The following are just some of the women who have broken barriers and were "firsts" in their fields.

Nancy Pelosi – First Woman Speaker of the House

Barbara Mikulski – First woman Democratic Senator elected in her own right

Shirley Chisholm – First African American woman elected to Congress; first African American woman to run for President

Geraldine Ferraro – First and only woman to be nominated on a major party ticket

Ella Grasso – First woman elected Governor in her own right -Conn.

Lupe Valdez - First Hispanic, woman, and openly LGBT official to serve as Dallas County Sheriff

Penny Harrington – First woman police chief of major city - Portland, Oregon

Janet Reno – First female U.S. Attorney General

Madeleine Albright – First woman Secretary of State

Sandra Day O'Connor – First female Justice of the United States Supreme Court

Sally Ride – First American woman in space

Ellen Ochoa – First Latina astronaut

Mae Jemison – First African American female astronaut

Dr. Ruth Simmons – First woman President of Brown University and only African American to head an Ivy league school

Drew Gilpin Faust – First woman president of Harvard

Katharine Jefferts Schori – First woman Presiding Bishop (top post) for Episcopal Church

Effa Manley – First woman elected to Baseball Hall of Fame (co-owner of Negro baseball league team Newark Eagles)

Elizabeth Blackwell – First woman doctor

Gwendolyn Brooks – First African American writer to win Pulitzer Prize

Althea Gibson - First African American to play in and win Wimbledon and the United States national tennis championship

Mary Davenport-Engberg – First woman conductor of an orchestra

Helen Thomas – First woman member of the National Press Club and Gridiron Club

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