A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O PQ R S T U V W XYZ
" medicine is a cause worth fighting for, a way of life and a field of service
that should be open to all women"
Sophia Jex Blake
HER NAME IS S.........
* Sabiha Gokcen
..... FIRST female combat pilot in the world
* Sabina Lovibond
..... FIRST woman Fellow at Worcester College
* Sabine Lambeck
..... West German who was her country's FIRST shepherdess, realising a long-cherished ambition since leaving high school
* Sabine Meyer
..... FIRST woman clarinettist with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
* Sadako Ogata
..... Japanese woman who was the FIRST woman High Commissioner of the United Nations for Refugees
* Sadayakko Kawakami
neé Sada Koyama
born 1871
..... the Geisha who seduced the West ..... on Tuesday May 8th 1900, the SS Ivernia 1 docked at Liverpool and on board were the FIRST Japanese theatre troupe ever to travel to the West. The leader of the troupe was called Otojiro Kawakami and with his wife Sadayakko travelled first class, whilst the rest travelled in steerage. The actors were all men as for 250 years women had been banned from performing on the public stage in Japan. Their first call of port after Japan had been San Francisco and here they had realised that western audiences would never come to see a play where men took the women's parts. If they were to succeed they would need a real woman as its star and so Sadayakko took to the stage, the FIRST Japanese woman to appear on stage in London. Their English season opened on May 22nd at the Coronet Theatre, London and nobody had seen authentic Japanese drama before. To Western ears the music was barely tolerable but when Sadayakko appeared on stage everything changed and they became the toast of London. They were invited to give a private command performance for the Prince of Wales and Japanese culture became hugely in vogue. After London they travelled to Paris and for the first time electricity lit up the skyline. They became the prime attraction and their season stretched to six months
* Sadie Alexander
born 1898 died 1989
..... FIRST African-American woman to practice law in Pennsylvania
* Sadie Bonnell Marriott
(Talbot)
..... member of the FANYs who was the FIRST woman to be awarded the Military Medal in the field when decorated by General Plumer, 2nd Army in 1918 for evacuating the wounded under fire whilst serving in France
* Sally Aw
..... often called the Tiger Balm heiress as her father was the creator of Tiger Balm, the famous cure-all ointment she was the FIRST woman chairman of the Commonwealth Press Union and FIRST woman chairwoman of the International Press Institute in 1970. She is the owner of the Sing Tao Jih Pao newspapers, the only Chinese multi-national publisher and a billionaire and besides her publishing company she has stakes in property, an Australian television network and a meat-packaging firm in New Zealand
* Sally Bance and Marion Sinclair
..... FIRST two women to complete a three year course in Fine Arts and Chattels run by the Incorporated Society of Valuers and which was unique to Southampton College of Higher Education
* Sally Beamish
..... FIRST head gardener at Brantwood, the home of John Ruskin on Lake Coniston, since his death in 1900
* Sally Cox
..... one of the FIRST women to be accepted for RAF jet training in 1990 and the FIRST woman to tackle the RAF'S 17-week tactical weapons course on bombing, missile firing and dog-fight techniques
* Sally Culvert
..... FIRST woman to work on an oil rig - April 1978
* Sally Gunnell
born 1966
..... in 1992 she became the FIRST British woman in 28 years to win an Olympic gold medal in track events. She was also the only British athlete to have hurdled to a grand slam of Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth titles as well as a world record
* Sally Hubbard
..... on August 22nd 1991 she became the FIRST woman to be appointed Assistant Inspector of Constabulary. During her 27 year career with the Metropolitan Police she was closely involved with community affairs
* Sally McNair
..... FIRST woman sports reporter in Scotland
* Sally Passey
..... FIRST transplant patient in Britain to qualify as a nurse. She had previously had a replacement liver and hoped to work with transplant workers
* Sally Kristen Ride
born 1952
..... FIRST American woman to go into space in 1988 when she lifted in the space shuttle Challenger with four male colleagues. Also for the FIRST time the space shuttle made a return landing at Cape Canaveral and the five-member crew was the largest launched from Earth in a single spaceship
* Sally-Anne Cronin
..... in 1991 she was the FIRST girl prefect in the 707-year history of Ruthin School in Clwyd, Wales
* Salma Khal
..... FIRST Bedouin to tread the catwalk after being discovered by the Elite Model Agency in her native Israel
* Samai Pan-In
..... died in 1999 the FIRST woman in more than 20 years to be executed in Thailand when she was executed by rifle fire in Bangkok in November 1999 for trafficking in heroin
* Samantha Appleby
..... FIRST girl member of the Rylands Sharks Junior Rugby League Club at Warrington in 1997, the FIRST time the club had a girl playing in a cup final
* Samantha Brewster
..... FIRST woman and youngest sailor to complete a "wrong way" solo round-the-world trip when she stepped ashore at Southampton on 8th July 1996
* Samantha Clements
..... FIRST woman 'bulldog' (University policeman) at Oxford
* Sandra
* Sandy Newman
..... with Anthony Baker became the FIRST couple to have a civil wedding in England to be held outside a register office when they made history by getting married at home, the Saddleworth Hotel outside Oldham which they ran
* Saphira Clark
..... FIRST person in Britain to have the key to the Magic Kingdom in Disneyland Florida when presented with it on the Noel Edward's television show in 1996
* Sappho
