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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O PQ R S T U V W XYZ

" I am a woman meant for a man but I never found a man who could compete"

Bette Davis

HER NAME IS B..............

* B. Winterburn

..... one of the FIRST Wren air mechanics when she joined the WRNS in 1942

* Bachendri Pal

..... FIRST Indian woman to conquer Everest - 1983/84.  She was aged 27 years and was a lecturer in Economics at Uttar Pradesh University

* Bahai Al-Hariri

..... Lebanese who was the FIRST Muslim woman to win a seat in the Lebanese Parliament in 1992 when she won a resounding victory in Lebanon's FIRST general elections in twenty years

* Barbara

* Barbie Ahearn

..... FIRST woman supervisor at British Coal in 1991. Her only concession was a special shower cubicle that was built at the Derlwyn site near Glyn-Neath in the Black Mountains where she directs men 1200 ft up a mountainside and checks lorries on the weighbridge

* Barbra Streisand

..... FIRST woman director-producer-writer-star with the film Yentl in 1983. She was also the FIRST woman to reach the £5m mark for a film and was the FIRST female director to receive a Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute in November 2000

..... in 1937 she became the FIRST person to dial the new 999 emergency telephone service which had just been introduced in London. As a result of this call Thomas Duffy was arrested for burglary

* Beatrice Grimshaw

 born 1871 died 1953

..... FIRST woman to go up the Sepik River and the Fly River (New Guinea). She was also a keen cyclist and set a new 24 hours world record. She had always wanted to travel and having gained sponsorship she set out in 1906 for the South Pacific. Her experiences were recorded in nearly 40 travel books and she became a recognized authority on tropical colonization

* Beatrice Hinkle

  born 1874 died 1953

..... FIRST woman physician to hold a public health position when made city physician for San Francisco from 1899 to 1905.  In 1908 she opened the FIRST psycho-therapeutic clinic in America at Cornell Medical College

* Beatrix Potter

 born July 28th 1866 died December 22nd 1943

..... writer and illustrator of English books who was the FIRST person to identify lichen as a fungi rather than a plant. As a small child she spent a lot of time drawing flowers and small animals and carefully studying their anatomy. In 1900 she had the story of Peter Rabbit printed privately and again in 1902 with The Tailor of Gloucester. After she became associated with the publishers Warne & Co they published twenty four of her little books for children over the next thirty years.  Her parents were dull and tyrannical and it was not until she was 48 years old that she defied them and married William Heelis and for the next 30 years they developed their farm at Ambleside. She was also the FIRST woman president of the Herdwick Breeders' Association

* Beatriz Paredes - Senator

..... Mexican who was the FIRST woman President of the Latin American Parliament in its 35 years when appointed in the year 2000

* Bebb Burchell

..... FIRST black chief education in Britain when appointed by the London Borough of Lambeth on October 7th 1988

* Becky Zerlentes

 died 2005

..... award-winning boxer who is thought to be the FIRST woman amateur boxer to have been killed in a licensed contest when she died from head injuries sustained in a fight in Colorado. She was knocked out during the third round and never regained consciousness

* Begum Sufia Kamel

died 1999

 ..... Indian poet who was the FIRST woman to receive a state funeral in Bangladesh

* Begum Ra'Ana Liaquat Ali Khan

  born 1905 died June 13th 1990

..... founder-president of the All-Pakistan Women's Association from 1949 and from 1954 to 1961 was FIRST woman Muslim Ambassador when posted to the Netherlands. In 1973 she was the FIRST woman to govern a province - Sind. She involved women in the political life of the country and founded schools, hospitals and craft industries and in 1979  received the Human Rights Award of the UN

* Begum Khaleda Zia

 ..... FIRST woman Prime Minister of Bangladesh when appointed in 1991

* Belinda Harley

..... in 1991 she became the FIRST woman to hold an executive post in the Prince of Wales household when made assistant private secretary responsible for the Prince's medical interests, the Arts and heritage matters

