List of women's firsts

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This is a list of women's firsts noting the first time that a woman or women achieved a given historical feat. A shorthand phrase for this development is "breaking the gender barrier" or "breaking the glass ceiling." Other terms related to the glass ceiling can be used for specific fields related to those terms, such as "breaking the brass ceiling" for women in the military and "breaking the stained glass ceiling" for women clergy. Inclusion on the list is reserved for achievements by women that have significant historical impact.

See also: List of American women's firsts

Arts and entertainment

Academy Awards

• 1930: Frances Marion, first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (for The Big House).
• 1940: Anne Bauchens, first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Film Editing (for North West Mounted Police).
• 1946: Muriel Box, first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay (for The Seventh Veil); she shared this award with her husband Sydney.
• 1973: Julia Phillips, first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Picture (for The Sting); she shared this award with Michael Phillips and Tony Bill.
• 1996: Rachel Portman, first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Original Score (for Emma).
• 2010: Kathryn Bigelow, first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Director (for The Hurt Locker).
• 2013: Brenda Chapman, first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature; she shared this award with Mark Andrews.
• 2016: Sara Bennett, first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects (for Ex Machina); she shared this award with Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, and Mark Ardington.

Emmy Awards

• 1949: Shirley Dinsdale, first ever recipient of the Emmy Award.
• 1985: Karen Arthur, first woman to win an Emmy Award for directing (Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for Cagney & Lacey.)
• 2015: Uzo Aduba, the first actress to win both a drama and comedy Emmy Award for the same role.
• 2015: Viola Davis, first African-American to win an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

Film (aside from the Academy Awards)

• 1946: Bodil Ipsen, first woman to win the Palme d'Or (for The Red Meadows.)
• 1984: Barbra Streisand, first woman to win Golden Globe Award for Best Director for Yentl.
• 2009: Kathryn Bigelow, first woman to win the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing (for The Hurt Locker).
• 2010: Kathryn Bigelow, first woman to win best director at the BAFTA awards (for The Hurt Locker).
• 2010: Kathryn Bigelow, first woman to win Critics' Choice Award for Best Director (for The Hurt Locker).
• 2015: Agnes Varda, first woman to receive an honorary Palme d'or.

Grammy Awards

• 1996: Ashley Cleveland, first woman to win a Grammy award for best rock gospel album.

Literature (aside from the Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes)

• 1970: Bernice Rubens, first woman to win the Man Booker Prize (for The Elected Member.)
• 1992: Mona Van Duyn, first female poet laureate of the United States.
• 2015: Julie Schumacher, first woman to win the Thurber Prize for American Humor.
• 2015: Zurinah Hassan, first female Malaysian National Laureate.

Pulitzer Prizes

• 1918: Sara Teasdale, first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (for her work Love Songs.)
• 1921: Zona Gale, first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (for Miss Lulu Bett.)
• 1921: Edith Wharton, first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (for the novel The Age of Innocence.)

Television (aside from the Emmy Awards)

• 1949: Arlene Francis, first woman to host a television game show (Blind Date.)
• 1957: Decoy: Police Woman was the first television show to feature a female police officer, and in fact the first to be built around a female protagonist.

Theater (aside from the Tony Awards)

• 1956: Alice Childress, first woman to win an Obie Award, which she won for best off-Broadway play for her play Trouble in Mind.
• 2011: Cricket Myers, first woman to win a Drama Desk Award for outstanding sound design.

Tony Awards

• 1998: Julie Taymor, first woman to win a Tony Award for best director of a musical.
• 2004: Phylicia Rashād, first African-American person to win a Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Play.
• 2013: Cyndi Lauper, first woman to win a Tony Award for Best Original Score solo.
• 2014: Audra McDonald, won a Tony Award, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play this year, making her the first woman to ever earn six Tony Award wins (not counting honorary awards) and the first woman to win a Tony Award in all four acting categories.
• 2015: Tony Award for Best Original Score was won by Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori, making them the first female writing team to win that award.

Other

• 1922-1937: Aloha Wanderwell, first woman to drive around the world.
• 1949: Jenny Lou Carson, the first woman to write a No. 1 country music hit.
• 1984: Lydia Canaan, listed in the catalog of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's Library and Archives as the first rock star of the Middle East.
• 1987: Aretha Franklin, first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• 1990: Rachel Rachel, first all-female Christian rock band in American and world Contemporary Christian music history.
• 2014: Judith Weir, first female Master of the Queen's Music.