..... her influence through the ages has been threefold. As a Greek lyric poet of epic proportions she can rightly be considered as the FIRST known woman author and the founder of women's literature. Her work influenced not only the Romans but later poets, such as Thomas Campion, Philip Sidney, Swinburne and Ezra Pound. Finally, because of her sexual preference, she has achieved immortal status as the patron saint and muse of lesbian lovers. She was unfailing accurate when she wrote of herself and her followers "I think that someone will remember us in another time"
* Sara Jeannette Duncan
born 1861 died 1922
..... FIRST woman on a Canadian newspaper's editorial team
* Sara Morley
..... FIRST woman officer in the Household Cavalry in February 1990 and in April 1990 became the FIRST woman to take part in the inspection of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment
* Sara Teasdale
born 1884 died 1933
..... FIRST recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
* Sarah
* Sarojini Naidu
born 1879 died 1949
neé Chattopadhyay
..... FIRST Indian woman to become President of the National Congress in 1925. She was born at Hyderabed and educated at Madras, in London and at Cambridge. Her verse '1905 to 1917' showed her mastery of the lyric form in English and it was translated into many Indian languages. She then turned to national and feminist affairs and became associated with Gandhi with whom she took part in the Round Table Conference of 1931. She was imprisoned for her part in the civil disobedience movement and later took part in the negotiations leading to independence. In 1947 she became Governor of the United Provinces. As a leader of the women's movement in India she did a lot to remove the barrier of purdah which screened women from the sight of strangers
* Sayeeda Warsi
..... the Tories FIRST female Muslim candidate in a general election (2005) when she stood in the West Yorkshire town of Dewsbury where she was born. With Labour candidate Shahid Malik (male) it will be the first time that voters in Dewsbury have a choice of Muslim candidates for both parties. In 2007 she became the FIRST Muslim Shadow Cabinet Minister in the Conservative Party when made Shadow Minister for Community Cohesion
* Seena Owen
..... actress in the D.W Griffiths film Intolerance who was the FIRST to use false eyelashes. The FIRST consumer false eyelashes were developed in the late 1940s by Hollywood make-up artists David and Eric Aylott
* Selena Fox
..... in 1914 she was appointed Lady Superintendent of Aylesbury Prison and in 1916 became FIRST woman governor of a prison when appointed there
* Selma Epstein
..... pianist, composer and musicologist who mounted the FIRST piano course devoted to the music of women composers. In 1987 she was part of the FIRST Biennial International Piano Competition honouring women composers. She was the artistic director of the 52-strong Maryland Women's Symphony, one of only two women-only orchestras in America (the other one was the San Francisco Bay Area Women's Philharmonic ) and their concerts regularly brought to life historical works by unknown women composers , some of them being heard for the first time
* Selma Ottiliaa Louisa Lagerlof
born December 31st 1858 died 1940
..... Swedish writer who was the FIRST woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1909 and in 1914 was the FIRST woman director of the Swedish Academy. Her books were based on Swedish folklore and were so popular that they were translated into 34 languages. After winning the Nobel Prize she was able to buy back her beloved childhood home
* Senda Berenson
born 1868 died 1954
..... American who established the FIRST official rules for basketball for girls in 1899 and wrote the FIRST published rules of basketball - Line Basket Ball for Women
* Serena Sutcliffe
..... FIRST woman head of Sotheby's wine department in 1991. She was a Master of Wine, the second woman to receive the honour, and a noted wine writer
* Shakira Caine
..... FIRST Indian woman to present her own fragrance when 'Shakira' was launched in the year 2000
* Shane Elizabeth Gould
born 1956
..... Australian swimmer who set world records at every free-style distance from 100 metres to 1500 metres between 1971 and 1972. Her time of 58.5 seconds for the 100m freestyle broke the record set by Dawn Fraser in 1964. She became the FIRST woman to win three individual swimming gold medals in world record times at the 1972 Olympics and also won a silver and a bronze medal. Throughout her short career she won numerous Australian individual championships, all before retiring at the age of seventeen to marry and become social welfare worker
* Shania Twain
..... FIRST female to be voted Entertainer of the Year at the Country Music Awards in Nashville in 1999. She was also the only woman ever to have two consecutive albums each grossing over 10 million and later became the FIRST artist to achieve RIAA Diamond Award status for selling 10m copies each of three consecutive albums - 1995 - The Woman In Me ( 12m) 1997 - Come On Over (19m) and in 2002 - Up (10m)
* Shannon Faulkner
..... FIRST woman admitted to The Citadel, the Army Academy at Charlestown, South Carolina, but she resigned one week later
* Shannon Lucid
..... FIRST American woman to live in space when she spent 188 days on the MIR station and the FIRST woman to go into space five times. In 1996 she received the FIRST Congressional Space Medal of Honour awarded to a woman which was presented by President Clinton
* Shanti Thomas
..... FIRST artist-in-residence at Gatwick Airport in 1993 and was in fact the Airport's FIRST artist
* Sharon Sites Adam
..... FIRST woman to cross the Pacific Ocean solo in a boat - Yokohama to San Diego - 75 days - 5911 miles
* Sharon Pratt Dixon
..... FIRST black woman in the driving seat of a major American city when made Mayoress of Washington
..... FIRST woman area dean of Salford. She is also chaplain at the all-male Forest Bank prison in Pendlebury and her work as area dean involves co-ordinating and caring for the Church of England clergy in Salford
* Sharon Stansfield and Elizabeth Hall
..... FIRST all-woman crew to win the Bradstock Insurance SD34 car rally championship in 1996
