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" when men bring forward as a second proof of their superiority the assertion that women have not achieved as much as men, they use poor arguments which leave history out of consideration. If they kept themselves more fully informed historically, they would know that great women have lived and achieved great things in the past, and that there are many living and achieving great things today"

...Abdu'l Bahá - Persian leader of the Baha'l faith in a speech at the Women's Freedom League in London in January 1913.... and the struggle goes on

HER NAME IS A...............

* A? Bradbury - Miss

..... FIRST woman Fellow at a male college when appointed bursar at Balliol College, London on 30th May 1939  

A Ashberry - moved to Anne

* Abigail Adams

  born 1744 died 1818

..... FIRST First Lady in the White House when it was built in 1800 and the FIRST First Lady to be criticised for running her husband's affairs. She was dubbed 'Mrs President'. In 1764 she married John Adams, who was the 2nd president of the USA from 1797 to 1801 and they had five children.  Abigail was very independent, supported the education of women and upheld the rights of wives in marriage. When her husband was defeated in 1801 they retired to their family home at Quincy. Her son John eventually became president, six years after her death which was caused by typhoid. Two volumes of her letters were published by her grandson in 1840 - Letters of Mrs Adams and Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife During The Revolution

* Abigail Jane Dunway

 born 1834 died 1915

..... FIRST woman in Oregon to vote

* Abigail Fillmore

..... American First Lady, wife of the 13th president, Millard Fillmore, and who was responsible for the FIRST library and the FIRST fully equipped system of indoor plumbing in the White House. This was due to her protest at not having a bathtub and a bible there

* Abigail Luckett

..... FIRST pupil with Down's Syndrome to take a GCSE exam at the same time as her classmates - 1990. She sat a 1½ hour exam in childcare and later in the year was to take a two-hour test in rural science. Her parents also believe that she may be the FIRST Down's child to take GCSEs at the age of 16

* Ada, Countess of Lovelace.

   born December 10th 1815 died 1851

...... credited as the FIRST computer programmer, although she herself could never have heard the term. Her computer language ADA is still in use. She was the only legitimate child of Lord Byron and one of the few female figures in computing history. Her mother was Annabelle Milbanke, a young and beautiful heiress who believed in education for women and was herself a fine mathematician. Ada was a child prodigy and by the age of eight she was able to grasp geometry (self-taught), higher mathematics, construct mechanically ingenious model ships, play the violin and guitar and speak fluent French and Italian. It is said that she was the only one to understand the "difference engine", the first mechanical calculator which was the brainchild of Charles Babbage, her best friend

* Ada Louise Huxtable

neé Landman

 born 1921

.....  American critic of architecture who was the FIRST  to be appointed by a newspaper, the New York Times in 1963. In 1960 she had a book published Pier Luigi Nervi and in 1970 received the FIRST Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. She left the Times in 1982 and became an independent architectural consultant and critic

* Ada Summers

..... on December 31st 1919 she became Mayor of Stalybridge in Lancashire and the office automatically included the position of Justice of Peace thereby making her the FIRST woman to sit as a magistrate

* Adalia Marquez Bautista

..... her mother was Manila's FIRST ever female police reporter when she began working for the Manila Tribune. She also wrote Blood On The Rising Sun about the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during the Second World War

* Adelaide Hall

    born 1901 died 1993

 ..... appeared in the FIRST all-black show on Broadway in 1921 - Shuffle Along. She was also one of the FIRST entertainers to enter Germany before the war was over

* Adelaide Hunter Hoodless

born 1857 died 1910

 ..... founder of the FIRST Women's Institute. She was a farmers wife and had founded the WI in Stoney Creek in America at the end of the last century. By 1915 there were over 800 institutions in Canada and on September 11th of the same year, Canadian Madge Watt founded the first one in the UK in Llanfairpwll, Anglesey.  The First World War helped to make the idea of the WI acceptable in Britain as helping with food production proved an ideal way of getting women involved and organised. By 1933 there were over 5,000 members. During the austere post-war years, Operation Produce was launched in 1947, the target being the production of ten pounds of extra food from each WI member and bottling, preserving, bee and even pig-keeping helped the cause. Their determination over the years has influenced policy makers and has resulted in the formation of the Keep Britain Tidy group, housing for the elderly, rural transport and dental care and their successful campaigns have banned flick knives and abolished turnstiles in ladies public toilets. Unrestricted visiting to children in hospitals is a direct result of a vigorous campaign fought by the WI in 1950

* Adelaide - Queen

 ..... Queen Victoria's aunt who owned the FIRST carriage ever made especially for a member of the British Royal family in 1842

* Adele Dixon

..... FIRST performer in the FIRST television broadcast on November 2nd 1936. She sang Here’s Looking At You in the show of the same name and which was broadcast to 400 sets within 25 miles of Alexandra Palace. Leslie Mitchell said “Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, it is with great pleasure that I introduce you to the magic of television”.  When the BBC celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1986 Miss Dixon was traced to help in the celebrations. Aged 78 years she had never had a television set 

* Adelheid Popp

   born 1869 died 1939

 ..... Austrian who led the FIRST women's strike in 1893. The 600 women on strike were from a clothing factory in Vienna. In the same year she founded Libertas, a group which enabled women to gain experience in political debates

* Adriana Caselotti

   born May 6th 1916 died 1997

..... American who was the voice of Snow White in Walt Disney's FIRST feature-length cartoon and Snow White remained with her for the rest of her life.  The house was full of china figurines of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and her answering machine had on it an excerpt from the film's soundtrack.  She was paid $960 for her work and Disney retained the rights to the character.  When invited to sing on the Jack Benny show, Walt Disney told her that she could not as he did not want that voice to be used anywhere and spoil the illusion of snow White. She later sang opera and had a bit part in The Wizard of Oz

