* Karimah Al-Said

...... FIRST woman Minister of Education in Egypt in 1965. Sister of Aminah al-Said

* Karin O'Neill

..... FIRST girl craft apprentice to be taken on for training by the East Midlands Electricity Board at Wollaton, Nottingham

* Karin Vaermefjord

..... FIRST woman Police Commissioner in Sweden at Ludvika which is in Central Sweden

* Karla Faye Tucker

..... died February 3rd 1998 when she became the FIRST woman to be executed in Texas in over 100 years. She was convicted in 1992 of helping to kill a Houston couple with a pickaxe in 1983 and was eventually executed six years later. The last such execution was in 1863 when Chipita Rodriguez was hanged for killing a horse trader

* Karlene Davis

 ..... FIRST black woman to head the Royal College of Midwives

* Karolina Lanckoronska - Countess

died 2002 aged 104 years

..... Poland's FIRST woman professor of art history

* Karoline Mikkelsen

..... FIRST woman to set foot on Antarctica on 20th February 1935 ..... no woman stood on the South Pole until 11th November 1969 when six women arrived by air

* Karren Brady

.....  FIRST woman to run a football league club - 1994 and FIRST woman managing director in football - 1997- Birmingham City

* Kate

* Kath Mashiter

..... FIRST scientific support officer with Lancashire Police in 1995 when she took charge of a new scientific support unit which comprised the photographic, fingerprint and scenes of crimes department

* Kath Smith

..... FIRST ever recipient of Salford's Mayoral Citizen Award in July 2001. She was the driving force behind the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital research equipment fund raiser of £1m. The award will be given one per month to citizens who have made an outstanding contribution to Salford

* Kath Walker

  Oodgeroo of the Noonuccal tribe 

 born November 3rd 1920 died 1993

..... poet, teacher, painter. actress and an environmentalist she was the FIRST Aboriginal poet to be published in English.  Born Kathleen Jean Mary Ruska she renounced her name and her 1988 MBE to show her revulsion at the celebration of the bicentenary of white settlement, and became Oodgeroo, which means "paper-bark tree"

* Katharine Babbington

..... FIRST female cadet to receive the highest award at the Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth when she was awarded the Queen's Sword in 1998 after she beat off competition from 300 rivals, mainly male

* Katharine Bement Davis

..... FIRST woman to head a municipal agency when made head of New York City's Department of Correction

* Katharine Worsley, Duchess of Kent

 born 1933

..... on 11th January 1994 she became the FIRST member of the British Royal family to become a Catholic since James 11 in the 17th century and in 1996 was the FIRST patron of the Chiltern Society

* Katharine W Fanning

 died  October 2000

..... FIRST woman to run a US national paper. She was the former editor of the Christian Science Monitor and Anchorage Daily News

* Katharine Graham

..... American who was the FIRST woman to receive the John Peter Zenger award, which is given for distinguished service on behalf of the freedom of the press and the people's right to know.  1n 1977 U.S. News and World Report voted her the "top leader and shaper of national life among women". She transformed the Washington Post into a respected and influential newspaper and managed a media empire with skill and determination. When she retired she was one of only two female heads of Fortune 500 companies

* Katharine Hepburn

 neé Katharine Houghton Hepburn

 born May 12th 1907 died 2003

..... FIRST Woman of the Year for McCall Magazines and no other film actor has won more honours than her. She has received four Academy Awards and eight further nominations in a career spanning almost 70 years since her film debut in 1932 in A Bill of Divorcement

* Katharine Mellor

..... in 1982 she set up the FIRST regional group of the Association of Women Solicitors in Manchester and in 1989 was FIRST woman President of the Manchester Law Society

* Katharine Whitehorn

..... FIRST woman rector at St Andrew's University and the FIRST at any Scottish University in 1982/83

* Käthe Kollwitz

 neé Schmidt

 born 1867 died 1945

..... German who was the FIRST woman member of the Prussian Academy of Arts - 1919. Artist and sculptor who worked on black and white and was one of the most impressive artists of the early 20th century.  From 1928 to 1933 she was head of the Department of Graphic Arts but resigned in protest against the Nazis. The Käthe Kollwitz Museum is in Cologne and is devoted exclusively to her works and there is also one in West Berlin

* Katherine White Cooper

..... English woman who was the FIRST woman to enter the water the moment mixed bathing in the Serpentine was officially allowed for the first time of June 16th 1930. More than 10,000 spectators lined the banks and at exactly 4.30 pm Kathleen dived into the water wearing a salmon pink swimming suit and a white swim cap. During the next 2 days more than 5,000 bathers of both sexes passed through the turnstiles and it soon became dubbed as the 'London Lido'

