at age 8, wrote letter to Pres about Flint MI water crisis--2015

Megan Brannon--first woman Postmaster General U.S. Postal Service--2015

Danell Lynn--Guinness record world's longest motorcycle journey in single ctry--2015

Winona LaDuke—1st Native Amer. woman to get Electoral College vote for VP--2016

Tammy Duckworth--first senator to give birth while in office--2016

Kamela Harris--First South Asian American to serve in US Senate--2016

Carla Hayden—1st woman, 1st African American Librarian of Congress--2016

Stacey Cunningham--first female president of the New York Stock Exchange--2018

Shonda Rhimes--co-creator of the Times Up movement--2018

Gina Haspel--first female Director of the CIA--2018

Peggy Whitson--US record for the most time spent in space - 665 days--2018

Cynthia Marshall—1st black woman to serve as business leader of NBA team--2018

Kylie Jenner--named Forbes' youngest-ever self-made billionaire--2019

Laura Yeager--first woman to lead an Army infantry division--2019

Ilhan Omar--first Somali American to serve in Congress--2019

Christina Koch--First all-woman spacewalk (with Jessica Meir)--2019

Jessica Meir--First all-woman spacewalk (with Christina Koch)--2019

Karen Uhlenbeck--first woman to win the prestigious Abel Prize--2019

Mikaela Shiffrin--first skier to win 17 World Cup races in one alpine ski season--2019

Juane Q. Smith--first painting on canvas Native Amer. artist in Nat. Gallery Art--2020

Kamela Harris--First woman VP--2020

Katie Sowers--first woman to coach a Super Bowl--2020

Suzanne Clark--first woman CEO of U.S. Chamber of Commerce--2021

LaKeisha Myers--introduced Breonna's Law Wisconsin Legislature--2021

Deb Haaland--first Native American U.S. Secretary of Department of Interior--2021

Janet Yellen--first woman U.S. Treasury Secretary--2021

Bianca Smith--first African American woman professional baseball coach--2021

Sarah Johnson--first female referee to officiate a Super Bowl game--2021