* Aduke Alakiija

 born 1921

..... FIRST black African woman director of Mobil Oil, she was also president of the International Federation of Women Lawyers. She studied law in England and was called to the bar in 1953. In 1964 Columbia University conferred on her an honorary LLd

* Agatha Barbara

..... FIRST women elected to Parliament in 1947 and in 1984 was the FIRST woman President of the Republic of Malta

* Aggie Grey

 neé Agnes Genevieve Swann

 born 31st October 1897 died 1988

 ..... the South Pacific's 'Bloody Mary' who in 1971 became the FIRST commoner to appear on a Samoan postage stamp and in 1983 she became the FIRST Samoan to receive the Queen's Service Medal. Her hotel Aggie's was known to travellers all over the world and grew from selling hamburgers and beer to American soldiers during the Second World War to become one of the best known watering holes in the South Pacific

* Agnes Arber

   born 1879 died 1960

..... English botanist who was the FIRST woman botanist to be made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1946. In 1948 she received the Gold Medal of the Linnean Society. Her interest in botany developed at school in London and at Cambridge University. Her first book  Herbals: Their Origin and Evolution was published in 1912 and became the standard work about early printed herbals

* Agnes Gonxha  Bejaxhia

  born 26th August 1910 died 1997

 ..... most famously known as Mother Teresa she was born of Albanian parents in Skopje and because of her work with the sick and poor, the FIRST mobile leprosy clinic was launched in September 1957 in India. In 1962 she became the FIRST person who was not Indian by birth to receive the prestigious Padma Shri award from the President of India. In 1975 she was awarded the FIRST Albert Schweitzer International Prize.  Her work is known throughout the world when after leaving her convent she trained as a nurse and then worked in the slums, took in abandoned babies, lepers, gave refuge to the dying, the lonely and the hungry.  In 1978 she was given an Honorary OBE (Honorary because she was not a citizen of the UK) and  in 1979  received the Nobel Peace Prize. Four years later she was given the Honorary Order of Merit which is the most prestigious award that Queen Elizabeth 11 could give and which can only be held by 24 people at one time

* Agnes Curran

 ..... FIRST woman governor of a male prison when put in charge at Dungavel in Scotland in 1979          

* Agnes Grossman

 ..... FIRST female artistic director of the Vienna Boys Choir when she was appointed in 1996 to head the 500-year old choir. In 1998 she resigned after complaining that she had been prevented from carrying out her pledges of change

* Agnes Haddock

..... in January 2007 she won the sum of £688,620.00 and so became the FIRST person in the UK to win such a sum on a bet. Fred Done bookmakers paid up with a smile

* Agnes McLaren

   born 1837 died 1913

 ..... FIRST woman graduate in medicine at Montpelier in 1878 and in 1910 she founded the FIRST Catholic medical mission in India

* Agnes MacPhail

  born 1890 died 1954

 ..... FIRST woman MP in Canada from 1921 to 1940 as MP for the United Farmers of Ontario for South East Gray. After that she was a member of the Ontario legislature until 1951

* Agnes de Mille

 born 1905 died 1995

..... American who brought ballet to musical comedy for the FIRST time, she choreographed '49' one of the FIRST dances to make use of American folk material on the concert stage and was also the choreographer of 'Black Ritual' the FIRST ballet performed entirely with black dancers in a classic American ballet company. She was also the FIRST woman president of a labour union in the United States and was on the FIRST National Advisory Council on the Arts.  She was the FIRST non-Russian to be given the job of choreographer with the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo

* Agnes Maude Royden

  born November 23rd 1876 died July 30th 1956

 ..... FIRST woman to declare publicly that she hoped to become an Anglican priest. Because women could not become priests at this time (1920s) she became an assistant preacher at the City Temple in London and then formed her own place of worship called The Guildhouse. Here she could preach from the pulpit as much as she liked. The culmination of all this activity came in 1929 when she founded the Society for the Ministry of Women and became its FIRST president. It was not until 40 years after her death that the first female vicar was appointed

* Agnes Siyiankoi

….. a Masai woman who struck fear into the hearts of men throughout Kenya when she became the FIRST woman to defy tribal tradition and took her husband to court for wife-beating in 1997. Men were brought up to believe that beating their wife (or wives) was their traditional right and that women must learn to submit. However 31 year old Ms Siyiankoi challenged this tradition and hoped that it could inspire others to do the same. When she was 18 years old she entered an arranged marriage with Moita Risa, the wealthy owner by Masai standards of 150 cows and two wives. He denied the charge brought against him. After one particularly bad night of being beaten she had him arrested and locked up overnight in a police cell. She then had to move out of their village due to the hostility of family and neighbours. The case was heard in the courtroom at Kajiado, 90 miles south of the capital of Nairobi and she was backed by the Kenyan chapter of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA). FIDA campaigned to outlaw wife-beating and wanted it to be made a specific criminal charge, separate from the general charge of assault               