Aviation and Aerospace

Date	Name	Milestone
June 4, 1784	Élisabeth Thible	First known woman to ride in a hot air balloon.
1805	Sophie Blanchard	First woman to pilot a hot air balloon.
March 8, 1910	Raymonde de Laroche	First woman to receive a pilot's license.
1910-1911	Lilian Bland	First woman in the world to design, build, and fly an aircraft.
1912	Harriet Quimby	First woman to fly across the English Channel.
1914	Eugenie Mikhailovna Shakhovskaya	First woman commissioned as a military pilot; she flew reconnaissance missions for the Czar in 1914.
1915	Marie Marvingt	First woman to fly a fighter plane in combat.
1928	Amelia Earhart	First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
1930	Amy Johnson	First woman to fly from Britain to Australia.
May 18, 1953	Jacqueline Cochran	First woman to break the sound barrier.
June 16, 1963	Valentina Tereshkova	First woman in space.
1963	Betty Miller	First female pilot to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean.
1964	Jerrie Mock	First woman to fly solo around the world.
1976	Emily Howell Warner	First woman to become an American airline captain.
1978	Judy Cameron	First female pilot hired to fly for a major Canadian carrier (Air Canada).
1984	Svetlana Savitskaya	First woman to space walk.
February 1995	Eileen Collins	First woman space shuttle pilot.
2004	Irene Koki Mutungi, from Kenya	First African woman to qualify to captain a commercial aircraft; she qualified to command the Boeing 737.
2005	Hanadi Zakaria al-Hindi	First Saudi woman to become a commercial airline pilot.
September 18, 2006	Anousheh Ansari	First female space tourist.
2009	Patricia Mawuli	Ghana's first female civilian pilot, and the first woman in West Africa certified to build and maintain Rotax engines.
2014	Nicola Scaife, from Australia	Winner of the first women's hot air balloon world championship, which was held in Poland.
2015	Dalia	Iraq's first female commercial airline pilot.
2015	Ouma Laouali	Niger's first female pilot.

Computing

See: Timeline of women in computing

Dentistry

Main articles: Timeline of women in dentistry and Timeline of women in American dentistry

1866: Lucy Hobbs Taylor, first American woman to earn a doctorate in dentistry.

Born Lucy Hobbs on March 14, 1833 in Constable, New York. She was initially denied admission to dental school, then began private study with a professor from the Ohio College of Dental Surgery. In November 1865, she entered the Ohio College of Dental Surgery, where in 1866 she earned her doctorate in dentistry, becoming the first woman in the United States to do so. She married James Taylor and he followed her into the practice of dentistry. The two moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where they practiced together until her husband’s death in 1886. She retired and became active in women’s rights, and died in 1910.

Education

See also: Female education, Timeline of women in education worldwide, and Women in education in the United States

Further information:

Year	Name	Milestone
1608	Juliana Morell	First woman to earn a doctorate degree.
1678	Elena Cornaro Piscopia	First woman to earn a Philosophy doctorate degree.
1732	Laura Bassi	First woman to officially teach at a European university.
1875	Stefania Wolicka-Arnd	First woman to receive a PhD in the modern era.

International bodies

• 1950: Geronima Pecson - first Filipino and first woman elected to the executive board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Military

See also: Women in the military and Women in the Philippine military

Nobel Prizes

• 1903: Marie Curie, first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics; she shared the prize with Antoine Henri Becquerel and Pierre Curie.
• 1905: Baroness Bertha Sophie Felicita von Suttner, first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Peace.
• 1909: Selma Lagerlöf, first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• 1911: Marie Curie, first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• 1947: Gerty Cori, first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine; she shared the prize with Carl Ferdinand Cori and Bernardo Alberto Houssay. Although born in Prague, Gerty Cori is considered the first American woman to win a Nobel Prize in medicine. She had become a U.S. citizen in 1928.
• 1977: Barbara McClintock, first woman to win an unshared Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and since she was American, the first American woman to do so.
• 2009: Elinor Ostrom, first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economics, and since she was American, the first American woman to do so; she shared the prize with Oliver E. Williamson.