* Sharon Workman
..... FIRST woman pilot assigned to a Navy Combat Squadron to win carrier qualifications, since the restrictions prohibiting women from serving in combat units were lifted in 1994
* Sharron Elliott
..... FIRST British female soldier to be killed in action in Iraq - November 2006. Aged 34 years she was a Staff Sergeant with the Intelligence Corps and died with three servicemen when their patrol boat was hit by a booby trap bomb on a waterway in Basra on Remembrance Sunday
* Sharron Ellis
..... FIRST woman boxing coach
* Shauntae Harris
..... stage name 'Da Brat'
..... FIRST female to achieve Platinum sales in Rap/Hip Hop with her debut album 'Funkdafied' ..... from Sarah Tates
* Sheba - Queen of
..... FIRST reigning Queen on record who pitted her wits and wealth against those of a King
* Sheila
* Sheina MacAlister Marshall
born 1896 died 1977
..... FIRST Honorary Fellow of the Scottish Marine Biological Association
* Shelley Von Struckel
..... FIRST woman astrologer for the Sunday Times
..... FIRST time that a brass band performer had won the BBC Radio Two Young Musicians of the Year Award when she carried off the prestigious award in 1996. A Salford University student, she played the horn and beat finalists from the Royal College of Music in London. Her rewards included broadcast and public concerts with the BBC Concert Orchestra
* Sherry Lansing
born 1944
..... FIRST woman to head a major US film company when she became studio head of Twentieth Century-Fox in 1980. She began her career as a story reader but later became involved with blockbusters such as The China Syndrome, Kramer vs Kramer, Fatal Attraction and The Accused
* Sheila McClemans
born 1909 died 1988
..... Australia's FIRST female lawyer and director of the Women's Royal Naval Service
* Sheila McKirdy , Louise Holmes, Susan Smith, Suzi Faithful, Rebecca Bailey and Pat Goddard
..... the FIRST women to be recruited by any of the Services to play in the same military bands as men - July 1991. No women musicians have played for the RAF since the WRAF was disbanded in 1972. The girls became part of a 56-piece band and signed up for six years during which time they would be called upon to play on ceremonial occasions in anything from symphonic bands to salon orchestras
* Shirin Ebadi
..... FIRST Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize - 2003
* Shirley
* Shoshana Johnson
..... FIRST black American P.O.W in U.S history
* Shreela Flather - Baroness Flather of Windsor
neé Rai
born 1938
..... FIRST Asian woman JP in England in 1971, the FIRST ethnic minority woman councillor in the UK in 1976 when elected for the Conservative party for the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. In 1986 she was the FIRST Asian woman to become a Mayor when made Mayor of Windsor and Maidenhead and in 1990 the FIRST Asian woman in the House of Lords
* Shukoor Al Ghammary and Taiba Al Mawali
..... FIRST women to become members of the Majlis Al-Shura, an 80-strong consultative council which can propose and comment on legislation
* Shulamith Katznelson
born 17th August 1919 died 1999
..... founder and director of Ulpan Akiva, a residential language school in Israel where she taught Hebrew to Arabs and Arabic to Jews and was the FIRST Israeli teacher to teacher Hebrew to Arab women at Taybe, an Arab village in northern Israel. Ulpan Akiva began in 1951 and was one of the FIRST three adult Hebrew language institutions established by Israel's Ministry of Education and Culture. She was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace prize, and in 1986 was jointly awarded with her school the Israel Prize for Life Achievement in Education
* Sian Edwards
..... in 1985 she won the FIRST Leeds Conductors competition and on 2nd March 1988 she became the FIRST woman to be signed up as conductor with the Royal Opera at Covent Garden. On 29th April she made musical history when she became the FIRST woman to conduct there. In 1991 she became the FIRST woman music director with the English National Opera and was the FIRST Woman of Tomorrow for Cosmopolitan magazine
* Sian Holmes
..... FIRST woman in Britain to qualify as a chartered minerals surveyor. She worked at the limestone quarry in Halesowen near Birmingham where she inspected mines and checked out possible new sites for her company Tarmac Roadstone
* Sian Williams
..... FIRST woman to hold the office of Chaplain at a boy's public school - Christ's Hospital, Horsham, one of the country's oldest - 1982/83
* Sibongile Zungu
..... FIRST woman in recorded history to be appointed a Zulu tribal chief ruling a n70,000 strong Zulu clan. She acceded to the chieftaincy after her husband, whose line of chieftaincy descent went back 160 years, died in a car accident although she is not sure why she was appointed in place of male blood relatives of her husband's
* Sidonie-Gabrielle Claudine ( Colette)
born 1873 died 1954
..... French novelist who was the FIRST woman president of the Académie Goncourt in 1945
* Silvia Cartwright - Dame
..... New Zealand's FIRST female High Court judge in 1993. In 1989 she was honoured for services to women after heading an inquiry into the treatment of cervical cancer patients and also championed women's rights through her membership of a United Nations committee. At the time she began her legal career she said that women were excluded from the robing room and she was obliged to change in the female witness's lavatory before court appearances. In August 2000 she was appointed governor-general to replace Sir Michael Hardie Boys at the end of his five-year term in 2001. The governor-general, the Queen's representative in New Zealand, signs new legislation, heads the armed forces and has reserve powers in the event of a constitutional crisis. She is only the second woman to be appointed to this post
* Silvia Monfort
neé Favre-Bertin
Monfort was a stage name
born June 7th 1923 died 1991