* Agnes Sorel

  born C1422 died 1450

..... French lady who was the FIRST mistress of a King to be officially acknowledged when from 1444 she was the mistress of Charles V11 of France.  Known as Dame de Beauté she was born in Fromenteau, Touraine, the daughter of Seigneur de St Gerard and was noted for her extreme beauty and intellectual accomplishments. She was appointed Maid of Honour to Isabella of Lorraine, Duchess of Anjou, but on a visit to the French court of King Charles V11 he became very attracted to her and appointed her Maid of Honour to his Queen, Mary of Anjou. For some time she resisted his advances but eventually gave in to his demands and he abandoned his government affairs entirely so as to spend all his time with her. Finding that she possessed such a strong influence over him she used it to make him attack the English forces which had overrun and devastated France. The success of these battles added to the favours bestowed on her including estates and chateaux. Later, because of a disagreement between her and the dauphin, subsequently Louis X1, she returned to Loches, one of the residences given to her by the King. She died soon after the birth of her fourth child of dysentry, although poison was suspected

* Aiko Noda

..... in 1987 she became the FIRST woman High Court judge in Japan

* Aileen Cust

   born 1868

..... FIRST woman vet in Britain and FIRST woman member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons - 1922.  Born in Ireland she was in practice there for 20 years before she qualified officially and was not allowed to take exams because she was a woman. Even though she was highly thought of by her male colleagues she was still excluded from the register. After the First World War it was made illegal for a woman to be barred from any profession that she was capable of pursuing. Despite the new law however, Aileen still faced hostility and letters to professional journals at the time were laden with complaints about her working as a vet. Even the local priest told his flock not to employ her. However, one day his own cow became ill and to the delight of all he called Aileen in

* Aileen Wuornos

 ..... FIRST convicted female serial killer in America  when in 1992 she was charged with the shooting of five middle-aged men she met on highways by hitch hiking.  She confessed to shooting seven men in self-defence and was eventually executed on 9th October 2002

* Aimee Brinzer

..… FIRST woman in the UK to work as oil movements operations manager at Shell Haven . Her department, which consisted of a staff of 70, was responsible for all the receipts and deliveries at Shell Haven, discharging crude oil from ships, transporting both crude and feedstocks into tanks, starting the pumps and feeding the units. Oil movements also receives products from the units, blends them into finished products for customers and pumps them onwards to ships or tankers for delivery. She had first become involved with Shell in South Africa when the company sponsored her whilst she was studying for her chemical engineering degree and also helped her to complete her Master of Arts  

* Aisha Rateb

  born 1928

 ..... Egyptian who was the FIRST ever Professor of  International Law at Cairo University. In 1971 she was the second woman to hold the post of Minister of Social Affairs where she remained until 1977. The following year she became Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs

* Aisha Wayle

  born 1944

 ..... Indian lady who was the FIRST woman to own a London Investment Company

* Aketta Jacobs

  born 1854 died August 10th 1929

..... Dutch lady who was the FIRST qualified Dutch woman doctor and one of the FIRST women to attend Dutch Universities. She began the world's FIRST birth control clinic in Amsterdam in 1882. After qualifying as a doctor she met with a lot of hostility from men who advised her to confine herself to midwifery but she joined her father's practice and then worked on her own running a free surgery for the poor with courses on hygiene and child care. She was also involved in many campaigns to improve the position of women and of society in general. This included shorter working house, education about venereal disease, the abolition of regulated prostitution, the extension of sexual knowledge and also counselling penal reforms and reforms of the marriage laws. In 1892 she finally married the politician Carel Victor Gerritson after having tried for several years to keep up a ' free union' since they both felt that the current marriage laws were humiliating to women. In 1894 she started the Association for Women Suffrage and by 1913 the membership was 14,000. Through her, the suffrage movement became international to include America, Berlin and The Netherlands. She toured the world in 1911 with Carrie Catt and during World War 1 led the peace movement with Jane Addams

* Akiko Yui

 ..... on July 26th 1991 she became the FIRST woman to hold a high post in media when named managing editor of the Okinawa Times.  She joined the paper in 1955 and served as head of both the daily's arts and literature and its Tokyo Bureau's editorial sections

* Ala Naitto

  born 1920 died 1996

 ..... Russian who was one of the FIRST women to accomplish the forward somersault on the tight wire a feat which for some time had been reserved to one man, the Australian Con Colleano. She became known in America as ' the female Colleano'. The Naitto family itself was known as 'China's Elite Troupe' and were particular popular for their double wire act. Ala was the youngest performer and also achieved some extraordinary balancing feats with her partner Nio. No other women in the circus have performed these feats

* Alex Greaves

.....  became the FIRST woman to ride a horse in the Derby at Epsom when she rode on Portuguese Lil on 8th June 1996

* Alexandra David-Neel

  born 1868 died 1969

..... French lady who was the FIRST European woman to enter the forbidden Tibetan capital of Llasa where she stayed for two months disguised as an old Tibetan mother. Before the First World War she had won world-wide fame with accounts of her journeys into unexplored or little known regions of Central Asia. She was a practising Buddhist who held the rank of Lama and wrote 27 books in five languages. For her exploits to Llasa she received the Gold Medal of the Geographical Society of Paris, the Insignia of the Chinese Order of the Brilliant Star, the Silver Medal of the Royal Belgian Geographical Society and was made a Knight of the French Legion of Honour

* Alexandra Dziubannii

  ..... Polish woman who became the FIRST person from the new EU member states to be granted permission to work in Britain permanently. On May 5th 2004 she was issued with permit number 000001 after being offered a job with Tribal Advertising which is based in Manchester where she lives

* Alexandra Hai

..... in 2007 she won a ten year battle to become the FIRST woman gondolier after pitting herself against one of the world's most exclusive all-male cliques - the 405 member Venice Gondola Association - all Italian men. She is the daughter of an Algerian father and a German mother and grew up in Germany, spent four years in America and moved to Venice in 1996

