WOMEN'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS

(a small subset)

please help us expand this. Send names and accomplishments and date to info@wediditforyou.org

16th CENTURY

Christine de Pisan -- a 15th century writer 

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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 

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18th CENTURY

Hannah Callowhill Penn - Ran the Colony of Pennsylvania  1712     

Anne Bonny - Legendary pirate 1715    

Elizabeth Elstob  - Wrote 1st Anglo-Saxon grammar 1715

Eliza Lucas Pinckney  - 1st person to grow indigo in US 1744

Phillis Wheatley – 1st African-American woman poet 1770 

Mother Ann Lee - Founding mother of the Shaker sect 1774   

Mary Katherine Goddard - Printer of Declaration of Independence 1776

Margaret Corbin - Fought in Revolutionary War, granted pension 1776 

Sybil Ludington (age 16) - Warned colonists Redcoats were coming 1777

Jane McCrea - Her murder turned Americans against British 1777

Molly Pitcher – Fought in Revolutionary War 1778 (as did other women!!!)

Laura Bassi  - 1st woman physics professor 1778

Deborah Sampson - Enlisted in US armed forces as a man 1782

Olympe de Gouges -  Declaration of the Rights of Women 1791

Mary Wollstonecraft - Vindication of the Rights of Woman 1792

Catherine Lidfield Greene –had the idea for the cotton gin 1793

Hannah Slater – 1st US patent granted to a woman 1793

Anne Parrish – 1st charitable org for women operated by women 1795

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19th CENTURY

Sacagawea -- Guide for Lewis and Clark expedition 1804 

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

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

Rebecca Pennock Lukens -- Ran the Lukens Steel Company 1825 

Margaret Fuller – 1st self-supporting woman journalist 1830

Oberlin College - 1st American college to accept women and men 1833

Angelina Grimke – founded National Female Anti-Slavery Society 1834 

Laura Bridgman – 1st deaf-blind taught to communicate 1836

Mount Holyoke  - 1st American college for women 1837

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

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

Elizabeth Jane Wimmer – 1st identified gold in California 1848

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott - 1st Women's Rights Conv. 1848

Elizabeth Blackwell - 1st woman doctor in US 1849

Harriet Beecher Stowe - novel sold 300,000 copies in first years 1852 

Antoinette Brown Blackwell - 1st women ordained in US 1853

Elizabeth Palmer Peabody- 1st English-language kindergarten in US 1860

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

Anne Wittenmeyer -- Special Diet Kitchen for Union soldiers 1861 

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

Rose O'Neal Greenhow -- Spy, helped Confederacy win Bull Run 1861 

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

Mary Edwards Walker–Civil War Surgeon, Medal of Honor 1863

Sarah Edmonds -- Spy and soldier for Union Army 1865 

Margaret Gretchell LaForge- Macy's into world's largest dept store 1866 

Esther Hobart Morris - 1st woman Justice of the Peace 1869

Arabella Babb Mansfield - 1st woman lawyer 1869

Lucy Stone - Founded American Woman Suffrage Association 1869

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

Anna Howard Shaw - 1st woman Methodist minister in US 1870

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

Charolette E. Ray - 1st African-American woman lawyer 1872

Victoria Woodhull - 1st woman to run for US presidency 1872

Eliza Tibbetts -- Brought navel trees to California 1873 

Maria Speltarini - 1st to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope 1876

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

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

Mary Baker Eddy -- 1st head of Church of Christian Scientist 1879 

Lydia Hasbrouck - 1st woman elected to office 1880

Sarah Winnemucca – Protest conditions on Indian reservations 1880

Clara Barton -- Established the American Red Cross 1881 

Mary Lucinda Bonney - Women's National Indian Association 1881

Emily Roebling – finished constructing the Brooklyn Bridge 1883

Maud Watson – 1st Wimbledon women's singles championship 1884

Nellie Bly -- Original muckraker 1885 

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

Suzanne Medora Salter - 1st woman to become a Mayor 1887

Jane Addams-found Hull House, one of 1st settlement houses in US 1889 

Julia Tuttle -- Mother of Miami, Florida 1890

Matilda Joslyn Gage - Founded Women's National Liberal Union 1890

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

Lillian D. Wald - 1st visiting nurse organization  1893

Kate Waller Barrett -- Crittendon House for mothers and children 1893 

Katherine Lee Bates -- Wrote America the Beautiful 1893 

Hill sisters -- Wrote Happy Birthday song 1893 

Bertha Palmer -- Women’s Bldg, Chicago's World Columbian Exhib. 1893 

Alice Guy-Blache - 1st fiction film 1896

Florence Bascom - 1st woman geologist with US Geological Survey 1896

Annie Smith Peck - 1st to climb 21,812-ft Mt. Huascaran 1895

Fanny Farmer - 1st person to use specific measurements in cooking 1896

Lena Jordan - 1st triple somersault on trapeze 1897

Alic McLellan Birney and Pheobe Apperson Hearst -- Found PTA 1897

Charlotte Perkins Gilman Wrote Women and Economics 1898

Florence Kelley - Campaign against child labor 1899

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20th CENTURY

Charlotte Cooper -  1st women's gold medal in Olympics 1900 

Annie Taylor -  1st over Niagara Falls in a barrel 1901

Ida M. Tarbell - Exposé of Standard Oil 1902

Mary Morton Kimball Kehew, Mary Kenney O'Sullivan, Jane Addams - Form Women's Trade Union League 1903 