..... heroine of the Resistance and one of the most original figures in post-war French theatre history she founded the FIRST French circus school at Le Nouveau Carré in 1974. For her work in the Resistance she won the Croix de Guerre, the Légion d'Honneur and the American Bronze Star Medal for her part in the liberation, first of Chartres and then of Paris. From the 1970s onwards she established a succession of temporary theatres in various parts of Paris
* Simeon - Sister
..... won the FIRST nuns snooker championship in 1989 when she won a sponsored tournament which raised £14,000 towards the £500,000 needed to restore the Tyburn Convent at Marble Arch in London
* Simone de Beauvoir
..... FIRST woman to have a footbridge named after her when the Passerelle Simone De Beauvoir became the 37th bridge across the River Seine in France
* Simone McDermott
..... FIRST woman Mayor's Attendant in the Greater Manchester area in 1991. In 1996 she became the second woman to become a Renter Warden in the northern region in the history of the Guild of Mace Bearers. The guild's aims were to preserve standards, customs and traditions
* Simone Rozes
..... FIRST President of the Cour de Cassation when she was appointed in 1982/83 by President Mitterand. The Cour de Cassation has the ultimate word on appeals and is the highest court in France
* Simone Signoret
neé Simon-Henriette Charlotte Kaminker
born 1921 died 1985
..... FIRST French actress to win the Best Actress Oscar - Room At The Top - 1959
* Simone Veil
neé Jacob
born 1927
..... FIRST woman Secretary-General of the Higher Council of Judges in France and FIRST elected President of the European Parliament. She was born in Nice and at the age of 17 she and her family were deported by the Nazis to concentration camps just after she had taken her baccalaureat exams. It was only on her return many years later, the sole survivor of her family, that she found out that she had passed. She then went to Paris to study law eventually becoming one of the most powerful women there has ever been in French politics
* Sirimavo Bandaranaike
neé Ratwatte
born April 17th 1916 died 2000
..... FIRST woman in the world to become a Prime Minister. In 1959, when her husband Solomon was assassinated, she succeeded as leader of the Sri Lankan Freedom Party which won the General Election in 1960. From July 21st 1960 to March 1965 she was in office and again from May 1970 to July 1977. In 1980 she was convicted of misuse of power, expelled from Parliament and deprived of her civil rights
* Sislin Fay Allen
..... FIRST black woman police officer in Britain in 1968
* Slater - Mrs Samuel
..... FIRST woman to be granted a US patent in 1793 which was for cotton sewing thread. Her husband was a mechanic from England who emigrated in 1789. He bought a cotton mill at Rhode Island which had been having problems and after his wife's invention the mill became prosperous and he soon opened others
* Sofia of Spain - Queen
..... in 1986 she was the FIRST woman to become an Honorary Fellow of Exeter College
* Sofonisba Anguissola
born 1532 died 1625
..... FIRST female Italian artist to have achieved a degree of international recognition
* Sokari Douglas Camp
..... FIRST black woman in Britain to gain national acclaim as a sculptor. In 1986 she graduated from the Royal College of Art
* Sonduk - Queen
born c AD625
..... ruled Korea from 632 to 647 because the male line of the Silla dynasty had died out and was responsible for the building of the FIRST known observatory in the Far East , Ch'omsong-dae ( Tower of the Moon and Stars) and which still survives as a tourist attraction at Kyong-ju, South Korea. Although she lived in violent times she tried to improve the lives of ordinary people and encouraged education and learning and during her reign scholars were sent to China for training
* Sonia Meaden
..... leading lady of the coin-operated amusement industry and the FIRST woman national chairman of the British Amusement Catering Trades Association in its heavily dominated male membership
* Sonia Palmer
..... FIRST woman to have a test tube baby using her dead husband's sperm. Her struggle began in 1985 at St. Mary's Hospital, Manchester, after her husband David died of cancer. They had been trying for sometime to have a baby by a test-tube fertilisation programme but after David died the hospital at first refused to give her any further treatment. Eventually they gave way
* Sonia Stevenson
..... FIRST woman in Britain to win a Michelin star and also the FIRST woman to cook at Maxim's restaurant in Paris
* Sonja Henie
born 1912 died 1969
..... FIRST person to do a single axle spin in ice skating
* Sonya Gould
..... and Vanessa Haydock became the FIRST gay Army couple to marry when the new civil partnership law came into effect in 2006
* Sonya Kovalevsky
born January 15th 1850 died February 10th 1891
..... FIRST woman to receive a German University doctorate which was awarded without examination and in absentia for her outstanding work in partial differential equations, Abelian integrals and mathematical astronomy. She was born in Moscow into an aristocratic family, studied at St Petersburg and was part of a movement to promote the emancipation of women in Russia. So that she could study in Heidelberg, she married Vladimir Kovalevsky who was a palaeontologist. She later went to study under Karl Weierstrass and Vladimir returned to Russia. Because she was a woman she was refused admission to university lectures and so Weierstrass tutored her privately for four years. This led to her receiving her doctorate in absentia. Unable to get an academic post she returned to her husband in Russia and eventually in 1883 was appointed to a lectureship in mathematics at the University of Stockholm. In 1889 she won a prize from the Swedish Academy of Sciences and was elected to membership of the Russian Academy of Sciences
* Sonya Proctor
..... FIRST woman to lead the Washington police force when appointed in 1997 as acting police chief to quell fears about chaotic law enforcement in the crime-ridden American capital
* Sophia Louisa Jex Blake
born 1840 died 1912