* Alexandra Kollantai

  born February 15th 1872 died 1952

..... Russian who was the FIRST woman Head of the Legation in 1923 and in 1943 was the FIRST woman ambassador in the world. She came from an aristocratic Russian family but spurned her family and friends and threw in with the Bolsheviks. When the first Bolshevik government was set up on 27th October 1917 she was appointed the FIRST woman Minister State when she became the People's Commissar for Social Welfare on November 8th 1917

* Alexandria - Princess

 ..... FIRST member of the British Royal family to visit Japan since the Duke of Gloucester's Garter Mission in 1929 when she visited in 1961

* Alexandria - Queen

  born 1844 died 1925

 ..... FIRST member of the British Royal family to visit a public cinema when in 1907 she went to the Kinomatograph Theatre in Oslo with the Dowager Empress of Russia

* Alexandrina Macphail

  born 1860 died 1946

 ..... Scottish lady who was the FIRST woman medical missionary of the Free Church of Scotland

* Alexia B Jack

..... FIRST secretary of the Edinburgh branch of the Women's Freedom League

* Ali Large and Linda Phillips

 ..... founders of the FIRST all-woman marketing and advertising consultancy in 1988

* Alice

* Alicia Meynell

..... on August 25th 1804 she was the FIRST woman to compete in a horse race. She was 22 years old and the mistress of Colonel Thornton whose horse she rode over a 4 mile course at York. She rode side saddle and sported leopard and buff colours with blue sleeves and cap and started as a 5 to 4 favourite. led for the first three miles but was overtaken by her opponent Apt Flint whom she later vilified in the columns of the York Heralds for his lack of courtesy. In 1805 she competed again at the York August meeting and won two races - the first by default and the second by half a neck. No other woman, apart from an Irish lady, Mrs Duzley, are known to have ridden competitively until the next century

* Aline Saarinen

( Milton Bernstein)

   born 1914 died 1972

 ..... American who was the FIRST woman to head an overseas television news bureau when in 1971 she took over NBC's Paris office. She brought out such issues as birth control and abortion on her show - For Women Only

* Alisha Chinai

 ..... on 30th November 1996 she became the winner of the FIRST Freddie Mercury (of Queen) Award which recognized music and artistic intelligence in the sub-continent where he lived as a child 

* Alison

* Alix Meynell

 ..... one of the FIRST women top civil servants

* Allison Fisher

 ..... FIRST woman snooker player to play in the Forte Hotels Matchroom League in 1992

* Alma Cogan

  born August 2nd 1932 died October 26th 1966

 ..... Britain's FIRST international star and the FIRST female singer in the UK to have her own major television  series

* Alma Olive

..... FIRST Fleet Air Arm Wren to join the Epsom British Legion and FIRST woman Special Constable in Epsom (P/L)

* Althea Gibson

  born 1927

..... FIRST African-American to play the U.S Open tennis competition in 1950, FIRST black woman to be invited to play in the American Lawn Tennis Association Championships in 1951 and the FIRST back person of either sex to win at Wimbledon

* Alysa Stanton

..... FIRST black female rabbi in the US after she was ordained at the Plum Street Temple in Cincinnati 

* Amanda Pilling

..... FIRST schoolgirl member of a soccer team in a local seven-a-side tournament at Macclesfield - Ciba Sevens tournament at Broken Cross Primary School in 1994

* Amanda Richards

 ..... FIRST woman to qualify as a mining engineer in Britain

* Amanda Scott

 ..... FIRST female army cadet in Lancashire to reach the rank of regimental sergeant major when she became the top cadet in the 1,400 strong county detachment, which has 300 girls.  As a double promotion she was also appointed to serve as the Lord Lieutenant's Cadet when she would attend at ceremonial events

* Amanda Whitaker

..... FIRST British woman to win a Formula Vauxhall race in one of the country's premier single-seater racing championships

* Amber Dean Smith

..... FIRST ever nude centrefold girl when in 1965 at the age of 19 years she was crowned 'Pet Of The Year' by Penthouse magazine. In February 1990 Penthouse magazine advertised to find her to be guest-of-honour at their 25th anniversary

* Amelia Bloomer

  born 1818 died 1894

 ..... FIRST woman to own and publish a newspaper when 'The Lily' was started by her. A temperance paper, it included articles on marriage, education for women, suffrage and property law and she employed female typesetters despite a strike by male printing staff. Although she set the fashion for wearing pantaloons (later called bloomers) she did not invent them but she advocated them in her newspaper and when she wore them at her speeches they caused a sensation. It was said that people only came to gaze on her 'bloomers'. In 1944 the musical comedy 'Bloomer Girl' was based on her life

* Amelia Derry

..... FIRST girl pupil at Hallfield Preparatory School, Birmingham, in its 116-year history - 1995. She was aged three at the time

* Amelia Earhart

  born July 24th 1897 died July 2nd 1937

..... American aviator who was the FIRST woman to fly across the Atlantic (17th June 1928) and on 20- 21st May 1932 became the FIRST woman to fly across alone. On 11th-12th January 1935 she made the FIRST solo flight  from Honolulu, Hawaii to the America mainland and on 19th-20th April 1935 made the FIRST non-stop flight from Mexico City to Newark, New Jersey . In 1931 she was the FIRST woman to pilot an autogiro ( a precursor of the helicopter) carrying passengers and earned the FIRST DFC awarded to a woman

* Amelia Sach (1873-1903) and Annie Walters

..... English women who were the FIRST women to be executed in Holloway prison when they were hanged together in 1903 for the murder of babies put into their care by unmarried mothers. Fees from between £25 and £50 were charged and they told clients that they could arrange foster parents for the child. Once the child had been put into their care and the mother had left it was killed