* Bella Abzug

  neé Savitzky

  born 1920 died 1988

 ..... a fiery figure in the American women's movement and the FIRST Jewish woman to be elected to the American Congress she was called 'Battling Bella' or 'Mother Courage' by newspaper reporters

* Belva Ann Lockwood

  born 1830 died May 19th 1917

..... American lawyer who was the FIRST woman to practise in front of the Supreme Court in America in 1873 after a long battle. She once won a case brought against the government by the Cherokee Indians.  In 1869 Myra Bradwell, another lawyer, had qualified for the Illinois Bar but was vetoed as a woman. In 1873 the Supreme Court made a decision to leave the issue to each individual state and Illinois removed the sex disqualification. Myra did not reapply until 1890. Belva Lockwood was also the FIRST woman to stand in a presidential campaign when in 1884 she was nominated as candidate for the National Equal Rights Party but was swept away in the main race which was won by Grover Cleveland

* Benazir Bhutto

 born June 21st 1953 died 2007

..... FIRST woman to head a modern Islamic nation when made Prime Minister of Pakistan on December 2nd 1988.   In 1990 she was also the FIRST Prime Minister to give birth whilst in office. She was also the FIRST Asian female to be president of the Oxford University Union

* Berengaria of Navarre

  born c1164 died 1250

..... wife of Richard Coeur de Lion and the only Queen of England never to set foot in the country and its FIRST and only Basque Queen

* Bernadette Hingley

  neé Bryan

  born 1948 died 1995

 ..... one of the FIRST Anglican women to be ordained in Britain and the FIRST woman teacher at Ripon College, Cuddesden where she helped the college to make the transition from an all-male to a mixed establishment

* Berta Benz

..... German woman who was the FIRST family motorist in 1886 when she and her two sons sneaked from their family home in Mannheim one August day and took her husband's three-wheeler, with a three horse-power engine, on a 60 mile run to visit her mother.  She was the wife of the man credited with inventing the car, Carl Benz.  It was said that during the drive she had to use her hatpin to clean the carburettor, a garter to strengthen a spring, bought fuel from a chemist, had a shoemaker repair the leather brakes, topped up the radiator with water from a spring and helped to push the single-gear, 9 mph car uphill

* Bertha Surtees Phillpotts

  born 1877 died 1932

 ..... FIRST woman Carlisle Fellow at Somerville College Oxford in 1913

* Bertha Soucaret

..... on September 19th 1888 she won the world's FIRST beauty contest at Spa in Belgium. She was an 18-year old Creole who had been invited to appear in the finals with 20 others chosen from 350 photographs. Her prize was 5,000 francs. The finalists were not allowed to be seen by the people, they lived in a separate wing and were driven in closed carriages to the hall

* Bertha Felicie Sophie Von Suttner

  neé Kinsky

 born 1843 died 1914

 ..... FIRST woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905 which was awarded in recognition of her tireless work in the pacifist cause. She trained initially as a singer but having no luck, went to work in 1868 as secretary-housekeeper to Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite and in 1876 married Baron Arthur von Suttner.  They went to Paris in 1885 and met again with Alfred Nobel and it was Bertha who suggested that he should found a Prize for Peace

* Bertha Wilson

..... Canadian who was the FIRST woman to sit on the Supreme Court of Canada 1981/82

* Berthe Morisot

died 2nd March 1895

..... FIRST woman artist to embrace Impressionism. On 15th April 1874 the FIRST Impressionist Exhibition was opened at Nadar's Photographic Studio at 35 Boulevard des Capucines and 165 paintings were on show by artists including Renoir, Sisley, Degas, Monet, Cézanne and Pissarro. Among the 29 artists was Berthe Morisot who showed nine of her works

* Beryl Audrey Bryden

 born May 11th 1920 died 1998

 ..... jazz singer who sang with Britain's FIRST traditional or "revivalist" jazz band, George Webb's Dixielanders.  In 1948 she formed her own band Beryl's Backroom Boys and made her first radio broadcast. By the early 1950s no traditional jazz band in event in London or the provinces was considered complete without her being there

