First American Women

Time has a way of blurring events and shoving them to the back. We forget where we once had been and how we got to where we are today.  On the backs of others, our freedoms and choices were won. Here's a partial list of American women firsts whose small and large steps brought us to what we take for granted.

1767
Anne Catherine Hoof Green takes over her late husband's printing and newspaper business, becoming the first American woman to run a print shop. The following year she is named the official printer for the colony of Maryland.

1795
Anne Parrish establishes, in Philadelphia, the House of Industry, the first charitable organization for women in America.

1809
Mary Kies becomes the first woman to receive a patent, for a method of weaving straw with silk.

1849
Elizabeth Blackwell receives her M.D. degree from the Medical Institution of Geneva, N.Y., becoming the first woman in the U.S. with a medical degree.

1864
Rebecca Lee Crumpler becomes the first black woman to receive an M.D. degree. She graduated from the New England Female Medical College.

1865, November 11
President Johnson signed a bill to present Dr. Mary Edwards with the Congressional Medal of Honor. She is the only woman to ever receive that award. 

1866
Elizabeth Cady Staton was the first woman to run for the U.S. House of Representatives as an independent from New York, even though she didn't have the right to vote.

1869
Arabella Mansfield is granted admission to practice law in Iowa, making her the first woman lawyer. A year later, Ada H. Kepley, of Illinois, graduates from the Union College of Law in Chicago. She is the first woman lawyer to graduate from a law school.

1872

Victoria Claflin Woodhull becomes the first woman presidential candidate in the United States when she is nominated by the National Radical Reformers.

1879

Belva Ann Lockwood becomes the first woman admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.

1884

Belva Lockwood, first woman admitted to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court.

1885

Sarah E. Goode, was the first African-American woman to receive a patent for a bed that folds up into a cabinet.

1887

Susanna Medora Salter becomes the first woman elected mayor of an American town, in Argonia, Kansas.

1896

 Alice Guy Blaché, the first American woman film director, shoots the first of her more than 300 films, a short feature called La Fee aux Choux (The Cabbage Fairy).

1897

Juanita Kreps becomes the first woman director of the New York Stock Exchange.  She later becomes the first woman appointed Secretary of Commerce.

1889

Susan La Flesche graduated  from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, making her the first Native American woman (Omaha) to receive a medical degree.

1925
Nellie Tayloe Ross, of Wyoming, became the nation's first woman elected governor. She served for two years

1931, December 10
Jane Addams received the Nobel Peace Prize

1965
Patsy Takemoto Mink, of Hawaii, was the first Asian-American woman elected to Congress.

1969
Shirley Chisholm was the first African-American woman in Congress.

1981
Sandra Day O'Connor was the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court.

1983
Sally Ride first woman to go into space during the space shuttle Challenger's STS-7 mission.

1989
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen became the first Hispanic woman elected to Congress

1990
Dr. Antonia Novello is made U.S.  Surgeon General.  She is also the first Hispanic to hold that position.

1992
Carol Moseley Braun is the first African-American woman elected to the U.S. Senate.

Mae Jemison is the first African-American woman astronaut

1993
Janet Reno is the first female Attorney General.

1994
Geraldine Ferraro is the first woman, on a major party ticket, to run for vice president.

1997
Madeline Albright is sworn  in as U.S. Secretary of State.

1999
Lt.Col. Eileen Collins is the first woman astronaut to command a space shuttle mission.

2005
Condoleeza Rice was the first African-American woman Secretary of State

2007
Nancy Pelosi becomes first woman Speaker of the House.
  

Sources: Rutgers, NASA, infoplease.com, History.com, womensmemorial.org, Nebraskastudies.com, Nobelprize.org, 4comculture.com, Fact Monster,