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List of American Women's Firsts 



Traditional writings from the past were very good at leaving out the accomplishments of women; the same pattern of neglect repeated itself in early American history. However, in the last half of a century, there has been a significant amount of writing and research dedicated to balancing the curriculum, specifically on the basis on sex.

17th century

 * 1635
 * Anne Hutchinson was the first American woman to start a religious sect.


 * 1640
 * Anne Bradstreet, Puritan poet, was the first significant female author in America.


 * 1647
 * Margaret Brent was the first American woman to demand the right to vote.


 * 1649
 * Mary Hammon and Goodwife Norman were charged with "lude behavior uppon a bed"; they are the first American women to be convicted of lesbian activity.

18th century

 * 1750
 * Jane Colden was the first woman in America to win distinction as a botanist.


 * 1756
 * Lydia Taft was the first woman to vote legally in Colonial America after her husband died and son left her; she was granted permission to vote through a Massachusetts town meeting.


 * 1762
 * Ann Franklin was the first female newspaper editor in America.


 * 1776
 * Margaret Corbin was the first woman to assume the role of soldier in the American Revolution and receive a pension for it.


 * 1784
 * Hannah Adams was the first American woman to become a professional writer.

19th century

 * 1800
 * Abagail Adams was the first wife of a president to live in the White House.


 * 1808
 * Jane Aitken was the first American woman to print the bible in English.


 * 1809
 * Mary Kies was the first woman to receive a U.S. patent.

1810s

 * 1812
 * Lucy Brewer was the first American woman to join the United States Marine Corp.

1820s

 * 1828
 * Sarah Hale was the first American woman to be a major women's magazine editor.

1830s

 * 1835
 * Harriot Hunt was the first woman to practice medicine, "clearly the first to achieve a marked success".


 * 1837
 * Laura Bridgman was the first blind-deaf person ever to be educated.

1840s

 * 1840
 * The first petition for a law granting married women the right to own property was established in 1840.


 * 1845
 * Lowell Female Labor Reform Association opened in 1845 as the first major labor union.


 * 1846
 * Susan Bagley was the first woman in America to be a telegraph operator.


 * Frances Whitcher was the first significant female comic protagonist in America, and the "first best-selling woman humorist".


 * 1848
 * The first convention held to advocate women's rights was the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848.


 * 1849
 * Elizabeth Blackwell (1849) was the first woman to earn a medical degree in America.

1850s

 * 1850
 * Harriet Tubman was the first American woman to run an underground railroad to help slaves escape. Some scholars label her the "Queen of the Underground Railroad".


 * 1853
 * Antoinette Brown Blackwell was the first woman in America to be ordained as a minister, licensed in the Congregational Church.


 * 1855
 * Anne McDowell was the first American woman to publish a newspaper completely ran by women; it was circulated weekly and titled, "Women's Advocate".


 * New York Women's Hospital opened in 1855 as the first hospital solely devoted to ailments affiliated with women.

1860s

 * 1865
 * Mary Surratt was the first woman hung by the federal government for conspiring with John Wilkes Booth in the murder of President Abraham Lincoln.


 * 1866
 * Mary Walker was the first woman in America to be a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor.


 * 1866
 * Lucy Hobbs Taylor was the first women in America to graduate from dental school.

1870s

 * 1870
 * Esther Hobart Morris was the first woman in America to serve as Justice of the Peace.


 * 1871
 * Frances Willard (suffragist) was the first American woman to be a college president. She also presided over the Women's Christian Temperance Union


 * 1872
 * Victoria Woodhull was the first woman to run for United States President.


 * 1877
 * Helen Magill White was the first woman in America to earn the Ph.D. degree


 * 1878
 * Emma Abbott was the first American woman to form her own opera company.

1880s

 * 1881
 * Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross.


 * 1887
 * Susanna Salter was the first woman to be elected to the office of mayor in the United States.


 * Phoebe Couzins (1887) was the first American woman to serve as a United States Marshal.

1890s

 * 1892
 * The fist women's basketball game was played at Smith College, and conducted by Senda Berenson.


 * 1893
 * John Hopkins Medical School was the first institution to admit women on an equal basis with men.


 * 1896
 * May Irwin was the first actress in America to kiss on screen, in the film was The Kiss (1896 film).

20th century

 * 1900
 * Margaret Abbott was the first woman in America, and second overall, to win an Olympic gold metal in golf.


 * 1905
 * May Sutton was the first American woman to win Wimbledon.


 * 1907
 * Dorothy Tyler was the first known woman in America to be a jockey.


 * 1908
 * The first Mother's Day (U.S.) was observed; Anna Jarvis is noted as the driving force for recognition of this holiday.

1910s

 * 1910
 * Alice Stebbins Wells was the first woman in America to be sworn in as a police officer in Los Angeles.


 * Florence Lawrence was America's first movie star.