* Aminah Al-Said

  born 1914

..... one of the FIRST small group of women who graduated from Cairo University in 1935 and the FIRST woman elected to the Egyptian Press Syndicate Executive Board. She delivered many lecturers on Arab women and in 1977 accompanied President Sadat on his famous visit to Jerusalem

* Amy Marcy Beach

  born 1867 died 1944

..... FIRST woman to have her music performed by the New York Philharmonic Society in 1892, FIRST American woman to write a symphony and one of the FIRST American composers to receive all her musical training in the U.S.A. Although she composed many works her songs were the most popular

* Amy Height

..... the FIRST recorded black woman actress to appear on the British stage when she appeared in Madame Delphine at the Wyndham Theatre in 1900

* Amy Johnson

  born 1st July 1903 died 6th January 1941

..... British aviator who was the FIRST woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia in 1930 and the FIRST woman in Britain to be granted an Air Ministry's ground-engineer's licence. She also obtained a full navigation certificate

* Amy Kleinhans

..... FIRST coloured Miss South Africa in 1992. She was classified as a coloured i.e a person of mixed black and white ancestry before the Population Registration Act was repealed in 1991

* Amye Everard

  ..... in 1637 she became the FIRST woman to be granted a patent in Britain when she filed for a method of making tinctures from flowers

* Ana Figuero

..... Chilean who was the  FIRST woman to head a UN Committee of the General Assembly when in 1951 she became Chile's Special Envoy to the UN as Head of the Social Humanitarian and Cultural Committee. In 1952 she was the FIRST woman on the Security Commission and in 1960 was the FIRST woman Assistant Director General of the International Labour Organisation. Always a feminist she was president of the committee which obtained women's suffrage. She was also in charge of the women's bureau in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

* Ana Chang Ocana

..... Peruvian who was the FIRST woman Vice Minister of Economics and Finance

* Ana Pauker

  born 1893 died 1956

..... Romanian who was the FIRST woman in the world to hold the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs when appointed in 1947. Her life was devoted to politics and she was first imprisoned for her beliefs in 1918. After helping to organize a railway strike in 1933 which ended in bloodshed she was arrested and sentenced to 10 years. On her release in 1940 she spent the war in Moscow, organized Romanian prisoners of war into a division of the Red Army and became a friend to Stalin. When Romania was liberated she returned as a colonel and played a key role in turning her native country into a Russian satellite. At one time was the most feared woman in Romania and wielded immense power and even after her fall from power in 1952 she remained active in Romania's Communist Party

* Anandabai Joshee

 born 1865 died 1887

 ..... Indian physician who was the FIRST Indian woman to qualify as a doctor when she graduated from the Women's Medical College of Pennsylavania - March 11th 1886

* Andrea Gillies

..... Scottish woman who was the FIRST woman editor of The Good Beer Guide, the respected, even feared organ of CAMRA, the Campaign For Real Ale. Aged 26 years, she was also the youngest editor to be appointed

* Andrea Lindley

..... FIRST female Samurai warrior in Britain when she was presented with her black belt in the Budo Samurai art after 11 years of dedicated training.  To mark her qualifications for warrior status - as an expert in judo, kendo, Aido, and Aikibo she was presented with a Samurai sword

* Andrea Jean Wonfor

neé Duncan

born July 31st 1944 died September 10th 2004

….. FIRST female director of programmes at Granada Television in 1993, a position she shared with Jules Barns. Between them they oversaw such hits as Prime Suspect, Cracker, Cold Feet and The Royle Family. In the year 2000 she became executive chair of Granada Creative

* Andrea Winders and Tina Dutton

..... set up the FIRST nationwide all-female cab service in the UK when The Pink Ladies was launched in their home town of Warrington, Cheshire

* Andy McColl

..... FIRST female navigator in the RAF display team

* Angela Ales-Bello

..... FIRST woman Dean of the Faculty of  Philosophy of Rome's Lateran University in October 1996. Her appointment was said to be a 'sensational revolution' as in the past the post had only ever been held by a man who was also a priest. The word 'Lateran' refers to a group of buildings given to the Church by the Emperor Constantine The Great

* Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts

  born 1814 died 1906

..... English philanthropist who was the FIRST woman to be granted the Freedom of the City of London in 1872 and was the FIRST woman to be buried in Westminster Abbey. She was the grand-daughter of Thomas Coutts, banker to George 111, and at the age of 23 she inherited his vast fortune. She became a lavish society hostess and a patron of the arts and theatre and also managed many philanthropic schemes becoming known as  ' the Queen of the poor'. She was the FIRST Baroness in her own right to sit in the House of Lords

* Angela and Maria Eagle

..... FIRST twin Members of Parliament. They represented Wallasey and Liverpool Garston respectively for Labour in 1997. Angela was also the FIRST MP ever to 'come out' as a lesbian and in September 2008 became the FIRST female MP to enter a civil partnership when she 'married' her long term partner Maria Exall, an engineer for British Telecom

* Angela Merkel

..... FIRST woman to lead a mainstream German political party when appointed chairman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in 2000.  In 2005 she became Germany's FIRST woman Chancellor

* Angela Milne

  born 2nd September 1909 died 1991

..... FIRST woman to be invited to the Punch lunch, which at the time was a strictly masculine affair.  She was the niece of A A Milne and was a prolific contributor to Punch under the editorships of E V Knox and Bernard Hollowood.  It was only through the editor William Davis that she finally received her invitation. She wrote under the pseudonym of "Ande" and told of her wartime experiences in the women's Land Army and the Ministry of Information.  She also wrote books