..... FIRST woman doctor in Scotland and the FIRST woman to register at the Women's Medical College of New York Infirmary. In 1869 with four other women she gained acceptance at Edinburgh Medical School but met with a lot of hostility which prevented her from graduating. In 1874 she founded the London School of Medicine for Women and three years later graduated from the University of Bern with a thesis on puerperal fever. She then passed the exams of the Kings and Queens College of Physicians. Several years later she opened her own medical school for women in Edinburgh and through her influence women were admitted to the Edinburgh Medical School in 1894
* Sophia Haydn
born 1868 died 1953
..... FIRST female graduate in architecture from the Massachusetts Institute for Technology. She won the competition to design the Woman's Building at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. At the age of 22 years and just out of school she went there to supervise the construction but was faced with constant interference. When the building eventually opened, remarks such ' as a student's creation' and ' a woman's work' disheartened her so much that she never built another one
* Sophia Heath
born 1896 died 1936
..... FIRST woman airline pilot employed by the Royal Dutch Airlines and in 1928 was the FIRST woman to fly solo from South Africa to England. ln 1919 the International Commission for Air Navigation banned women from taking part in commercial navigation but Sophia overcame the ban by qualifying in all the medical and aptitude tests. One record she made was in taking off and landing at 50 different airfields and 17 likely landing fields in England in a single day with six refuellings . In 1922 she founded the Women's Amateur Athlete Association and spoke before the Olympic commission in Prague to allow women to join in Olympic Athletics. In 1928 this was allowed and in 1932 the UK joined in
* Sophia Loren
neé Sofia Scicolone
born September 20th 1934
..... Italian star who was the FIRST performer to win an award for a foreign language film when she won the Oscar for Best Actress in the film Two Women in 1961 and was the FIRST woman to act as grand marshal at the head of the annual Columbus Day parade on Fifth Avenue, New York
* Sophia Smith
born 1796 died 1870
..... the FIRST women's college to be established was opened through her efforts in 1875. It came about after she had inherited her brother's stock exchange fortune and a local clergyman advised her to leave it to a college for women. She decided to do this in 1868 and in 1875 Smith College was eventually opened, five years after her death. In her will she declared a belief that education for women would mean that as teachers, writers, mothers and members of society, their power for good would be incalculably enlarged
* Sophie Armant Blanchard (Marie Madeleine)
born 1819
..... FIRST woman in the world to earn her living as a professional balloonist. She became Chief of Air Services to Napoleon and performed at many royal functions. She became the FIRST woman to die in a balloon accident when fireworks under her basket set her balloon on fire. This was a tethered ascent on Champ de Mars at the wedding of Napoleon and Marie-Louise ( extra info from Dave Lam)
* Sophie Bryant
born 1850 died 1922
neé Willock
..... FIRST British woman to become a Doctor of Science at London University in 1884. Her subjects were psychology, logic and ethics. In 1895 she succeeded Frances Buss as headmistress of the North London Collegiate School before retiring in 1918
* Sophie Cox
..... FIRST girl to be considered to play rugby at Wembley in 1993 when the English Schools Rugby League lifted its ban on females
* Sophie Germain
born April 1st 1776 died June 27th 1831
..... said to be the Hypatia of the 19th century she was the FIRST woman to be invited to attend sessions at the Institute de France. A founder of mathematical physics, her parents objected to her studies and she was denied light and heat in her bedroom and so she worked by hidden candles and kept warm with a blanket wrapped around her. Eventually however, her parents relented and she spent the rest of her life studying. The Ecole Polytechnique did not admit women so she collected lecturers notes and under the pseudonym of 'Le Blanc' submitted a paper which so impressed one of the teachers that he decided to encourage and sponsor her. Although her knowledge of the elasticity of materials was used in part when the Eiffel Tower was constructed, her name was not included among the 72 others inscribed there. It was recommended that she be given an honorary doctorate but she died of cancer before it could be awarded
* Sophie Long
..... in August 2000 she received the FIRST Jill Dando bursary award. Her ambition was to work in television journalism
* Sophie Lyons
..... FIRST society columnist in America
* Sophie - Countess of Wessex
..... FIRST Royal to have her baby in a National Health hospital when her daughter was born on November 8th 2003
* St Scholastica
born c48OAD died c543AD
..... FIRST Benedictine nun
* Stacey Hillyard
..... in 1985 she became the FIRST woman to compile a century break in a competitive snooker match
* Stamatis Rovithi
..... in 1896 she was the FIRST woman to run a marathon when she ran the proposed Olympic course from Marathon to Athens
* Stella Chiweshe
..... FIRST woman to play the mbira (or thumb piano), a small wooden box with metal keys that are plucked and which had been the sole domain of male players in her country Zimbabwe. It was also of great religious significance
* Stella Clarke
..... FIRST woman to head a governing body of a British university when elected chairman of the Council of Bristol University in 1988
* Stella Collins
..... FIRST female non-stipendiary minister to be appointed a rural dean in the Church of England in 1989
* Stella Colwell
..... FIRST woman chairman of the Society of Genealogists
* Stella Devadason
..... FIRST woman doorkeeper at the House of Lords in 1999 breaking a tradition going back to 1348
* Stella Isaacs Swanborough
neé Charnaud
born 1894 died 1971