* Beryl Burton

  born 1937 died 1996

..... FIRST woman to break a men's British record in cycling and the FIRST to ride twice in the world road-race championship alongside her daughter Denise.  Her career lasted more than 25 years during which she won seven world championships

* Beryl Markham

 born 1902 died 4th August 1986

..... made the FIRST direct solo east-to-west crossing of the North Atlantic on September 4th/5th 1936 when she flew from Abingdon, England to Baleine in Nov Scotia. This was considered harder than the West to East trip which had been done earlier.  She was one of a small number of women who were in the forefront of aviation advances at this time

..... in 1957 she became the FIRST guest artist to dance with the Bolshoi ballet company

* Bessie Coleman

  born 1893 died 1926

..... American who was the FIRST black woman in the world to receive an international pilot's licence after making two trips to Europe and studying with French and German aviators - September 1921. On her return to Chicago she began a new career - exhibition flying and gave her first show in 1922 at Checkerboard Field. After her death in an air crash an organization of young black women pilots was named in her honour - the Bessie Coleman Aviators

* Bessie Love

  born 1898

..... FIRST MGM musical star when she starred in the film Broadway Melody which won the second Academy Award in 1929 for best picture and an Oscar nomination for her as Best Actress. She was born in Midland, Texas as Juanita Horton and began her career in 1916. She was one of the most popular American silent film stars in England and her career followed through to the sound era. She introduced the Charleston to the screen in the film The King on Main Street and also the hit song Singing In The Rain. In 1971 she appeared in a cameo role on the film Sunday, Bloody Sunday

* Bessie Parkes

  born 1829

.....  English editor of the FIRST paper written by women, for women and with women shareholders in Britain - The Englishwoman's Journal - 1858. The aim of her journal was to 'investigate the great mass of female misery and indigence existing in England'

* Bessie Stewart Semple

..... Scottish lady who was the FIRST honorary treasurer of the WSPU - the Women's Social and Political Union - in Glasgow

* Bessie ( Elizabeth) Smith

  born April 15th 1894 died September 26th 1937

..... following a car crash. She was the  FIRST black American to become a nationally famous entertainer and as 'Empress of the Blues' she helped to elevate the blues of the American Negro and influenced the whole stream of music after that. At the end of her first year with Columbia Records she had sold 2m records. From 1928 public taste began to change but in 1929 she had the leading role in  the film St Louis Blues, the title of one of her favourite songs. She was also the FIRST black woman to broadcast her concerts live on local radio stations in Memphis and Atlanta

* Beth Griffiths and Ann Wilson

..... FIRST two female police cadets appointed by South Wales Constabulary in 1981

* Betsy Ancker Johnson

..... FIRST woman at Boeing Aircraft to be appointed to middle management. She was the FIRST woman appointed as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Science and Technology in the U.S government where she managed six divisions with an annual budget of $230m

* Betsy Sneith

..... American who was the FIRST heart transplant patient to have a baby. Four years after receiving her new male heart she gave birth to a healthy 7lb 1oz girl and both were reported to be well. Doctors were worried that the male heart ( which was used) would not stand the strain of childbirth ..... I recently received an e-mail (28th July 2003) from Betsy's daughter - Sierra Jamieson Sneith (now aged 19 years) who tells me that she was born on September 16th 1984 at Stanford Medical Center and hopes to write a book about her mother soon. I have received another e-mail (2005) from Maile Jewell who was the social worker who took care of Betsy Sneith during her pregnancy.  She tells me that Sierra was born at UCSD Medical Center and not Stanford University Medical Center. Apparently Betsy received her heart transplant at Stanford but her prenatal care and delivery were at UCSD. I hope I have now been able to put Sierra and Maile in touch

* Bette Davis

 born April 5th 1908 died 1989

..... FIRST female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences when she took over from Walter Wanger in 1941, FIRST woman to receive the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award in 1977, FIRST to receive as many as 10 Oscar nominations, FIRST to receive 5 Best Actress Oscar nominations in a row. She was also the FIRST Warner Bros actress to be nominated and win an Academy Award

