Women's firsts

Polish-French physicist and chemist (1867–1934)

Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is an American politician, lawyer, and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator representing New York from 2001 to 2009, and the first lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001 as the wife of Bill Clinton. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the party's nominee in the 2016 presidential election, becoming the first woman to win a presidential nomination by a major U.S. political party and the only woman to win the popular vote for U.S. president. Clinton lost the United States Electoral College vote to Republican Party nominee Donald Trump. She is the only first lady of the United States to have run for elected office.

Vice President of the United States from 2021 to 2025

36th President of Brazil (2011-2016), 3rd President of the New Development Bank (BRICS)

Russian cosmonaut and pilot, first woman to have flown in space (born 1937)

American aviation pioneer and author (1897–1939)

American diplomat and political scientist (born 1954)

United States Secretary of State from 1997 to 2001

Governor of Alaska from 2006 to 2009

American feminist social activist, reformer, social worker, sociologist, philosopher, and writer (1860–1935)

19th-century Russian mathematician

American actress (1893-1952)

American economist; Nobel prize winner

American suffragist, editor (1838-1927)

Venetian philosopher (1646–1684)

American entrepreneur (1867-1919)

French film director (1873–1968)

American politician (1935–2011)

Dame Sarah Elisabeth Mullally is an Anglican bishop and England's former chief nursing officer who has served as the 106th archbishop of Canterbury since 28 January 2026, the first woman to hold the office. As archbishop, she is the senior bishop of the Church of England and the ceremonial head of the Anglican Communion. By virtue of her position, she is also a lord spiritual, one of the 26 Church of England bishops who sit in the House of Lords.

former Attorney General of the United States (1938-2016)

member of the United States Senate from Maine (1897-1995)

Women's rights activist (1818–1894)

Chief of the Cherokee Nation (1945–2010)

American architect and engineer (1872-1957)

American bishop

Anglo-Irish scientist and writer (1827-1869)

Canadian politician (1922–1993)

Bolshevik politician (1879-1925)

Italian politician (1889-1988)

Lincoln assassination conspirator

American film producer and author (1944–2002)

American librarian and 14th Librarian of Congress (born 1952)

Laotian politician

.American aviation pioneer (1925–2014)

the first Azerbaijani nurse of the Red Cross (1878–1931)

Swedish chemist (1849-1917)

American serial killer (1932-1984)

Lebanese born Egyptian actress

African-American entrepreneur (1814-1904)

self-proclaimed Jewish messiah

Nebet (“Lady”; ) was created vizier during the late Old Kingdom of Egypt by King Pepi I of the Sixth Dynasty, who was her son-in-law (and possibly also her nephew). She is the first recorded female vizier in Ancient Egyptian history; the next was in the 26th Dynasty.

Swedish historian and writer (1855-1900)

Swedish teacher (1838-1885)

Swedish dentist

Swedish lawyer & academic

nurse and pioneer in Swedish nursing education

Swedish physician

American academic studying early Christianity and Gnosticism

Norwegian nurse (1840–1919)

Swedish diplomat

American nurse

Swedish swimmer (1832-1892)

Italian engineer (1884–1970)

Swedish dentist

Zionist, lawyer and public figure in Israel

British classicist, professor (b. 1971)

American physician, pharmacist

American political analyst and press secretary

Danish deaconess, the first trained nurse in Denmark

Israeli air force officer