..... on October 21st 1958 she was the FIRST woman to sit in the House of Lords. Attended by her sponsors and led by Black Rod, Garter King of Arms and the Earl Marshall she went into the House from the Bar, advanced to the Woolsack and then to the table to take the oath but did not, as the male peers did, remove her hat
* SteIla Richman
..... the first ever woman programme chief when she was appointed as London Weekend TV's controller of programmes in 1970
* SteIla Rimington
born 1935
..... on 16th December 1991 she became the FIRST woman director-general of MI5 and it was the FIRST time in the agency's history that the director-general had been named. Aged 56, she had spent 22 years in MI5 gaining experience in all areas of the agency's work. She gained a reputation as a political researcher and analyst and had worked in Northern Ireland. In the mid-1980s she was responsible for monitoring trade unions. She later became the FIRST Director-General of MI5 to publish an autobiography
* Stella Roberts
..... in 1976 she was the FIRST female magistrates clerk at Pontefract, Yorkshire. In 1985 she moved to Manchester and eighteen months later became the FIRST female deputy Clerk to the Justices in Manchester. In 1991 she made history again when appointed the FIRST female Clerk to the Justices in the North West of England. At the time there were only nine other female clerks in the country outside London
* Stella Scott
..... FIRST woman cashier at the Bristol and West Building Society in 1939. Until then it was unheard of for women to work on the counter but because men were being called up for war work women had to take over (P/L)
* Stella Souliotes
..... FIRST woman to become General Attorney of the Republic of Cyprus
* Stéphane de Genlis
neé Stéphanie-Félicité du Crest de Saint Aubin
born 1746 died 1830
..... governess who was far ahead of her time in teaching methods, was the author of many novels and in 1785 she was the FIRST woman to be put in charge of the royal children when appointed by Louis XV1 after the other tutors had been dismissed. She escaped the guillotine in 1789 and earned a living in Germany by painting and writing. When awarded a pension by Napoleon she returned to Paris but in 1804 her satirical book Diners du Baron d'Holbach was so malicious that it cost her the government pension which she had been awarded
* Stefania Wojtulanis
..... Poland's FIRST female parachutist and licensed balloonist. With Anna Leska she was one of the FIRST two Polish women pilots and was part of the Air Transport Auxiliary in Britain during WW2
* Stephanie Flanders
..... FIRST woman to become one of the BBC's senior editors
* Stephanie Hirsch-Miller
..... in 1995 she became the FIRST woman Master of the Trinity Foot Beagles at Cambridge University in the Beagles 150-year history to a mixed reception by the city's feminists
* Stephanie Rahn
..... on 17th November 1970 she was the FIRST P3 girl in The Sun Newspaper
* Stephanie Rothman
born 1936
..... a graduate of the University of Southern California Department of Cinema in the early 1960s she won the FIRST Director's Guild of America fellowship ever awarded to a woman
* Steve Shirley
..... software entrepreneur who became the FIRST woman President of the British Computer Society in 1989
* Sudha Bhuchar
..... actress who played the FIRST Asian character to appear in Radio 4's soap opera The Archers in its 40-year history in 1991 when she took the part of solicitor Usha Gupta
* Sue Barker
..... FIRST female presenter of A Question Of Sport when she replaced David Coleman in 1997 who retired after 18 years in the question master's seat
..... Miss Great Britain in 1980 and was the FIRST married woman to win the contest and at the age of 28 years, the eldest
* Sue Brownson
..... FIRST woman chairman of BMW's national dealer council and will be responsible to BMW GB for the entire network of 158 dealers. Between 1950 and 1956 she was the Manageress of a chain of London restaurants and ran an exhibition business before joining Blue Bell in Crewe where she was Managing Director
* Sue Campbell and Margaret Talbot
..... FIRST women to be in the frame to become chairman of the English Sports Council in 1998
* Sue Ellen
..... FIRST woman managing director of United Racecourses in 1996 when appointed by Racecourse Holdings Trust
* Sue Farr
..... FIRST person to be given the task of marketing BBC television having previously successfully run advertising campaigns to market the BBC Radio Network (Radios 1 to 5). In 1996 she was voted Advertising Woman of the Year by the Adwomen, a peer group association of female communications executives
..... FIRST witness support co-ordinator in Britain in 1995 when appointed at Salford, near Manchester. A former policewoman, she was backed by 20 volunteers and provided support and advice for people before, during and after civil, criminal and family cases
* Sue Minter and Fiona Crumley
..... Sue was the FIRST woman curator of the Chelsea Physic Garden and Fiona was its FIRST woman head gardener . The Chelsea Physic Garden is the third oldest of Britain's Botanical Gardens and can be found at 66 Royal Hospital Road, London. It is the only one to retain its original name which recalls the era when the medicinal uses of plants was taught purely to medical students
* Sue Nelson
..... in April 1979 she became the FIRST woman Coastguard. Her experience as a radar plotter and ground-to-air control in search and rescue in the fleet air arm was essential to the job as was her hobby of mountaineering
* Sue Williams
..... on 26th July 1978 she became the FIRST woman to reach a speed of 163 mph on water, a record which she achieved on Lake Washington, Seattle, U.S.A
* Sunity Devi
..... wife of the Maharajah of Cooch Beham she became the FIRST Maharani to visit Britain - 1887
* Sureya Agaoglu
..... FIRST woman barrister in Turkey
* Susan
* Susi Susanti
born 1971
..... Indonesian who was the FIRST badminton player to win an Olympic gold medal which she achieved in 1992 at Barcelona and two hours later the sport's second gold was won by her fiancé Allan Budi Kusuma.