* Betterton - Mrs

 born 1711

..... FIRST woman to act the great female characters of Shakespeare such as Lady Macbeth, Ophelia and Juliet and she was the FIRST notable on the English stage.  Until 1660 female parts were played on stage by men but on December 8th the FIRST actress played the part of Desdemona for the King's Company but her identity remains a mystery. Some say she was a Mrs Norris but Katherine Corey stoutly maintained that she was the first

* Betty Allen and Hilary Brown

..... FIRST women in Scotland to receive a Michelin star-cookery - 1990

* Betty Harvie Anderson

..... Baroness Skrimshire of Quarter, Conservative MP for Renfrewshire from 1959 until her retirement, she was the FIRST woman MP to be appointed a Deputy Speaker in the Commons, an office she held as Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means from 1970 to 1973

* Betty Archdale

  neé Helen Elizabeth

  born 21st August 1907 died 2000

 .....  captained the FIRST English Women's Cricket team to tour Australia and New Zealand and went on to be fêted in her last years, as one of Australia's 100 living national treasures. More than 60 years after the cricket tour in 1934 the MCC remembered her. Having voted to admit women, the club conferred honorary membership on 10, of whom she was one

* Betty Boothroyd

  born 8th October 1929

 ...... FIRST woman Speaker in the House of Commons breaking six centuries of tradition when she defeated Peter Brooke by 372 votes to 238 in the first serious contest for the post for more than 40 years

* Betty Cook

  born 1923 died 1991

..... American who was the FIRST woman to win a top offshore contest in powerboats in 1977

* Betty Friedan

  neé Elizabeth Naomi Goldstein

born February 4th 1921 died February 4th 2006

..... American who helped to found the FIRST women's bank in 1973. She was a feminist writer and organiser and in 1963 her book ' The Feminine Mystique' was published which dealt with the American woman's pressure to conform to the role of housewife and mother. It received an immediate response and she was called ' the mother of the new feminist movement'. In 1966 she organised the National Organisation for Women which remains today the most powerful lobby group for women's rights in America. She was its FIRST president until 1970. Betty Friedan also helped to found the National Women's Political Caucus in 1971, led the National Women's Strike for Equality and in 1973 convened the International Feminist Congress

* Betty Furness

  died 1994

..... American who was the FIRST woman to advertise a product on television when she promoted refrigerators and vacuum cleaners on America television after failing to make it on the stage. She appeared in Swing Time with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and in all made 35 movies in Hollywood in six years. She later combined radio and television work with fund-raising for the Democratic Party

* Betty Hughes

 ..... FIRST woman Mayor of Pershore in Wales

* Betty Knightly

.....  made electoral history in 1973 when she was unanimously chosen as prospective Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Salford East, the FIRST woman ever to be chosen to fight a Salford Parliamentary seat

* Betty Jones

..... FIRST female accused ever to appear at the Old Bailey NOT wearing a hat when she faced the death penalty for crimes committed with Karl Hulten

* Betty Robinson

  born 1911 died 1999

..... FIRST woman to win an Olympic Gold when in 1928 she won the 100 metres in Amsterdam. She was only 16 at the time and it was the FIRST time that women had been allowed to take part in the Olympics and even then were only allowed to compete in a few events

* Betty Standingford

 ..... FIRST woman Mayor with Oxford City Council

* Beverley Bell

 ….. FIRST woman in England to be a Traffic Commissioner.  A lawyer , she pledged to crackdown on cowboy bus, coach and lorry operators and promised to take a particular interest in enforcing booze bans on football coaches and ensuring high standards on school transport. Her appointment marked the re-establishment of the north west's own regulator of road transport. A former prosecutor for the Vehicle Inspectorate, she has the power to call operators before public inquiries and to revoke, suspend or curtail licences. Her aim was to target firms who ran slip-shod operations, cut corners and endangered other road users

