This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (April 2012) |
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."[1][2] 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.[3][4] Inclusion on the list is reserved for achievements by women that have significant historical impact.
Date | Name | Milestone |
---|---|---|
June 4, 1784 | Élisabeth Thible | First known woman to ride in a hot air balloon.[5][6][7] |
1805 | Sophie Blanchard | First woman to pilot a hot air balloon.[8] |
March 8, 1910 | Raymonde de Laroche | First woman to receive a pilot's license.[9] |
1910–1911 | Lilian Bland | First woman in the world to design, build, and fly an aircraft.[10][11] |
1912 | Harriet Quimby | First woman to fly across the English Channel.[12] |
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.[13][14] |
1915 | Marie Marvingt | First woman to fly a fighter plane in combat.[15][16] |
1930 | Amy Johnson | First woman to fly from Britain to Australia.[17] |
1932 | Amelia Earhart | First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.[18] |
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. |
May 18, 1953 | Jacqueline Cochran | First woman to break the sound barrier.[19] |
1957 | Jackie Moggridge | First woman to become a British airline captain.[20] |
June 16, 1963 | Valentina Tereshkova | First woman in space.[21] |
1963 | Betty Miller | First female pilot to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean.[22] |
1964 | Jerrie Mock | First woman to fly solo around the world.[23] |
1964 | Joan Merriam Smith | Joan was the first person in history to fly solo around the world at the equator, the first person to complete the longest single solo flight around the world, the first woman to fly a twin-engine aircraft around the world, the first woman to fly the Pacific Ocean from west to east in a twin-engine plane, the first woman to receive an airline transport rating at the age of 23, and the 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.[24][25] |
1978 | Judy Cameron | First female pilot hired to fly for a major Canadian carrier (Air Canada).[26] |
1984 | Svetlana Savitskaya | First woman to space walk.[27] |
1991 | Sony Rana | Nepal's first licensed female commercial airline pilot.[28][29] |
February 1995 | Eileen Collins | First female Space Shuttle commander.[30] |
2004 | Irene Koki Mutungi, from Kenya | First African woman to qualify to captain a commercial aircraft; she qualified to command the Boeing 737.[31] |
2005 | Hanadi Zakaria al-Hindi | First Saudi woman to become a commercial airline pilot.[32] |
September 18, 2006 | Anousheh Ansari | First female space tourist.[33] |
2009 | Patricia Mawuli Nyekodzi | Ghana's first female civilian pilot, and the first woman in West Africa certified to build and maintain Rotax engines.[34] |
2014 | Nicola Scaife, from Australia | Winner of the first women's hot air balloon world championship, which was held in Poland.[35] |
2015 | Dalia | Iraq's first female commercial airline pilot.[36] |
2015 | Ouma Laouali | Niger's first female pilot.[37] |
1866: Lucy Hobbs Taylor, first American woman to earn a doctorate in dentistry.[38]
Born Lucy Hobbs on March 14, 1833, in Constable, New York. She was initially denied admission to dental school, then began private study with a professor from the Ohio College of Dental Surgery. In November 1865, she entered the Ohio College of Dental Surgery, where in 1866 she earned her doctorate in dentistry, becoming the first woman in the United States to do so. She married James Taylor and he followed her into the practice of dentistry. The two moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where they practiced together until her husband's death in 1886. She retired and became active in women's rights, and died in 1910.
Year | Name | Milestone |
---|---|---|
c. 1239 | Bettisia Gozzadini | First woman to teach at a university (lectured in law at the University of Bologna) |
1384 | Katherine, Lady Berkeley | Founded 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.[39] |
1608 | Juliana Morell | First woman to earn a doctorate degree.[40] |
1678 | Elena Cornaro Piscopia | First woman to earn a Philosophy doctorate degree.[41][42] |
1732 | Laura Bassi | First woman to officially teach at a European university.[43][44][45] |
1874 | Grace Annie Lockhart | First 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.[46][47] |
1891 | Juana Miranda | Ecuador's first female university professor.[48] |
1912 | Anna Jane McKeag | First woman president of Wilson College |
1935 | Kate Galt Zaneis | First woman president of a public college or university (Southeastern Normal College now Southeastern Oklahoma State) |
Historic firsts for women as heads of state or government:
Princess Eugenie M. Shakhovskaya was Russia's first woman military pilot. Served with the 1st Field Air Squadron. Unknown if she actually flew any combat missions, and she was ultimately charged with treason and attempting to flee to enemy lines. Sentenced to death by firing squad, sentence commuted to life imprisonment by the Tsar, freed during the Revolution, became chief executioner for Gen. Tchecka and drug addict, shot one of her assistants in a narcotic delerium and was herself shot.
In Russia, Princess Eugenie Shakhovskaya is the first female military pilot. She flies reconnaissance missions.
In 1915, Marvingt became the first woman in the world to fly combat missions when she became a volunteer pilot flying bombing missions over German-held territory and she received the Croix de Guerre (Military Cross) for her aerial bombing of a German military base in Metz.
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