Edith Wharton

Dr. Mary E. Walker

Rosa Parks

Dr. Sally K. Ride

Dr. Anotnia Novello

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

Mary Dixon Kies

First U. S. patent issued to a woman. Kies, a Connecticut native, invented a process for weaving straw with silk or thread. First Lady Dolley Madison praised her for boosting the nation’s hat industry. Unfortunately, the patent file was destroyed in the great Patent Office fire in 1836.

1809

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

Miriam Benjamin

The second black woman to receive a patent for an invention she called a Gong and Signal Chair for Hotels.

1888

Mary McLeod Bethune

First woman to establish secondary school that became 4-year accredited college

1904

Mary Anderson

Patented the windshield wiper.

1905

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

Nellie Tayloe Ross

First woman governor of U. S. state (Wyoming)

1925

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

Evelyn Hooker, Ph.D.

Hooker's research demonstrated that expert clinical judges could not distinguish the projective test protocols of nonclinical homosexual men from a comparable group of heterosexual men, nor were there differences in adjustment ratings, was validated soon thereafter by other investigators. Not until 1973, however, did the American Psychiatric Association delete homosexuality from its diagnostic handbook.

1957

Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova

First woman to fly in space, aboard Vostok 6.

1963

Stephanie Kwolek

Kevlar was invented by former DuPont chemist Stephanie Kwolek of Wilmington, Del. Soldiers owe their lives to a retired 79-year-old woman in Delaware.

1965

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

Marie Brown

The first video home security system was patented (patent #3,482,037) on December 2, 1969 to Marie Brown. The system used television surveillance.

1969

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

Sally Kristen Ride

First American woman to reach outer space.

1983

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

Barbara Ross-Lee, D.O.

First African American woman to be appointed dean of an American medical school.

1993

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

2005

Nancy Pelosi

First woman to become Speaker of the House

2007