* Susie Cooper
born October 29th 1902 died 1995
..... FIRST woman designer to be named on a company back-stamp in 1924 and in 1940 was elected a member of the faculty of Royal Designers for Industry by the Royal Society of Arts - the only woman in ceramics to have been so honoured. Her work in ceramics was extremely innovative and influential and made her a household name with George V being the FIRST monarch to admire her creations. The FIRST tea service purchased by the Queen Mother as Duchess of York was a Susie Cooper one
* Susie Maroney
..... the FIRST person to swim from Cuba to Florida in 1997 after more than 24 hours in the water and was freed from her cage ( used to protect her from sharks) to swim the last few yards to the beach at Key West. The long exposure to the salt water had swollen her tongue and she had been stung by jellyfish
* Susie Mathis
..... FIRST female daytime presenter on independent radio with Piccadilly Radio. She was also the only person to have won the prestigious Sony Radio Personality of the Year Award twice
* Susie King Taylor
neé Baker
born 1848 died 1912
..... believed to be the FIRST black army nurse to serve her country when she offered her services as a nurse to the First South Carolina Volunteers, one of the FIRST black military units formed by the Lincoln administration, which her husband had joined. Although other black women joined the troops to nurse the men including Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth it is believed that Susie was the first. For her heroism and dedication to her people and her country she received no pay and no pension and in 1902 published her memoirs My Life in Camp with the 33rd United States Colored Troops
* Suzanna Woollam
..... in 1990 she became the FIRST woman to be appointed a Deputy-Judge Advocate, a lawyer who officiates at Army and RAF court martials
* Suzanne Blum
born 1898 died 1994
..... French lawyer who was the FIRST woman to be called to the Bar in Poitiers, France in 1921 where she had been studying against the wishes of her family. Her best known clients were the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and she carried out work in connection with his properties, the official privileges he enjoyed in France and the protection of his and the duchess's reputations
* Suzanne Georgette Charpentier
born July 14th 1909 died 1996
..... star of Britain's FIRST Technicolour film Wings of the Morning in 1937. As Annabella she was one of the most celebrated French film actresses of the 1930s and wife of Tyrone Power, the Hollywood actor
* Suzanne Lenglen
born May 24th 1899 died 1938
..... French tennis player who was the FIRST woman tennis player to fully capture the imagination of the world and who helped to revolutionise the whole field of women's dress on the courts. She won her first Wimbledon title in 1919 and won the French championship seven times
* Suzanne Lucas
..... FIRST woman President of a royal society when elected by The Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers. In 1985 she founded the Society of Botanical Artists and was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London for the quality and accuracy of her toadstool paintings , a passion which she has pursued from 1974. She was born in India and travelled around Europe where she established herself as a painter of miniatures and water colours. She eventually moved to a cottage in Wiltshire where her interest in painting toadstools flourished and her book In Praise of Toadstools brought together 140 full colour plates of her paintings
* Suzanne Noel
..... one of the FIRST women cosmetic surgeons in the 192Os and the FIRST to record her procedures
* Suzy Becker
..... FIRST female voice used on the London Underground speakers to tell people to "Please mind the gap" when boarding and leaving trains, when she won a competition . Her voice was already familiar to road-users through her work as a radio announcer for AA Roadwatch. Before 1975 the Mind the Gap announcement was shouted live by staff who were often female and in 1957 Charing Cross station employed two women, Mrs Smith and Miss Millings to make the announcement. 'Please' was not used at the time
* Suzy Vinker
..... FIRST woman television announcer in France in 1935
* Svetlana Protasova
..... FIRST female fighter pilot in Russia
* Svetlana Savitskaya
born 1948
..... Russian cosmonaut who was the FIRST woman to walk in space on June 25th 1984 and in 1982 became the FIRST woman to make two space flights having first visited the Salyut-7. Svetlana was born in Moscow , trained as a pilot and then became a flying instructor. In 1970 she won the world aerobatics championships, qualified as a test pilot six years later and holds 18 world aviation records. She was the second woman to fly in space ( see Valentina Tereshkova)
* Swanzie - Lady Agnew of Lochnaw
neé Erskine
born June 9th 1916 died 2000
..... FIRST Professor of Geography at Malawi University, she was born in Heidelberg, Transvaal where her father had settled after working for a time at the British Council in Abyssinia. Her mother was Dutch and her name Swanzie means "Little Swan" in Dutch. She was educated in Pietermartizburg and in 1932 went to Edinburgh University where she read Geography. In 1937 she graduated and went to Montpelier University and on the outbreak of war returned to Edinburgh where she taught geography. In 1937 she married Sir Fulque Agnew, whose family had been hereditary sheriffs of Wigton since the 15th century and baronets since 1629. In 1948 they went out to South Africa where they began to farm but in 1952 he applied for the post of Registrar at Fort Hare University, in Cape Province, the only institution in the country which gave black students degrees recognised in Europe. Lady Agnew also found herself a job at the same university teaching geography. In 1960 they were both expelled from South Africa after they had protested when the government took over the administration of the university and implemented apartheid policies. She was then appointed headmistress of the junior side of the Royal Ballet School in Richmond and in 1965 received her appointed to Malawi University, then based at Blantyre. However after being made to live and work in increasingly intolerable conditions set by Hastings Banda's government she resigned her post in protest. When her husband died in 1975 she returned to Edinburgh where she devoted herself to poetry and painting
