The world remembers people who were the first to do something historically significant. Whether their achievements were in politics, science, sports, or the arts, there are a number of iconic women who made history by being first at something.
Right now, Kamala Harris, the first female vice president of the United States, is the Democratic nominee running to become the first female U.S. president. This historic election year is also a perfect time to remember the first women to win a Nobel Prize, fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, win a Best Director Oscar, travel into space, and become a self-made millionaire, to name a few.
Although there are many more “female firsts” than the 13 listed here, the following inspirational women will forever be remembered for defying expectations and kicking down doors for others.
Marie Curie
Polish physicist and chemist Marie Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and the first person to win a second Nobel Prize. She is also the first and only person to ever win a Nobel Prize in two different fields: physics and chemistry.
Madame Curie, who coined the term “radioactivity,” discovered the elements radium and polonium. She continued her pioneering research in her lab until her death in 1934.
Amelia Earhart
In 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first female aviator to make a nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Earhart authored books about her flying experiences and became a feminist icon for her achievements.
In 1937, Earhart disappeared somewhere over the Pacific Ocean as she attempted to become the first woman aviator to circumnavigate the world. As the search continues for Earhart's long-lost plane, awareness of her legacy as an aviation pioneer remains sky-high.
Indira Gandhi
Indira Gandhi became India's first and, to date, only female prime minister. She served three consecutive terms from 1966 to 1977, and a fourth term from 1980 until her assassination in 1984.
In 1999, BBC News readers voted Gandhi as the “greatest woman of the past 1,000 years” in an online poll. The only person to serve longer as the prime minister of India is her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, the country's first prime minister.
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher served as the first female prime minister from 1979 to 1990, simultaneously becoming the first female prime minister of any European nation. The Conservative Party leader earned the nickname “Iron Lady” for her tough leadership style.
Thatcher continued to influence the Conservative Party until her death in 2013. Meryl Streep won a Best Actress Oscar for playing Thatcher in the 2011 biopic The Iron Lady.
Kathryn Bigelow
As the director of the 2008 war thriller The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win a Best Director Oscar. She also directed Near Dark, Point Break, Strange Days, and Zero Dark Thirty.
Bigelow was married to Aliens director James Cameron from 1989 to 1991 and used several Aliens cast members for her movie Near Dark. The most recent feature film directed by Bigelow is the 2017 crime drama Detroit.
Elizabeth Blackwell
Elizabeth Blackwell is notable for becoming the first woman in the United States to earn a medical degree. Born in 1821 in England, Blackwell moved with her family to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1832.
Blackwell reportedly had to sit separately from male students in medical school and got shunned by townspeople for defying her expected gender role. In 1857, Blackwell and her sister founded the New York Infirmary for Women and Children, which emphasized the importance of educating girls. She returned to England and formed the London School of Medicine for Women in 1874.
Gertrude Ederle
President Calvin Coolidge dubbed Gertrude Ederle “America's Best Woman” for becoming the first woman to swim across the English Channel in 1926. She became a symbol of the Roaring '20s and won the favor of the American public for swimming the channel during challenging conditions.
According to The New York Times, Ederle considered herself a “water baby” and said she was “happiest between the waves.” She once told an interviewer, “I am comfortable and satisfied. I am not a person who reaches for the Moon as long as I have the stars.” Ederle passed away in 2003 at the age of 98.
Valentina Tereshkova
Former Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova is the first woman to go to space. She flew a solo mission on board Vostok 6 in 1963 during which she orbited the Earth 48 times. Tereshkova is the last surviving Vostok cosmonaut.
Tereshkova has served as a member of the State Duma for the United Russia party since 2011. Her controversial decision in 2022 to vote for the Russian invasion of Ukraine tainted her legacy as a politician outside her native country, but she will be remembered primarily as the first woman in space.
Jeannette Rankin
Women's-rights activist and politician Jeannette Rankin became the first woman elected to U.S. Congress or any federal office. She represented Montana in the U.S. House of Representatives, getting elected in 1916 for one term and a second time in 1940.
In 1968, at age 87, she led 5,000 women dressed in black known as the Jeannette Rankin Brigade to protest the Vietnam War at the U.S. Capitol. Rankin passed away in 1973 and remains the only female congresswoman elected by the state of Montana.
Kamala Harris
Kamala Harris became the first female vice president of the United States when she took office in 2021 with Joe Biden as president. Prior to becoming vice president, Harris served as a senator and attorney general of California.
Harris is now the Democratic Party nominee to take on former President Donald Trump in the election to become the next president of the United States. Should she win, Harris will become the first female president of the United States, as well as the first Asian-American U.S. president.
Ann Bancroft
Not to be confused with Anne Bancroft the actress, Ann Bancroft without an “e” at the end of her first name is the first woman to reach the North Pole by foot and sled. The 1986 Will Steger International North Pole Expedition took 56 days, covered 1,000 miles across shifting sea ice, and involved temperatures as low as -70 degrees Fahrenheit.
In 1992, Bancroft became the first woman to reach both poles. Regarded as one of the greatest polar explorers in history, the ice queen plans another Antarctica excursion in 2027.
Nellie Bly
American Nellie Bly is regarded as the first female investigative journalist for pretending to be “mad” so she could get inside a New York mental institution and report on its conditions. After 10 days, the 23 year old returned from Blackwell's Island with tales of beatings, ice baths, and forced meals of spoiled butter. Bly's published story in New York World marks the beginning of so-called stunt reporting.
In 1889, Bly is also known for circumnavigating the world faster than Phileas Fogg, the fictional hero in Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days. Using ships, trains, and burros, Bly left New York and returned just over 72 days later.
Madam C. J. Walker
Madam C. J. Walker, born Sarah Breedlove, is the first female self-made millionaire according to the Guinness Book of World Records. As the founder ofMadam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company, Walker made her fortune by creating and marketing cosmetics and hair products for Black women.
Walker didn't just sit on her money, however. She is known for her philanthropy and for donating to organizations such as the NAACP. She advocated for civil rights and protested against discrimination and segregation until her death in 1919 at the age of 51.
