Research Guides: UMKC Libraries Book Displays: Notable Women Firsts

This is not a fully exhaustive list of Women's Firsts, but is meant as a starting point for research into notable achievements by women throughout history.
Date	Name	Accomplishment
2023	Simone Biles	Most decorated gymnast of all time (as of 2023)
2022	Erin Jackson	First African American woman to win Olympic gold in speed skating
2022	Michaela Jae Rodriguez	First transgender woman to win a Golden Globe Award
2021	Maia Chaka	First African American official in the NFL
2021	Emerald Fennell and Chloe Zhao	First year that two women were nominated in the Academy Award Best Director category
2021	Avril Haines	First woman to serve as director of National Intelligence
2021	Kamala Harris	First woman, African-American, and Asian-American sworn in as Vice President of the United States
2021	Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson	First African American women to win Academy Award for best makeup and hair
2021	Sarah Thomas	NFL's first permanent female game official, and the first woman to officiate a Super Bowl
2021	Janet Yellen	First woman to serve as Secretary of the Treasury
2020	Sarah McBride	First openly transgender state senator
2019	Sharice Davids	First openly LGBT Native American elected to the US Congress and first openly lesbian person elected to the US Congress from Kansas
2019	Joy Harjo	First Native American United States Poet Laureate
2018	Tammy Duckworth	First Senator to give birth while in office
2016	Carla Hayden	First woman and first African American to be Librarian of Congress
2015	Kristen Griest & Shaye Haver	First women to graduate from the US Army Ranger school
2013	Mazie Hirono	First elected female senator from Hawaii, and the first Asian-American woman elected to the Senate
2012	Ellen Ochoa	First Latinx in space and first Latinx director of the Johnson Space Center
2012	Tammy Duckworth	First woman with a disability elected to Congress
2009	Sonia Sotomayor	First Latina Supreme Court Justice
2008	Kathryn Bigelow	First woman to win Best Director Oscar for The Hurt Locker
2008	Cammi Granato	First woman to be inducted into the International Ice Hockey Hall of Fame
2008	Cammi Granato	First woman to be inducted into the US Hockey Hall of Fame
1998	Cammi Granato	First woman to win gold medal as captain of 1998 U.S. Olympic hockey team
1997	Madeleine Albright	First woman to be Secretary of State
1993	Janet Reno	First woman to be Attorney General of the U.S.
1987	Aretha Franklin	First woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
1987	Wilma Mankiller	First woman elected to serve as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation
1984	Svetlana Savitskaya	First woman to walk in space
1983	Sally Ride	First American woman in space
1981	Sandra Day O'Connor	First female US Supreme Court Justice
1979	Margaret Thatcher	First female British Prime Minister
1977	Rita Moreno	First Latina EGOT winner
1975	Junko Tabei	First woman to climb Mt. Everest
1972	Shirley Chisholm	First woman and African American to seek the nomination for President of the US from one of the two major political parties
1968	Shirley Chisholm	First African American woman in Congress
1967	Betty Mae Tiger Jumper	First (and so far the only) female Chief to the Seminole Tribe of Florida
1966	Indira Gandhi	First (and to date, only) female prime minister of India
1966	Bobbi Gibb	First woman to run the entire Boston Marathon
1963	Valentina Tereshkova	First woman in space
1962	Rita Moreno	First Latina to win an Oscar
1953	Jackie Cochran	First woman to break the sound barrier in flight
1933	Frances Perkins	First woman to serve as a Presidential Cabinet Member
1932	Amelia Earhart	First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean
1921	Bessie Coleman	First woman of African American and Native American descent to hold a pilot's license
1921	Edith Wharton	First woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in fiction
1916	Jeannette Rankin	First woman elected to the US House of Representatives
1903	Marie Salomea Skłodowska-Curie	First woman to win a Nobel Prize
1879	Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood	First woman to argue before the US Supreme Court
1849	Elizabeth Blackwell	First female doctor in the United States
1679	Elena Cornaro Piscopia	First woman to earn a Doctorate Degree
1650	Anne Bradstreet	First published woman author from America

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