* Angela Mortimer

 born 1932

 ..... FIRST British woman to win the singles title at Wimbledon in 1961 since Dorothy Rounds win in 1937

* Angela Rippon

..... FIRST woman journalist to read the Nine O'Clock News on British television

* Angela Rumbold

..... FIRST woman to head Whitehall's Ministerial Group on Women's Issues in 1990 and was responsible for implementing Mrs Thatcher's desire to give women a higher profile within Government policy

* Angela Williams

..... FIRST person to be prosecuted for smoking in a tube train under a new law banning smoking entirely on the London Underground. She was put on probation and ordered to pay £75 compensation to the inspector who tried to stop her smoking and whom she had assaulted. She was not fined for breaking the 'no smoking' rule only for the assault

* Angelica Kaufman  ( 1741-1807) and Mary Moser

 ...... FIRST two women elected to the Royal Academy in 1768. Angelica was the daughter of a portrait and ecclesiastical painter and received her first commission at the age of 11.  She travelled with her father to Florence, Rome and Naples and then back to Rome where she was elected to the Accademia di San Luca. From 1769 to 1782 her work was included in every exhibition at the Royal Academy. She eventually established a studio in Rome where she received many honours and was a leading member of society

* Angeliki Panajiotatou

  born 1875 died 1954

..... Greek lady who was the FIRST woman to be accepted as a student at the Medical School of Athens University. She was later appointed as a lecturer at the same school but students refused to attend her classes and she resigned. She went to Egypt and accepted a Professorship at Cairo University

* Angie Brooks-Randolph

 born 1928

 ..... Liberian lawyer and diplomat  who was the FIRST woman to be accepted as a legal apprentice. On her first appearance in court she was laughed at. She was the second woman to become President of the 24th Session of the U.N General Assembly - 1969-70 (Vijaya Pandit was the first).  During her career she was awarded 18 honorary doctorates of law from various universities in America and received many awards from civil and religious organisations

* Angie Dee

..... FIRST woman Indie DJ.  Indie pop is music on independent record labels from the 1970s onwards

* Angie Robinson

born 1957

..... FIRST woman chief executive of the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce

* Aniela Jaffé

 born February 20th 1903 died 1991

..... Jungian psychoanalyst and scholar who was born in Berlin of Jewish parents and  who was the FIRST secretary of the C G Jung Institute in Zurich in 1948. Carl Justav Jung was a Swiss psychoanalyst who broke with Freud to found his own school. Aniela Jaffe wrote and edited a number of influential books on his life and works.  Her association with him began in the 1930s and she remained a disciple long after his death. Memories, Dreams, Reflections in 1963 was a collection of his letters and recollections recorded by her. She became Jung's personal secretary in 1955

* Anita Lonsborough

  born August 10th 1941

..... English athlete who was the FIRST female flag bearer for Britain when she carried the flag in the Tokyo Olympics and was the FIRST woman to swim the 200m breaststroke in under 2mins 50 seconds when she beat Wiltrud Urselmann. She was also the FIRST woman to be the BBC's sports personality of the year

* Anita Loos

 ..... FIRST woman screenwriter (full-time) who sold her first scenario, The New York Hat, to Biograph in 1912 and was engaged as a staff writer by the company's foremost director, D W Griffiths

* Ann

* Anna

* Annabel Hands

..... set up Britain's FIRST professional female plumbing firm in 1991 and won the Small Business of the Year competition.  She was fully qualified plumber with a BSc in bio-chemistry and impressed the judges with her ability to break into a profession which had traditionally been dominated by men

* Annabel Rankin

  born 1908 died 1986

..... FIRST Queensland woman to enter federal politics in 1946 and the FIRST woman whip in the British Commonwealth from 1947 to 1949. In 1966 she was the FIRST woman to control a federal department when made Minister of Housing and from 1971 to 1975 was the FIRST woman ambassador for Australia as High Commissioner of New Zealand. She began her career during the Second World War as a YWCA assistant commissioner and in 1946 was elected to the Senate where she stayed for 20 years until becoming Minister of Housing

* Annabel Watts

..... FIRST human resources manager at the Health and Diet company, Radcliffe, Manchester in 1996

..... the FIRST female to climb the Seven Summits within a year - Denali in Alaska was her final one. Her grandmother was one of the FIRST women to go to altitude, around 22,000 ft in 1929

* Anna-Karin Lilleengen along with Helena Twigg, Jennifer Hook and Winne Tse

..... all became the FIRST pupils to speak to the crew of an American space shuttle (Atlantis) whilst it was travelling above the earth in 1992. The girls were from Harrogate Ladies College and joined an experiment that would help scientists to answer questions about the Earth's upper atmosphere

* Anne

* Anne-Louise Critchlow - Rev

..... FIRST woman vicar at St Andrew's Church in Eccles in its 128 year history - Salford - 2008

* Anne-Marie Bird

..... one of the FIRST female vicars to be appointed to a parish in the Greater Manchester area in the North West of England, in 1996 when appointed to St Matthew's with St Mary's in Crumpsall

* Anne-Marie Dawe

..... FIRST female navigator in the RAF when she received her wings in 1991 at RAF Finningley after completing an 18-month training course