* Beverley Chubb

 ..... FIRST woman head of music at Radio Hallam in Sheffield in 1975

* Beverley Harvard

 ..... FIRST woman police chief in Atlanta, America

* Beverly Lewis

..... FIRST woman captain of the Professional Golfers' Association after more than 100 years of male domination - 2005.  It was also announced that women would now be eligible to play in The Open, the most prestigious event in the British golfing calendar and a men-only bastion since 1860

* Billie Holliday

..... one of the FIRST black performers with the otherwise all-white band of Artie Shaw

* Billie Jean King

 born November 22nd 1943

..... American tennis player who was the FIRST woman to sign a professional contract to tour in a tournament group (1968) with Rosie Casals, Francoise Durr and Ann Haydon-Jones, forming the women's section of the National Tennis League. She was the FIRST woman to coach male profession athletes as the coach for World Team tennis (1974) and the FIRST sportswoman to earn $1m in a single year. She won her first tournament when she was 13 and her first Wimbledon title when she was 17. In all she won 20 Wimbledon titles. In 1975 she established the World Team Tennis League and the Women's Profession Softball League and also helped to launch a magazine called WomanSport.  On September 20th 1973 she beat tennis hustler Bobby Briggs in three sets in front of thousands who packed the Houston Astrodome and millions who watched on television.  This was after he had boasted that ' no woman can beat a male player who knows what he's doing. I'm not only interested in glory for my sex, but I want to see Women's Lib back twenty years, to get women back in the house where they belong'. In 1973 the US Open became the FIRST major international tournament to offer equal prize money for men and women and Billie Jean became the FIRST president of the Women's Tennis Association. Later she was the FIRST American athlete to acknowledge a same-sex relationship

* Billie Whitelaw

..... star and actress who was the FIRST Annenberg Fellow at Reading University

* Birgit Fischer

 ..... German who was the FIRST female Olympian to win gold medals in four consecutive Olympics - canoeing - 2000

* Blanchard - Madame

..... FIRST woman to die in an aerial disaster when she was killed on 7th July 1819 when her hydrogen balloon was ignited during a firework display she was giving at the Tivoli gardens in Paris

* Blanche Scott

 ..... in 1910 she was the FIRST woman to fly a plane solo

* Blanche MacIntosh

..... FIRST scriptwriter to be employed on a regular basis in Britain 1912. She was employed by Hepworth Studios at Walton-on-Thames and in contrast to the liberality of the American Film Industry she received 1 guinea for her first script which was for a film called 'In Wolf's Clothing'. It had previously been the custom of British film producers to shoot without a script or to write their own scenarios

* Bonnie Bird

  born 1914 died 1995

..... American who introduced professional training for dancers and Britain's FIRST degree course in Dance Studies in 1977

* Bonnie Blair

  born 1964

 ..... FIRST American speed skater to win in more than one Olympic games

* Bonnie B Heady

 born 1912 died December 16th 1953

..... when she became the FIRST woman in US history to be executed for kidnapping.  She had taken Bobbie Greenlease Jr from his private school on September 28th 1953, taking him to a lonely field where her accomplice Carl Austin Hall strangled and shot him to death while she strolled through a meadow.  The following day they demanded a ransom of £600,000 which was paid on October 4th. They were caught hours later and were both sent to the gas chamber at the same time

* Bozena Nemcova

  born 1820 died 1862

 ..... FIRST truly eminent Czech woman writer

* Brede Arkless

neé Boyle

born August 10th 1939 died March 18th 2006

..... Manchester (UK)- born climber who became the FIRST woman to qualify for admission to the elite Union Internationale des Associations de Guides de Montagnes.  She also went on high-profile, all-women expeditions to Himalayan Peaks and guided clients for more than 40 years amongst most of the world's great mountain ranges. She was the second woman to qualify as a British mountain guide and in the 1980s ran women-only climbing courses with Jill Lawrence. She spent most of her life in Wales, had eight children and in 1990 left for New Zealand with her four youngest children and five years later became a New Zealand citizen