* Sybil Campbell
..... in 1945 she was appointed as the FIRST paid woman magistrate at Tower Bridge Magistrates' Court
* Sybil Mullen-Glover
died 1995
..... FIRST woman to be elected a council member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours
* Sybil Ruscoe
..... FIRST woman Test presenter on British Television on cricket in 1999 when she joined Channel 4's all-male team as a roving reporting interviewing players, coaches and fans. She was formerly a BBC radio 5 Live sports presenter and her appointment followed soon after the decision to admit women to the MCC ( see Netta Rheinberg)
* Sybil Tree
..... American who became the FIRST female dj when she broadcast her Little Ham programme in 1914
* Sybilla Masters
..... FIRST woman inventor in America on November 25th 1715 when she was awarded English Patent No. 4021 for a machine to prepare Indian corn. Although the form was made out to her husband it clearly credited her with the invention. Her other invention was for weaving palmetto, chips and straw for covering hats and bonnets
* Sydney Morgan - Lady
neé Owenson
born 1776 died 1859
..... eldest daughter of the Irish comedian Robert Owenson whose writings, wit and beauty brought her fame and fortune. She was one of the FIRST Irish novelists and started to earn her living at the age of fourteen. At first she was a governess but she soon found that she had an amazing gift for literary work and began writing verses. Her first volume was soon published and from this time onwards she was the centre of the most brilliant society in Dublin. Her songs and harp playing were always in demand and as a raconteuse she had no equal. It was Fanny Burney's success in England that incited her to attempt fiction and after a while The Wild Irish Girl, one of her four novels dealing with Irish subjects scored a great success. In her books she emphasised the unhappiness brought upon the Irish people by unjust laws and as champion of Irish liberties got into trouble with the Tory party. Rather reluctantly, in 1812 she married Charles Morgan, a brilliant surgeon, but the marriage proved to be a happy one and it is said that she would never have succeeded as she did without him. Her two greatest books - France and Italy - were written after her marriage and although both sold very well they were the object of severe censure from her old enemies the Tory reviewers. In 1837 she became the FIRST woman to be awarded a civil pension (£300) for her contribution to literature. In 1840 her sight failed and she was prevented from finishing the work Woman and Her Master a book which shows that in the present day she would have been an enthusiastic supporter of the Women's Movement , having, for her time, the most enlightened ideas on the subject of woman's work. She died of bronchitis in 1859. " I shall be sorry to leave all the friends who have been so kind to me. The world has been a good world to me." Her friends too, grieved sincerely when she died
* Sylva Koscina
born August 22nd 1933 died 1994
..... Croatian-born actress who made more than a hundred films. When her sister married an Italian she followed her to Italy and studied at a secondary school in Naples. After winning a beauty contest she was assigned the task of kissing the winner of the cycling tour of Italy, was spotted by a film director who signed her up, and during the next few years she made dozens of films. In the 1960s she was a leading light of the dolce vita set in Rome and was the FIRST Italian actress to pose nude for Playboy magazine
* Sylvia Cook
..... and John Fairfax, were the FIRST couple to row across the Pacific Ocean when they landed on Hayman Island off Australia's Queensland coast on 22nd April 1972 after an epic journey of 361 days which had begun in San Francisco
* Sylvia Crowe
born 1901 died 1997
..... prominent figure in the land-scaping of post-war Britain and in 1964 she became the FIRST landscape consultant to the Forestry Commission and in 1973 was the FIRST of her profession to be made a DBE. She had been appointed CBE in 1967. In 1948 the International Federation of Landscape Architects was established and she played a leading role in its development and was its FIRST secretary until 1959 and vice-president in 1964
* Sylvia Diggory
neé Beckingham
..... in 1948 she was the FIRST NHS patient in Britain, when at the age of 13 years she was admitted to the Park Hospital in Davyhulme, Manchester and was treated under the new NHS scheme which had come into effect
* Sylvia Hardy
..... in September 2005 she became the FIRST woman in the UK to be jailed for non-payment of council tax. Aged 73 years she also vowed to withhold part of her council tax for 2006. She served only 30 hours of her seven day sentence after a mystery benefactor paid off her arrears for which she was very angry and threatened to use the Freedom of Information Act to find out who he was so that she could tell him off
* Sylvia Hughes
..... FIRST female area service manager out on the road with the RAC in 1999
* Sylvia Jones
..... FIRST woman chairman of Wales TUC
* Sylvia Townshend
..... on April 16th 1926 her book Lolly Willowes or The Loving Huntsman was the FIRST book selected as book-of-the-month for members of the newly opened club and 4750 members received a copy
* Sylvia Trounce
.... FIRST woman chairman at Penarth Computer Club - Wales - 23rd January 1997
* Sylvia Weston
..... FIRST person to receive a Heart of Salford award posthumously when it was given for her work with the Cancer Patient Support Group aka Rendezvous based at St Ann's Hospice, Little Hulton - 2006
* Sylvia York
..... FIRST woman President of the Piano Manufacturer 's Association in its 90-year history. She was the daughter of Alfred Knight, whose specially designed and allegedly beer-proof NAAFI piano survived more World War 2 assaults than Dr Goebbel's Ark Royal