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.
Aviation and aerospace
DateNameMilestone June 4, 1784 Élisabeth Thible First known woman to ride in a hot air balloon.Gene Nora Jessen, The Powder Puff Derby of 1929, pg xiErnst Probst Königinnen der Lüfte in Frankreich 2010 Page 61 "Élisabeth Thible Die erste Passagierin einer Montgolfière Die erste Frau, die in einer Montgolfière in die Luft abhob, war die französische Opernsängerin Élisabeth Thible, nach anderer Schreibweise auch Tible."Justin D. Murphy -Military Aircraft, Origins To 1918 2005 – Page 6 "In February 1784, Paolo Andreani, Agostino Gerli, and Carlo Gerli ascended in a Montgolfière outside Milan. On 4 June 1784, Élisabeth Thible became the first female aeronaut when she ascended over Lyons." 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. September 16, 1910 Bessica Faith Raiche First woman in the United States accredited with flying solo in an airplane. 1910–1911 Lilian Bland First woman in the world to design, build, and fly an aircraft.Lewis (1964), p. 140 1912 Harriet Quimby First woman to fly across the English Channel. 1912 Rayna Kasabova First woman to participate in a military flight during the Siege of Odrin. 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.Historic Wings – Online Magazine; Article on Hélène Dutrieu Coupe Femina and Marie Marvingt:, Published on December 21, 2012:
Retrieved January 10, 2015. 1930 Amy Johnson First woman to fly from Britain to Australia. 1932 Amelia Earhart First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. 1933 Lotfia ElNadi First African woman and first Arab woman to earn a pilot's license.1937 Sabiha Gökçen The first military woman to fly combat missions.1948Daisy PonThe first woman aeronautical engineering graduate in Canada. A graduate of the University of Toronto.October 17, 1951Touria ChaouiThe first Moroccan and Maghrebi female pilot May 18, 1953 Jacqueline Cochran First woman to break the sound barrier. 1957 Jackie Moggridge First woman to become a British airline captain. 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. 1964 Joan Merriam Smith First person in history to fly solo around the world at the equator First person to complete the longest single solo flight around the world First woman to fly a twin-engine aircraft around the world First woman to fly the Pacific Ocean from west to east in a twin-engine plane First woman to receive an airline transport rating at the age of 23 Youngest woman to complete a solo flight around the world.1973 Rosella Bjornson First female pilot for a commercial airline in North America 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.1991Sony RanaNepal's first licensed female commercial airline pilot. February 1995 Eileen Collins First female Space Shuttle commander. 2004 Irene Koki Mutungi 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.First Saudi Female Pilot Graduates, Arab News, 16 June 2005. Retrieved 21 October 2007. September 18, 2006 Anousheh Ansari First female space tourist. 2009 Patricia Mawuli Nyekodzi Ghana's first female civilian pilot, and the first woman in West Africa certified to build and maintain Rotax engines. 2014 Nicola Scaife 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. 2023 Vanessa Hudson First woman to lead Qantas Airways. 2024 Mitsuko Tottori First woman to lead Japan Airlines, where she began her career as a flight attendant in 1985. 2025 Nguyễn Ly Huơng First woman to become a Vietnamese airline captain.
Bureaucrat Asha Attri - First woman bureaucrat in Punjab.
Computing
Dentistry
Education
Year Name Milestonec. 1239Bettisia GozzadiniFirst woman to teach at a university (lectured in law at the University of Bologna)1384Katherine, Lady BerkeleyFounded Katharine Lady Berkeley's School, the first founded by a layperson, the first founded by a woman, and the first to offer free education to anyone. 1608 Juliana Morell First woman to earn a doctorate degree.Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Juliana Morell". Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company. 1678 Elena Cornaro Piscopia First woman to earn a Philosophy doctorate degree. 1732 Laura Bassi First woman to officially teach at a European university.Findlen, Paula. Science As A Career in Enlightenment Italy : The Strategies Of Laura Bassi. Isis 84.(1993): 440–469. History of Science, Technology & Medicine. Web. 3 June 2013."1874Grace Annie LockhartFirst woman in the British Empire to receive a Bachelor's degree 1875 Stefania Wolicka-Arnd First woman to receive a PhD in the modern era.1891 Juana Miranda Ecuador's first female university professor.1912Anna Jane McKeagFirst woman president of Wilson College1935Kate Galt ZaneisFirst woman president of a public college or university (Southeastern Normal College now Southeastern Oklahoma State)
Exploration
General business 1500s: Philippine Welser, first European female billionaire. 1889: Anna Bissell, first female CEO in the United States of America. 1903: Maggie L. Walker, first African-American woman to charter a bank. 1908: Clara Hammerl, first woman to lead a Spanish financial institution. 1915: Helena Rubinstein, first woman to found a cosmetics company. 1945: Ruth Handler, first female president of a major toy company. 1961: Katherine Graham, first female to lead a Fortune 500 company. 1992: Alice Walton, first female decabillionaire. 1999: Andrea Jung, first female CEO of a MLM company. 1999: Carly Fiorina, first female head of a Fortune 20 company. 2000: Martha Stewart, first self-made female American billionaire. 2003: Oprah Winfrey, first female African-American billionaire. 2013: Mary Barra, first female CEO of a major car manufacturer. 2019: Kylie Jenner, first female billionaire under 30. 2020: Rania Llewellyn, first female bank CEO in Canada. 2021: Kathryn Farmer, first female CEO of a major railroad.
