Women's Workplace Firsts
1650 Anne Bradstreet is the first published American woman author.
1707 Henrietta Johnston is a portrait artist in Charles Town, SC, making her the first professional woman artist in the U.S.
1809 Mary Kies is the first woman to receive a patent for her method of weaving straw with silk.
1849 Elizabeth Blackwell graduates from medical school and becomes the first woman physician in the U.S.
1866 Lucy Hobbs is the first woman to graduate from dental school.
1869 Arabella Mansfield is granted a law license in Iowa, making her the first woman lawyer in the U.S.
1916 Jeanette Rankin of Montana is the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives
1946 Edith Houghton is the first woman hired as a major-league baseball scout.
1970 Diane Crump is the first woman jockey to ride in the Kentucky Derby
1983 Sally Ride is the first American woman astronaut to travel into space.
1985 Penny Harrington becomes police chief of Portland, OR, the first woman police chief of a major U.S. city.
1985 Wilma Mankiller is the first woman chief of the Cherokee Nation.
1993 Sheila Widnall becomes Secretary of the Air Force, the first woman to lead any branch of the military.