* Anne-Marie Dupuy

….. born in France in 1920 she eventually became the FIRST woman Mayor of Cannes with the nickname of "Mrs Thatcher of the Cote d'Azur". This completed a hat-trick of firsts - FIRST woman Chef de Cabinet ( under Georges Pompidou when he was Prime Minister and President) and FIRST woman Counseiller d'Etat. She was originally from the North of France but bought a house in Cannes where she was eventually asked to become the local leader of the neo-Gaullist R P R party. When made Mayor of Cannes she declared that security would be her main objective and was determined, by a mobilisation of the national and municipal police, to stamp out the spate of thefts on the beach and muggings in the city. Her role as Mayor was a powerful one and she could, with a little diplomacy, do practically what she liked

* Anneli Tuulikki Jaatteenmaki

..... in 2003 she became the FIRST woman Prime Minister of Finland but resigned after being questioned by police regarding the revelation of state secrets

* Annette Kellerman and June Caprice

..... Australians who were the FIRST to appear on the screen in the nude. They starred in different films which were released in the same week in October 1916. Ex-swimming champion Annette Kellerman was in Daughter Of The Gods and 16 year old newcomer June was in The Ragged Princess. Annette, a professional swimmer, became the centre of controversy in 1907 when she was arrested for wearing one of the FIRST one-piece bathing suits. She was also the FIRST woman to attempt to swim the English Channel. Her life was celebrated in th1 952 movie Million Dollar Mermaid starring Esther Williams

* Annette O'Hara

..... FIRST woman to win the Calor Gas Prize in 1998 for her high standards of achievement, attitude, attendance and punctuality

* Annie

* Annika Sorenstam

..... Swedish golf player who was the LPGA's FIRST $2million-earner and the FIRST woman to shoot a 59 in 2001 after a record-breaking year.  Not since Nancy Lopez, in 1979, has one player won so many times in one season. In 2003 she became the FIRST woman in 58 years to enter a PGA Tour Event

* Anny Ondra

..... leading lady of the First British talkie - Blackmail by Alfred Hitchcock

* Anousheh Ansari

..... Iranian who was the world's FIRST female space tourist when on September 18th 2006 she blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with a NASA astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut. She had paid £10m for an 11 day round trip to the International Space Station 220 miles above the earth

* Anson Chan

..... FIRST woman and FIRST ethnic Chinese to hold the post of General Secretary when appointed to her post by Chris Patten, colonial governor

* Anthea Burdus

..... FIRST woman to join a training barracks as regimental sergeant major - 2006

* Anthea Farrell

..... the FIRST woman jockey to beat the professionals over the National course at Aintree in 1991 when she rode on J J Henry

* Antoinette Brown - Rev

 born 1825 died 1921

..... the FIRST woman Minister of Religion who was ordained at the South Butler Congregational Church in New York on the 15th September 1853. As a student she entered the Oberlin College Theological Seminary as the FIRST female divinity student and preached her first sermon in New York in 1848 whilst still a member of the seminary. after her ordainment she was accepted in her parish but on one occasion when she was sent as a delegate to a Temperance convention she was greeted with jeers. She later became a Universalist, married Samuel C Blackwell and was still preaching at All Souls Church, Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1912. She also campaigned for the abolition of slavery,  for women's rights and for the temperance movement

* Antoinette de Correvont

..... French woman who was the FIRST professional woman photographer. In 1843 she opened a studio in Munich eight years before a British woman, Miss Wigley, opened a studio in London. Ten years later there were 204 professional women photographers which represented about 8% of the profession

* Antonia Melendez & Maria Angeles Zufilla

..... the FIRST married lesbian couple in Spain to officially register the birth of their baby - October 2006

* Anusca Hunt

..... for 15 years she was the FIRST person in the queue for Wimbledon tickets in Somerset Road where she would bed down on the pavement on the Saturday night before the Championship.  She was unfortunately killed in a car accident in 1996 and her daughter placed flowers on the spot where her mother used to camp

* Aphra Benn

  born 1640 died 1689

..... FIRST woman to write an acclaimed novel, Oroonoko, which was about an African prince who, tricked into slavery, ends up in the West Indies determined to escape from servitude. It was the FIRST anti-slavery novel to portray Africans in a positive light. Despite real literary talent she had to fight a constant battle with critics and as a single woman living in a 'man's world' was also the brunt of scandalous stories about her private life. She had several plays performed and wrote other novels, poems and translated from the French

* April Glaspie

 ..... FIRST woman to head a Middle East embassy as US Ambassador to Iraq

* Araba Obodai

.....  from Sierra Leone, she became Manchester Law Society's FIRST black president and the third woman to hold the position - August 2000

* Arabella Mansfield

 ..... American who became the FIRST woman barrister or advocate when she was called to the bar in June 1869 in America following a course of study in a lawyer's office

* Arlene Blum

 born 1945

..... American mountaineer and one of the members of the FIRST all-woman climb of Mt McKinley in Alaska in 1970. She is one of the most noted of climbers and began whilst studying physical chemistry. In the mixed 1976 American Bicentennial expedition to Mount Everest she and other women helped to demonstrate women's stamina at high altitudes. In 1978 she organised and led the American Women's Himalayan expedition and much of the money required was raised by the sale of t-shirts bearing the slogan "A woman's place is on top - Annapurna". No woman and no American had climbed this peak which is the 10th highest in the world. Two women, Irene Miller and Vera Komarkova, did reach the top with 2 sherpas, but in a second attempt two other women died. In 1980 she led the Indian-American women's expedition to the Gangotri Glacier near the border of India and Tibet

* Arlette Aguiller

  born 1940

..... French woman who was the FIRST woman to run as candidate for President of the Trotskyist Group. She won about 600,000 votes