Healthcare
1849: Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the first woman to earn a Medical Degree in the United States. 1863: Mary Edwards Walker becomes the first woman to practice surgery in the US Army 1867: Emily Jennings Stowe becomes the first woman to practice medicine in Canada 1901: Gertrude Stanton becomes the first woman licensed to practice optometry in the U.S.
History 1st century AD: Ban Zhao and Pamphile of Epidaurus – first female historians in Han China and the Roman Empire respectively. 1083: Anna Comnena - the first woman known to personally record historical events as a historian. 1928: María del Pilar Fernández Vega – first female museum curator in Spain, National Archaeological Museum (Madrid).
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). 1958: Agda Rössel – first woman Permanent Representative to the United Nations, as the representative of Sweden. She also becomes the first divorced woman Permanent Representative, in an era where many foreign ministries applied marriage bar rules requiring women to resign upon marriage. 1981: Jeane Kirkpatrick – First woman to serve as US Ambassador to the United Nations. 2021: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala became the first female Director-General of the World Trade Organization.
Journalism 1918: Minna Lewinson – first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for journalism in any category. 1936: Anne O'Hare McCormick – first woman appointed to the editorial board of the Times. 1946: Katharine Graham – first female publisher of a major newspaper in the United States, The Washington Post. 1962: Ellene Mocria – first female radio newscaster and producer in Ethiopia. 1973: Linda Carter Brinson – first female assistant national editor at The Baltimore Sun. 2002: Linda Carter Brinson – first female editorial page editor at the Winston-Salem Journal. 2004: Catherine Pepinster – first woman to be editor of British newspaper The Tablet in its 175-year history.
Law
Library science
Literature
c. 2300 BC: Enheduanna, earliest known poet and writer recorded in history. 935: Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim, the first female playwright. 1021: Murasaki Shikibu, author of The Tale of Genji, history's first novel coincidentally written by a woman. 1640: Aphra Behn, the first English women to earn a living by writing. 1648: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the first published feminist of the New World. 1670: Juliana of Norwich, author of Revelations of Divine Love, the first known book written in the English language by a woman 1753: Phillis Wheatley, the first African American woman to publish a book. 1759: Mary Wollstonecraft, the first woman to openly write about feminist issues in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. 1939: Agatha Christie, the first female author to publish a work (And Then There Were None) that sold more than 100 million copies.
Mathematics
Military
Nobel Prizes
1903: Marie Sklodowska-Curie, first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics; she shared the prize with Antoine Henri Becquerel and Pierre Curie. First woman to win a Nobel Prize. 1905: Baroness Bertha Sophie Felicita von Suttner, first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. 1909: Selma Lagerlöf, first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. 1911: Marie Sklodowska-Curie, first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. First person (and only woman to date) to win two Nobel Prizes. Only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different sciences. 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. 1983: Barbara McClintock, first woman to win an unshared Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. 2009: Elinor Ostrom, first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economics, and the first American woman to do so; she shared the prize with Oliver E. Williamson.
Politics
Historic firsts for women as heads of state or government:
Yevgenia Bosch, Ukrainian People's Republic (1917–1918), sometimes considered the first modern female leader of a national government.Targino, Rafael (February 7, 2015). "Em 25 anos, dobra número de mulheres no comando de países em todo o mundo". Revista Fórum. (Portuguese). Retrieved September 14, 2018. She held the position of Minister of Interior and Acting Leader of the People's Secretariat of Ukraine, one of a number of competing ruling bodies in the Ukrainian People's Republic, the predecessor of Soviet Ukraine.