Do You Know These Firsts in Women’s History?

Manon Rheaume is a talented ice hockey goalkeeper, and after she helped Canada win gold at the women’s hockey world championships in 1992, she was invited to join the Tampa Bay Lightning. Rheume played one period of an exhibition match between Tampa Bay and the St. Louis Blues, which makes her the first — and only — woman to play in an NHL game.

In 1960, Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the world’s first female prime minister when she was elected to lead Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Bandaranaike had always held an interest in politics, and when her husband S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike was assassinated while serving as prime minister in 1959, she was encouraged to stand in his place. Bandaranaike was a popular prime minister and served three terms in office.

In 1938, Katharine Graham started working for “The Washington Post,” and in 1963, she made history when she became the CEO of the Fortune 500 company, the first woman ever to hold such a position. One of Graham’s most notable achievements was encouraging the uncovering of the Watergate conspiracy, which ultimately led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

In 1137, at the age of 15, Eleanor of Aquitaine became one of the most eligible brides in Europe after her father’s death put her in charge of the rich region of Aquitaine in France. Eleanor soon married Prince Louis and became queen of France. The marriage was unhappy, and it was dissolved in 1152. She went on to marry Henry II and reigned as queen of England until 1189.

In 1975, Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Tabei stood at just 4 feet, 10 inches, and yet she belied cultural and gender stereotypes to become one of Japan’s leading mountaineers. After climbing Everest, Tabei became the first woman to climb the highest peaks on all seven continents.

In 1872, Victoria Woodhull became the first woman to run for U.S. President. She was a passionate suffragist and campaigned for equal rights, welfare for the poor, and the abolition of the death penalty. Unfortunately, her colorful past as a clairvoyant, her multiple marriages, and her advocacy for “free love” proved too much for Victorian voters, and any votes cast in her favor were not counted.

Often called “the most beautiful actress in film,” Hedy Lamarr was also an inventor. She created a new way of frequency hopping that made a radio signal move between different channels on its way to its destination. It was a revolutionary invention for World War II transmissions, but Lamarr’s technology wasn’t fully embraced until much later.

Growing up on an Omaha reservation in the 1860s, Susan La Flesche watched white doctors refuse to treat sick Native Americans, which inspired her to earn her medical degree. In 1909, La Flesche traveled to Washington, D.C., to advocate for the Omaha to retain control of their own land. She continued to treat them and worked to raise funds to open a hospital that was named after her, following her death in 1915.

Patsy Mink, a Japanese American woman from Hawaii, was elected to the House of Representatives in 1964, making her the first Asian American woman to serve in Congress. Mink played a significant role in passing Title IX legislation, preventing gender-based discrimination in education. She also wrote bills like the Early Childhood Education Act and the Women’s Educational Equity Act.

Before Rosa Parks sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Claudette Colvin, a Black Alabama teenager, took the same action when the bus driver demanded she give her seat up for a white woman. When she refused, she was arrested. Civil rights leaders did consider starting the bus boycott with her but decided instead that her youth made her the wrong face for their movement.

Madam C.J. Walker was a trailblazing entrepreneur who developed hair care products. Walker used her own experience with hair loss to create hair care lotions specifically for Black hair and built a network of salespeople to sell the products directly to Black women. Her products gained a huge following in the early 20th century, and Walker became the first female self-made millionaire.

In 1987, Aretha Franklin became the first woman to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The Queen of Soul found great success in the 1960s with a string of iconic hits such as “Respect” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.” Her induction began to redress the imbalance in the Hall of Fame, which opened in 1986 with 10 male artists.

Eleanor Roosevelt remains one of the most impactful First Ladies in history, thanks in large part to her commitment to human rights. Her famous speech, “The Struggle for Human Rights,” was a major impetus for the UN to pass the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in December of 1948.

Marie Curie is famous for her work with radioactivity in particular, and she discovered two elements, radium and polonium. She and her husband were awarded half of the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics, along with Henri Becquerel, for their studies in radiation. She received her second Nobel Prize, for Chemistry, in 1911 for her studies in radioactivity, becoming the only woman to be awarded the honor twice.

As only the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was aware of the importance behind everything she did. She began to wear specific collars with her robe to feminize the wardrobe and indicate her opinion. Her “dissent” collar — a spiky, bejeweled necklace on a black band — became notorious when she wore it for the "Bush v. Gore" decision in 2000.

The first woman in space was Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova. Before she was selected as a cosmonaut, Tereshkova worked in a textile factory. She earned her place as a cosmonaut trainee thanks to her advanced skydiving skills. On June 16, 1963, Tereshkova launched into space on Vostok 6. She spent two days, 23 hours, and 12 minutes in space, and completed 48 orbits of Earth.

In 1953, Katherine Johnson was hired among a group of other Black women to be “computers” at NASA. With her expertise in complex mathematics, Johnson — portrayed by Taraji P. Henson in the Oscar-nominated 2016 film Hidden Figures — calculated the route a spacecraft would have to take to reach the moon. When NASA applied her calculations, they worked, contributing toward the NASA mission to send humans to the moon for the first time.

Starting in 1851, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton traveled all over the country to give speeches about women’s rights. Their topics included voting rights, equal pay for equal work, labor rights, and abolition. Their hard work, plus the effort of many other suffragettes, finally paid off in 1920, when the 19th Amendment was passed, giving women the right to vote.

In 1921, Edith Wharton was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her novel “The Age of Innocence,” becoming the first woman to earn the accolade. However, she was not the jury’s first choice. They originally selected "Main Street" by Sinclair Lewis as the best novel of the year, but it was overturned on political grounds, giving Wharton’s now-iconic work the historic win.

Amelia Earhart set a few records during her time as a pilot, including becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, and the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to the continental United States. After embarking on the ultimate course to fly around the world in 1937, Earhart disappeared over the Pacific Ocean. Since her disappearance, there have been many theories, but no conclusive answers.

Sacagawea, a member of the Agaideka (Lemhi) Shoshone, was invited by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to be an interpreter on their expedition to find a pathway to the Pacific Ocean. Sacagawea set out with the Corps of Discovery in early 1805, immediately showing her resourcefulness and skill with foraging for edible plants. Her presence, as the only woman among Lewis and Clark’s group, served to make the team appear more trustworthy, as opposed to a group of all men traveling together.

After escaping to freedom herself, Harriet Tubman became the most well-known Underground Railroad conductor in history. With a vast network of safe houses and contacts, she used various tactics to get more people to freedom, like leaving during the night to give the enslaved more time to escape without their owners noticing. Tubman is quoted as saying she, unlike most other Railroad conductors, “never lost a passenger.”