Police

See also: Women in the Philippine National Police

Politics

Main article: List of the first female holders of political offices

See also: List of first female mayors

Religion

See also: Ordination of women, Ordination of women in Protestant churches § Women as bishops, Timeline of women hazzans in America, Timeline of women hazzans worldwide, Timeline of women rabbis in America, and Timeline of women rabbis worldwide

Further information:

• 1935: Regina Jonas became the first woman to be ordained as a rabbi.

Kathryn Kuhlman born 1907-1976: Largest christian following in American History.

• 1980: Marjorie Matthews, first woman to become a bishop of the United Methodist Church.
• 1989: Barbara Harris, first woman ordained a bishop in the Anglican Communion.
• March 12, 1994: The first women were ordained as Church of England priests; 32 women were ordained together.
• 2006: Katharine Jefferts Schori, first woman presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States.
• 2008: Kay Goldsworthy, first woman consecrated bishop in Australia; she was made a bishop of the Anglican Church of Australia.

Sports

Main articles: Timeline of women in sports in America and Timeline of women in sports worldwide

Further information:

• August 6, 1926: Gertrude Ederle, first woman to swim across the English Channel.
• 1937: Grace Hudowalski was the ninth person and first woman to climb all 46 of the Adirondack High Peaks.
• 1940s: Lois Fegan Farrell became the first female reporter to cover a professional hockey team in America.
• November 27, 1968: Penny Ann Early, first woman to play major professional basketball, in an ABA game (Kentucky Colonels vs. Los Angeles Stars).
• August 15, 1970: Patricia Palinkas, first woman to play professionally in an American football game.
• May 16, 1975: Junko Tabei, first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
• 1993: Halli Reid became the first woman to swim across Lake Erie, swimming from Long Point, Ontario, to North East, Pennsylvania, in 17 hours.
• October 18, 1997: Liz Heaston, first female to play and score in a college football game, kicking two extra points in the 1997 Linfield vs. Willamette football game.
• December 26, 2008: Sarah Thomas, first woman to officiate a NCAA football bowl game.
• September 4, 2009: Carolynn Sells becomes the first woman to win a solo motorcycle race on the Snaefell Mountain Course in the Isle of Man when she won the Ultra Lightweight race at the 2009 Manx Grand Prix. Carolynn won the race in a time of 1hr 25mins 24.51seconds (106.022 mph) in wet and windy conditions, beating her nearest opponent by 1 minute and 2 seconds.
• May 4, 2012: Rosie Napravnik became the first woman jockey to win the Kentucky Oaks, riding Believe You Can.
• August 9, 2012: Shannon Eastin becomes the first woman to officiate a National Football League game in a pre-season matchup between the Green Bay Packers and the San Diego Chargers.
• 2012: Anna Wardley, from England, became the first person to complete a solo swim around Portsea Island recognized by the British Long Distance Swimming Association.
• May 31, 2013: Lydia Nsekera became the first female FIFA Executive Committee member.
• May 18, 2013: Rosie Napravnik places third in the Preakness Stakes on Mylute, making her the first woman to have ridden in all three Triple Crown races. On June 8, 2013 she rode the filly Unlimited Budget to a 6th-place finish in the 2013 Belmont, becoming the first woman to ride all three Triple Crown races in the same year.
• June 2013: Ashley Freiberg became the first woman to claim an overall GT3 Cup Challenge victory in North America, winning the Porsche IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge.
• September 23, 2013: Sarah Outen arrived in a small harbor on the Aleutian island of Adak, and thus became the first person to row solo from Japan to Alaska, as well as the first woman to complete a mid-Pacific row from West to East.
• 2013: Davie Jane Gilmour became the first woman to lead the Board of Directors for Little League.
• 2013: UFC 157, which took place in February, featured not only the first women’s fight in UFC history but also the first UFC event to be headlined by two female fighters (Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche).
• 2013: On her fifth attempt and at age 64, Diana Nyad became the first person confirmed to swim from Cuba to Florida without the protection of a shark cage, swimming from Havana to Key West.
• 2013: Scotland's solicitor general, Lesley Thomson, became the first woman to be appointed to Scottish Rugby's board.
• 2013: Anna Wardley, from England, became the first woman to swim non-stop around the Isle of Wight.
• 2013: Peggy O'Neal, an American-born lawyer, became the first woman in the Australian Football League to hold the position of club president, being chosen as the president of the Richmond Football Club.
• 2013: Tracey Gaudry became the first woman appointed as vice president of the Union Cycliste Internationale.