* Kathleen Richardson

..... FIRST woman to lead the Methodist Church as President of the Methodist Conference in its 250 year history and the FIRST woman church leader to be granted an audience with the Pope. In 1987 she was also the FIRST woman to be appointed Chairman of her District , the equivalent of a Bishop in the Church of England. In 1998 she was the FIRST ordained woman to be granted a seat in the House of Lords

* Kathleen Thomas

 born 1906

.....  on September 5th 1927 she became the FIRST woman to swim the Bristol Channel from Penarth, South Glamorgan to Weston-Super-Mare, Avon. Time taken was 7hrs 20 mins

* Kathryn Carmyllie

..... FIRST female to be appointed as vicar of St Mary's the Virgin, Ellenbrook Road, Worsley, in its 700-year history - 2007 - Salford

* Kathryn Crosby

 neé Grant

.....  American wife of Bing Crosby she was the FIRST state registered nurse in the Los Angeles area and the fourth in the state of California

* Kathryn McPhee and Katie Unsworth and Tessa Lloyd

.....  FIRST all-female British team of Army officers to take part in the world's toughest race in the Sahara desert in March 2000. The course was 150 miles long across the dunes and mountains in the desert and temperatures of 38C would have to be endured.  The girls were among 3,000 competitors following a secret route in the Marathon des Sables from the city of Ouarzazate in Morocco and had spent three months training for the event

* Kathryn Shannon

.....  in 1992 she became the FIRST woman in London to hold the position of hotel doorkeeper when she began work at the Rembrandt Hotel in South Kensington dressed in a burgundy suit trimmed with gold braid and wearing the traditional top hat

* Kathryn Sullivan

..... a marine geologist, in 1984 she became the FIRST American woman to walk in space when she and a male partner left the shuttle Challenger to spend more than three hours outside. In the process a second space-history "first" was established with the inauguration of the era of the orbital filling station

* Kathy August

..... FIRST woman director of education for Trafford Council Manchester in June 1997 with a budget of £82m and heads the massive education, arts and leisure department

* Kathy Bennett

..... FIRST female apprentice to be employed at British Aerospace, Hamble

* Kathy Blades

..... FIRST Royal Navy woman doctor to serve aboard ship in 1991 when she sailed for the Gulf on board HMS Hecia. It was her first assignment at sea since she joined the navy in 1988

* Kathy Lawson

..... one of the FIRST 13 women to pass a course in community work at Manchester University. The course was a two-year part-time one and the women worked with deprived communities in Greater Manchester. Some of the others were Norma Rogers, Kay Fairhurst and Janet Tye

* Katie Hnida

..... in December 2002 she was the FIRST woman to play top level American football when she played with her team New Mexico against UCLA in a college cup final

* Katsuko Saruhashi

..... FIRST woman appointed to the Science Council of Japan

* Katy Brown

..... FIRST bride to say 'I do' at Manchester University when she was married in a civil-style service on  July 18th 1998 to Chris Grazebrook

* Katy Cropper

..... FIRST woman to win One Man and His Dog in 1991 at the Ambleside sheep trials in Cumbria

* Katy Richardson

 born 1864 died 1927

..... English mountaineer of whose 116 major ascents - 14 were FIRST ascents by a woman and 6 were pioneer firsts. She was slightly built but had great physical endurance and climbed in skirts and took bread, jam and tea with her. In 1888  with Emile Rey and J J Bich she climbed the Aiguille de Bionnassay and traversed the eastern ridge to the Dome du Gouter, previously considered impossible. Her last 5 years were spent climbing with the French woman Mary Paillon, with whom she lived near Lyons

* Katy Turner

..... managing director of VIVA! 963, the FIRST British radio station for women when it launched its 24-hour service to London and the South-East. It was owned by Golden Rose Communications and had recruited Sally Brampton, Claire Rayner, Carol Thatcher and Paula Yates as potential presenters to attract an estimated weekly audience of 375,000 women

* Kay Beckett

born 19th July 1941

..... in 1969 she was the FIRST woman in Scotland, where she was living at the time, to receive a SANCAD certificate in Computer Studies ( it was with distinction), in 1980 she was the FIRST woman Regional Secretary with the National Dairymen's Association among a total of eight and in 1987 was the FIRST woman elected to the Board of the National Home Improvement Council. Kay says that she has many other firsts, so if you are still out there let me know what they are (P/L)

* Kay Carberry

.....  FIRST woman head of the TUCs new Equal Rights Department in 1988 - which was a senior post in the organisation. She was a former teacher who had worked at Congress House for the last ten years

* Kay Cottee

..... Australian woman who was the FIRST lone woman to sail non-stop around the world when she returned to Sydney on 5th June 1988 having left there the previous November. Her 37-foot single-masted sloop crossed the finishing line after 191 days and 25,000 nautical miles at sea