Anonymous woman - Invented ice cream cone 1904 

Helen Keller - 1st deaf-blind person to earn a BA 1904

Lillian D. Wald, Florence Kelley - National Child Labor Committee 1904

Emma Goldman - Published Mother Earth magazine 1906

Mary Pennington - Developed refrigeration 1907 

Florence Lawrence -  1st movie star 1910 

Alice Stebbins Wells -  1st policewoman in US 1910

Clara Chan Lee  - 1st Chinese-American woman to vote in US 1911 

Georgia Broadwick – 1st intentional parachute jump 1914 

Lillian Moller Gilbreth - 1st industrial psychologist 1915

Jeannette Rankin -  1st woman elected to Congress 1916 

Anita Loos - First dialogue titles for silent films 1916 

Madam C.J. Walker -  1st African-American female millionaire 1917 

Louise Pearce - Wiped out sleeping sickness 1919

Carrie Chapman Catt - Organized League of Women Voters 1919

Bessie Coleman – 1st African-American woman pilot 1921

Rebecca Latimer Felton – 1st woman to serve in US senate 1922

Nellie Ross -  1st woman to become a Governor 1924 

Lotte Reiniger -  1st full-length animated film 1926 

Amelia Earhart -  1st woman to fly solo across Atlantic 1928 

Dorothy Eustis -  1st to bring seeing eye dogs to US 1930

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

Frances Perkins -  1st woman Cabinet Post 1933

Mary McLeod Bethune - Founded National Council of Negro Women 1935

Beryl Markham -  1st to fly non-stop from England to North America 1936

Doris Fleeson – 1st woman political columnist 1940  

Helen Brooke Taussig - Solved 'blue baby' problems 1945

Eleanor Roosevelt - Chaired UN Commission on Human Rights 1948  

Grace Leidy and Hattie Alexander - Treated bacterial meningitis 1950  

Georgia Lusk - Introduced free textbooks into New Mexico schools 1950

Rosalind Franklin - Photographed the double helix of DNA 1951  

Virginia Apgar - Develop medical tests for newborns 1952 

Grace Murray Hopper - 1st compiler for programming languages 1952

Althea Gibson – 1st African-American woman on tennis tour 1953 

Louise Boyd – 1st woman to fly over North Pole 1955   

Daisy Bates - Leading role in Little Rock Nine crisis 1952 (6 were girls)

Frances Kelsey - Blocked Thalidomide from sales in US 1958  

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

Katherine McCormick – Funded oral contraceptive 1960

Dolores Huerta – Co-founded United Farm Workers 1962  

Valentina Tereshkova – 1st woman in space 1963   

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

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

Shirley Chisholm- 1st African-American woman elected to Congress 1968

Barbara Jo Rubin – 1st woman jockey 1969

Charlotte T. Reid - 1st woman to wear pants in U.S. Congress 1969

Bernice “Bunny” Sandler – godmother of Title IX 1970

Anna Mae Hays - 1st woman general 1970

Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Shirley Chisholm, Fannie Lou Hamer, Bella Abzug, and Myrlie Evers-Williams - organized National Women's Political Caucus 1971 

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

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

Gloria Steinem - Founding editor of Ms. Magazine 1972 

Betty Friedan - Founded National Abortion Rights Action League 1973  

Anne Armstrong – 1st woman co-chair of Rep National Committee 1974

Billie Jean King - Founds Women's Sports Foundation 1974  

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

Sandra Day O'Connor – 1st woman on Supreme Court 1981 

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

Geraldine Ferraro–1st woman VP candidate of major political party 1984

Beverly Burns – 1st woman 747 pilot  1984

Wilma ManKiller – 1st woman chief of the Cherokee Nation 1985  

Barbara Clementine Harris – 1st female Episcopal bishop 1989

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

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

Ellen Ochoa – 1st Hispanic woman in space 1993

Toni Morrison – 1st African-American woman awarded Nobel Prize 1993 

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

Madeleine Albright  -1st woman Secretary of State 1997

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21st CENTURY

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

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

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

Kamala Harris - 1st South Asian American to serve US Senate 2016

       1st African-American running mate on a major party ticket 2020

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