• 2013: Maria Toor, a squash player from South Waziristan, became the winner of the first ever women’s event in the Nash Cup in Canada by beating Milou van der Heijden of the Netherlands 13-11, 11-3, 11-9.
• 2013: Tatyana McFadden became the first athlete to win six gold medals at a championships during the 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships in Lyon. She claimed gold in every event from the 100 meters through to the 5,000 meters.
• 2013: Tatyana McFadden won the Boston, Chicago, London, and New York marathons in 2013. This makes her the first person - able-bodied or otherwise - to win the four major marathons in the same year. She also set a new course record for the Chicago Marathon (1 hour, 42 minutes, 35 seconds).
• 2013: Denise Fejtek became the first woman to complete the "Peak to Heat Double" – the combination of summiting Mount Everest and finishing the Ironman Triathlon World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. She reached the Everest Summit on May 23, 2010 and finished the Hawaii Ironman in October 2013.
• 2013: Sonya Baumstein became the first person to stand-up paddleboard across the Bering Strait.
• 2013: Meredith Novack became the fastest person, and first woman, to pull a double crossing of the Auau Channel in Hawaii. Her time was 11 hours and one minute.
• 2013: Rosie Napravnik won 17 races to become the first woman to capture the leading rider title at Keeneland.
• 2013: Olivia Prokopova became the first woman to win the World Crazy Golf Championship.
• 2013: Mia Hamm became the first woman inducted into the World Football Hall of Fame in Pachuca, Mexico.
• 2013: Emily Bell became the first woman to kayak the length of Britain.
• 2013: Casey Stoney became the first female member of the Professional Footballers' Association's management committee.
• 2013: Jodi Eller became the first woman to complete the 1,515 mile Florida Circumnavigational Saltwater Paddling Trail.
• 2013: On March 1, 2013, Privateers owner and president Nicole Kirnan served as the team’s coach for the first time, making her the first woman to coach a professional hockey team in the United States.
• 2014: Torah Bright became the first woman to qualify for three snowboard disciplines at a Winter Olympics, specifically snowboard cross, halfpipe and slopestyle.
• 2014: Ashley Freiberg became the first woman to win an overall race in Continental Tire Challenge History when she won the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge. Her co-driver was Shelby Blackstock.
• 2014: The first women competed in ski jumping at the Olympics.
• 2014: Jennifer Welter became the first woman non-kicker or placekick-holder to play in a men’s pro football game; she played running back for the Texas Revolution.
• 2014: Abbey Holmes became the first woman to kick 100 goals in one regular season of Australian Rules football.
• 2014: Annabel Anderson, from New Zealand, became the first woman to cross Cook Strait standing on a paddleboard.
• 2014: Peta Searle became the first woman appointed as a development coach in the Australian Football League when she was chosen by St Kilda as a development coach.
• 2014: 16-year-old Katie Ormerod, from Britain, became the first female snowboarder to land a backside double cork 1080.
• 2014: Shelby Osborne became the first female defensive back in American football when she was drafted by Campbellsville University in Kentucky.
• 2014: Amélie Mauresmo became the first woman to coach a top male tennis player (specifically, Andy Murray.)
• 2014: Corinne Diacre became the first woman to coach a men's professional soccer team (Clermont Foot) in a competitive match in France on August 4, 2014, her 40th birthday.
• 2014: Cecilia Brækhus, from Norway, became the first Norwegian and the first woman to hold all major world championship titles in her weight division (welterweight) in boxing.
• 2014: On August 15, 2014, Mo'ne Davis was the first girl in Little League World Series history to pitch a winning game for the Taney Dragons and earned the win, and she was also the first girl to pitch a shutout in Little League postseason history.
• 2014: Amy Hughes, from England, ran 53 marathons in 53 days, thus setting the record for the most marathons run on consecutive days by any person, male or female.
• 2015: Jennifer Welter became the first woman hired to coach in men's pro football when the Texas Revolution of the Champions Indoor Football league announced that Welter was hired to coach linebackers and special teams.

Voting

Main article: Women's suffrage

See also: Women's suffrage in the United States

See also: Timeline of women suffrage in America

Women's Rights

Main article: Timeline of women's legal rights (other than voting)

Timeline of women's legal rights in the United States (other than voting)

See also

• List of American women's firsts
• Women's history

Further reading

• Timeline of Women in World History