* Kay Elliot

Lady Elliot of Harwood

neé Katherine Tennant

born 15th January 1903 died 1994

..... among the FIRST women to be created a peer under the Life Peerages Act of 1958 and in 1962 became the FIRST woman to move the Loyal Address to the Queen after the State Opening of Parliament

* Kay Fanning

 neé Katherine Woodruff

 born 18th October 1927 died 2000

..... one of the most respected figures in American journalism she was the FIRST woman editor of the Christian Science Monitor and the FIRST woman president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors

* Kay Hallahan and Pam Beggs

..... Australians ..... Kay was the FIRST woman in the Legislative Council to become a Minister and Pam was the FIRST woman Labour member in the assembly to be elevated to the cabinet

* Kay Ryan

..... FIRST woman state leader with the Ku Klux Klan in Pennsylvania in 2000

* Kaylee Davidson

..... FIRST British baby to survive a heart transplant at five months old. Kaylee is now (2008) twenty one years old

* Kay-Tee Khaw

.....  FIRST Professor of Clinical Gerontology at Cambridge in 1988. She was the FIRST woman in 700 years to be appointed to a medical professorship there and as "professor of old age" will study why various diseases are prevalent in the old

* Kimberley Ames

..... in July 1996 she was the FIRST woman to receive the Guild of Chefs' top medal when she achieved the highest marks in the country among students taking the guild's advanced craft diploma. She was the only woman to finish her three-year advanced catering studies at Hopwood Hall College in Middleton, Manchester

* Kimberley Butterworth

..... FIRST woman trainee construction manager at Cruden Construction, Manchester, when made site foreman at part of a retirement village project at Warrington

* Kimberley Hampton

..... FIRST female American military pilot in American history to be shot down and killed

* Kimiko Date

..... in 1996 she became the FIRST Japanese woman to reach a Wimbledon final

* Kimba Wood

..... FIRST woman Attorney General in America

* Kinuyo Tanaka

 born 1909 died 1977

..... FIRST woman film director in Japan. She began as an actress in 1924, was Japan's top female star in the early 193Os and ended her acting career in 1977 in Sandakan 8, a film which won her Japan's Best Actress Award. Her roles ranged from a Japanese 1920s flapper to an ageing mother. In 1953 she directed her first film Koibumi and her second film was two years later

* Kiri Gore

 ..... 13-year old English girl who was the FIRST girl to play for Wigan Cricket Club in its 165-year history in July 1993. She played first for the under-13s, moved to the under-15s and then joined Timperley Women's Cricket Club to gain more experience. This led to a selection for the Lancashire and Cheshire Women's under-19s

* Kirsten Flagstad

 born 1895 died 1962

.....  FIRST woman director of the Norwegian State Opera from 1958- 60

* Kirsten Hansteen

.....  FIRST woman member of the Cabinet (Norway). She was consultative member for care of prisoners and refugees in the coalition government

* Kirsty Howard

..... FIRST child to win the Helen Rollason Award which is given for outstanding courage and achievement in the face of adversity - and how well deserved she is

* Kitson Miss

..... Leed's FIRST woman Mayor from 1942-43. (P/L)

* Kitty Godfree

 neé Kathleen McKane

 born May 7th 1896 died 1992

..... outstanding British woman player in the golden age of tennis when Wimbledon was still an amateur contest and winnings took the form of a five-guinea voucher from the London jewellers Mappin and Webb she was the FIRST woman member to be appointed a Vice-President by the All England Club and with her partner, Mrs Covell, became the FIRST overseas winners of the U.S Women's Doubles championships

* Kitty Wells

 born 1919

..... FIRST woman to have a number one country hit on 23rd August 1952 with It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels

* Kitty Wilkinson

.....  English woman who was the instigator of the FIRST wash house in Liverpool

* Kristin Baker

..... FIRST female chief cadet in the history of the American Military Academy in 1989. Aged 21 years she supervised the lives of 4,400 cadets at West Point, New York

* Kristin Otto

 born 1966

..... FIRST woman to break the minute barrier for the 100 metres backstroke in a short course pool (25m)

* Kristine Holderied

.....  midshipman who was the FIRST woman to be the top graduate at an American service academy when she received her diploma at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland

* Krisztina Egerszegi

..... FIRST female swimmer to capture 5 individual gold medals during her Olympic career

* Kylie Minogue

born 1968

 .....  FIRST actress to win four of Australia's TV Logie Awards

* Kyoko Nakayama

..... on June 11th 1991 in the Ministry of Finance, she was named the FIRST woman chief of the Local Finance Bureau in Shikoku, one of the four major islands in Japan. At the time of her appointment she was chief of the Second National Property Division in the Finance Bureau

* Kyrie James

..... FIRST Captain of Women's boats at Magdalene College, Cambridge in 1988

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