* Brenda Butler

..... FIRST force commandant of the Special Constabulary in Kent in 1991. Aged 52 she joined as a constable in 1979 and worked her way up the promotion ladder until as force commander she had overall controls of policy plus 500 specials. Their job was not very far removed from the work done by regular police officers and carries a high responsibility.  Specials are not paid for their services (P/L)

* Brenda Dean

  born April 29th 1943

..... FIRST woman General Secretary of SOGAT, FIRST woman to lead a major craft or industrial trade union when made FIRST woman President of SOGAT '82

* Brenda Edwards

..... FIRST black female soloist with a national ballet company when she joined  the London Festival Ballet company in 1987

* Brenda Hancock

..... FIRST woman to speak at a City Livery company dinner  when she spoke at the Summer Court dinner of the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers on 31st July 1969 at the Skinners Hall in London. (P/L)

* Brenda Hoggett

 neé Hale

..... a reader in law at Manchester University was appointed the FIRST woman Law Commissioner in England and at the age of 39 was also the youngest commissioner to be appointed. She was the FIRST member of the High Court to have made her name as an academic rather than as a practising barrister. In 2003, as Dame Brenda Hale, she became the FIRST woman appointed to Britain's highest court , when she was made a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary and was ranked as the country's most senior woman judge

 * Brenda Ryman

..... FIRST married woman to hold the position of teacher at Girton College, Cambridge. She was born in Bristol, educated at Colston Girls School and during the 1939-45 war read natural sciences at Girton. She gained her PhD at Birmingham University and went to the Dept of Biochemistry at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, London, where she stayed until 1972. During her time there it changed from a women's medical school to a mixed one

* Brenda Sherratt

  born 1948

..... she came from from West Bollington in Cheshire and on 26th July 1966 became the FIRST woman to successfully swim Loch Ness

* Bridget Bishop

 ..... FIRST of the Salem witches to be hanged

* Bridget Driscoll

..... died 17th August 1896 when she was knocked down and killed near the Crystal Palace on her way to a folk-dancing display making her the FIRST road casualty in Britain. Witnesses said that the car, driven by Arthur Edsel, was travelling at ' a reckless pace, in fact, like a fire engine'. Mr Edsel claimed that he had only been doing 4 mph and that he had rung his bell as a warning. The jury returned a verdict of accidental death

* Bridget Hill and Betty Sayer

..... FIRST women pilots of the Air Transport Auxiliary (UK) to die when they were passengers in a taxi plane that crashed through the roof of a house on the edge of White Waltham aerodrome on 18th March 1942

* Bridget Knight

..... FIRST woman President of a Rotary Club in the North West of Manchester

* Bridget Rice and Clare Luscombe

 ..... FIRST women to work as fish porters at Billingsgate in 1989

* Bridget Macaskill

..... FIRST to think of delivering fresh orange juice to the door along with the daily milk when she was marketing executive at Unigate

* Bridget Paton

..... appointed the FIRST woman officer of the male-dominated Amalgamated Union of Engineers in 1975

* Bridget Louise Riley

born 1931

..... FIRST English painter to win the major painting prize at the Venice Biennale in 1968

* Bridget Rosewell and Kate Barker

......  the FIRST two women on the panel of the independent economic forecasters at the Treasury in Britain

* Brigid Lamour

..... FIRST woman chief director at the Contact Theatre in Manchester

* Brigit Sapstead

..... FIRST public relations officer for the Portman Inter-Continental Hotel. She had previously done PR work for the Peninsula Hotel Group in Hong Kong and the Luncheon Voucher Group in London

* Brigitte Bardot

..... said to be the FIRST woman to wear a bikini in Spain when she appeared on the beach in Torremolinos

* Brooke Knapp

..... in 1982/83 she attempted the FIRST global flight in a light jet aircraft over both the North and South Poles

* Bryony Shaw

..... won the FIRST Olympic Bronze medal in wind surfing - Beijing 2008

* Bubna  - Countess

..... FIRST woman producer of a feature film who produced a gangster movie set in New York called The Definite Object for the British company Eros Film in 1920

* Bushra Nasir

..... Britain's FIRST Asian female headteacher

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