* Artemesia

..... Greek woman who was the FIRST woman sea captain in the 5th century. When her husband died she took command of his small fleet of five ships and then took part in the second  war against the Greeks as an ally of Xerxes

* Artemesia Gentileschi

died c 1652

..... FIRST woman admitted to the Academy of Design in Florence in 1616. In 1638 she was appointed court painter to King Charles 1

* Asa Helgesen

 ..... FIRST woman Mayor in Ustira, Norway in 1925

* Ashi and Bela Arora

..... FIRST female Asian presidents of their junior chambers - Ashi in Manchester and Bela in Birmingham

* Ashley Martin

..... FIRST woman to take the field at a college American football match in September 2001

* Aslaug Aasland

..... FIRST woman to administer a Ministry in Norway as Minister of Health and Social Affairs

* Asta Nielsen

 ..... born 1881 died 1972

..... Danish film star who was the FIRST international superstar with a salary to prove it. By 1912 she was earning $80,000 a year, six times the salary of the then highest paid star in America. She never went to Hollywood nor did she continue working after the arrival of sound. Altogether she made over 70 films in Germany and had a similar reputation in the 1910s as Garbo and Dietrich had in later years. Her performance in Hamlet was said to be brilliant but probably her finest role was as an ageing prostitute in the film Street Tragedy

* Athalia

 ..... FIRST and only woman ever to rule over Judah

* Atsuko Toyama

 ….. who entered the Ministry of Education in Japan in 1962 as the FIRST woman career official at an administrative level. On June 11^th 1991 as Deputy Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs she was appointed Director of the Educational Assistance and Administration Bureau in the Ministry of Education and as such was the FIRST and only woman bureau chief there

* Audrey Lilian Barker

   born April 13th 1918 died 2002

..... short-story writer who won the FIRST Somerset Maugham Prize for young writers with Innocents, a collection of stories with dramatic twists. In 1962 she received the FIRST Cheltenham Festival of Literature Award

* Audrey Brogden

..... FIRST female pub manager with Bass North West when she took over at Manchester's oldest and most historic pubs, the Old Wellington Inn on Shambles Square

* Audrey Cann

..... FIRST woman butler at Cambridge or Oxford Universities. She was assisted by her staff of 15 and saw to the catering needs of 300 Fellows and Undergraduates and also had responsibility for the valuable silverware collection

* Audrey Jones

..... Manchester's (England) FIRST-ever Liberal Democrat Lord Mayor when she took over the office on May 14th 2003

* Audrey Kemp

..... FIRST woman deaconess in charge of a Church of England parish  when appointed at St Faith's church in Brentford. She was licensed in 1980, after 15 years virtually working as a curate in a number of  parishes

* Audrey Russell

  born 9th August 1906 died 1989

 ….. broadcaster who was the BBC's FIRST woman news reporter, their only accredited woman war correspondent during the Second World War and a stalwart radio commentator on State occasions.  In the 1930s she had a small part in Laurence Houseman's Victoria Regina at the Lyric Theatre and this was the FIRST time that the Lord chamberlain had permitted Queen Victoria to be portrayed on stage.  After the war Miss Russell became the FIRST woman to be appointed to the newly-formed Home Service reporting unit

* Audrey Wise

nee Brown

  born 1935 died 2000

 ….. in 1969 she spoke in Trafalgar Square at the FIRST women's rally held there since the suffragettes. She was born in Newcastle Upon Tyne and at the age of 21 became a councillor in Tottenham . She made her mark as an USDAW delegate at the Labour Party Conference and in 1974 was elected for Coventry South-West. In the Commons she immediately established herself as a rebel and was said "to have attacked the Labour Government with more ferocity than the Tories can muster together". In 1977, with Jeffery Rooker, she introduced an amendment to the Finance Bill which, supported by the Tories, made personal tax allowances inflation-proof. The Labour Government had to give back £450m to the taxpayer. She lost her Coventry seat in the general election of 1979 but in 1981 was elected to Labour's National Executive, a position she held until 1987. A hard-line Left-winger she crusaded for equality for women, for workers' control, better maternity services, the rights of animals, battered wives, more liberal abortion laws, organic food and the Nicaraguan Sandanistas. In the 1980s she was a thorn in the side of Neil Kinnock as he tried to bring the Labour Party back into the political mainstream. In 1997 she opposed Labour's plans to cut benefits to single parents and in the same year was ousted from the Presidency of USDAW

* Augusta Klumpke

..... American who was the FIRST woman intern in a Paris hospital. She eventually became a doctor of nervous diseases

* Augusta Savage

  born 1900 died 1962

..... American fighter for black artists who was one of the FIRST women to study sculpture. In 1930 she won a scholarship that allowed her to study in France and when she returned to Harlem she opened her own school, the Savage School of Arts and Crafts, where she taught free of charge

* Auriol Vivienne Sinclair

  born November 18th 1918 died 2000

..... one of the FIRST successful women steeplechase trainers after the Jockey Club agreed in 1966 to grant them licences

* Autherine Lucy

..... FIRST black student admitted to the University of Alabama in 1956. When she was first admitted angry crowds threw eggs and rocks at her. She was expelled on March 1st when the University claimed that she had made false charges against it

* Avril Angers

..... FIRST female comedienne to have her own television series in England

* Avril Fishwick

..... FIRST woman High Sheriff in Manchester 1983-84 and again in Manchester the FIRST woman Vice Lord Lieutenant

* Ayesha Jeffreys

..... FIRST international student to be accepted on the Tamworth New Country Songwriters Course in New South Wales, Australia in 1998

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