 * 1911


 * Harriet Quimby was the first woman to be licensed as an airplane pilot in America.


 * 1912
 * Girl Scouts of America was established as the first voluntary organization for girls.


 * 1914
 * Caresse Crosby was the first woman to patent a brassiere.


 * 1916


 * The first birth control clinic was opened by Margaret Sanger.


 * Jeanette Rankin was the first woman in America to be elected to congress.


 * 1917
 * Loretta Perfectus Walsh was the first woman to enlist in the United States Navy.


 * 1918


 * Annette Adams was the first female United States attorney general, "...the highest judicial position any woman in the world had ever held".


 * Opha Mae Johnson was the first woman to enlist in the United States Marines.

1920s

 * 1920
 * Marie Luhring was the first woman in America to become an automotive engineer.


 * 1921
 * Edith Wharton was the first woman in America to win the Pulitzer Prize.
 * Margaret Gorman was the first "Miss America".
 * Alice Mary Robertson was the first woman to preside over the House of Representatives; she was also opposed to women's suffrage.


 * 1922
 * Rebecca Felton was sworn in as the first female Senator in the United States.


 * 1925
 * Nellie Tayloe Ross was the first woman in America to be elected governor, and the only one since, that has served in Wyoming.


 * 1926
 * Gertrude Ederle was the first woman to swim across the English Channel.


 * 1928
 * Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly across the atlantic ocean.
 * Genevieve R. Cline was the first woman appointed as a United States federal judge.

1930s

 * 1930
 * Ellen Church was the first female flight attendant in America. She suggested the idea of female nurses on board to Boeing Air Transport, claiming that if people felt safer they would fly more.


 * 1931
 * Jane Addams was the first woman in America to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.


 * 1933
 * Francis Perkins was the first woman to serve as a cabinet member, under Franklin Roosevelt.


 * 1934
 * Gertrude Atherton was the first woman to be president of the National Academy of Literature.

1940s

 * 1940
 * The first social security beneficiary was Ida May Fuller, she received check 00-000-001 in the amount of $22.54.


 * 1942
 * Anna Leah Fox was the first woman to receive the Purple Heart for being wounded in the attack on Pearl Harbor.


 * 1943
 * Nellie Neilson was the first woman to be president of the American Historical Association.


 * 1949
 * Georgia Neese Clark was the first woman Treasurer of the United States, under President Harry Truman.
 * Eugenie Anderson was the first woman to be a United States Ambassador, under President Harry Truman.
 * Shirley Dinsdale was the first recipient of the Emmy Award.

1950s

 * 1951
 * Paula Ackerman was the first woman in America to perform rabbinical functions.


 * 1953
 * Fae Adams was the first female to receive regular commission as a doctor in the United States Army.


 * 1956
 * Tenley Albright was the first woman in America to win the Olympic gold medal in figure skating.

1960s

 * 1964
 * Carol Doda was the first woman in America to perform as a topless, and bottomless (1969) entertainer.


 * 1965
 * Rachel Henderlite was the first woman ordained in the United Presbyterian Church.


 * 1966
 * The first modern feminist organization, National Organization for Women was created.

1970s

 * 1970
 * Diane Crump was the first woman in America to ride in the Kentucky Derby, she placed fifteenth.


 * 1974
 * Jeannette Piccard was the first female ballon pilot licensed in the United States; she was also the first woman to ascend to the stratosphere.


 * 1976
 * Shirley Black, or Shirley Temple, was the first woman to be chief of protocol for President Gerald Ford.
 * Lucy Giovinco was the was female in America to win the AMF Bowling World Cup.
 * Women first registered as cadets in the United States Air Force Academy.


 * 1977
 * Janet Guthrie was the first woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500 and Daytona 500.


 * 1978
 * Marcia Frederick at the age of fifteen, was the first woman in America to win Olympic gold in gymnastics.


 * 1979
 * Susan B. Anthony was the first woman in America to be depicted on a coin.

1980s

 * 1980
 * The United States Air Force Academy graduated its first female cadets.


 * 1981
 * Sandra Day O'Connor was the first woman to be a member on the United States Supreme Court.


 * 1983
 * Sally Ride was the first American woman in space.


 * 1984
 * Geraldine Ferraro was the first woman in America to run for vice president on a major-party platform.
 * Joan Benoit won the first women's Olympic Marathon.


 * 1986
 * Ann Bancroft was the first woman to reach the North Pole by foot and dogsled, "...she became the first known woman to cross the ice to the North Pole."

1990s

 * 1992
 * Manon Rhéaume was the first woman to play in a National Hockey League game; although she was Canadian, "She played goalie for the Tampa Bay Lightning..."


 * 1997
 * Madeleine Albright was the first woman in America to serve as United States Secretary of State under President Bill Clinton.

21st century

 * 2002
 * Nancy Pelosi was the first female Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and is currently the highest ranking woman politician in American history.