A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O PQ R S T U V W XYZ
" we, whose hands have rocked the cradle, are now using our heads to rock the boat"
Wilma Scott Heide ( 1926-) US nurse and feminist
HER NAME IS W.......
* Wafa Fageeh Dr
..... a professor at Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia, who carried out the world's FIRST womb transplant with a team of others at the King Fahad Hospital Research Centre in Jiddah in April 2000. The patient was a 26 year old Saudi woman and the donor was a 46 year old post-menopausal woman who had to have a hysterectomy. Nine days after the operation the body rejected the womb but doctors were able to control it with drugs
* Wafa Idris
..... the FIRST female suicide bomber in Israel and possibly the world
* Wafr Gabr
....... FIRST Egyptian woman to file for divorce under a new law introduced in March 2000. She came from a village 75 miles north of Cairo and claimed to have been the victim of domestic violence and the fact that her husband had married another woman. Under the new law a woman could seek a divorce if she returned gifts, including her bride price. Hers was about £40. The Personal Status Law had come into effect two weeks previously after months of debate in the media over women trapped in unhappy marriages and was based on a legal right under Sharia Islamic law which had long ago been abandoned across the Muslim world. In the first week after the implementation of the law more than 100 women filed for divorce in Cairo courts
* Wanda Rutkiewz
..... Polish climber who was the FIRST woman to reach the top of K2
* Wangari Muta Maathai
..... Kenya's leading environmentalist who was the FIRST woman to challenge a Kenyan court about sexism during her divorce case and the FIRST woman in East and Central Africa to achieve a PhD ( in anatomy). She was also the FIRST woman in Kenya to become a Professor at the University of Nairobi and was founder and director of the Green Belt Movement, a 14-year-old tree-planting project staffed mainly by women. The internationally acclaimed movement has planted 10 million trees and has spread to a dozen African nations with 50,000 Kenyan women working in 1,500 nurseries. In 1989 she received a "woman of the world" citation in London and a United Nations Environmental Programme Global 500 award. In 2004 she became the FIRST African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize which she received for founding the Green Belt Movement which sought to empower women and improve the environment
* Wemblyn- Miss
..... FIRST woman to win a motor race in Great Britain when, on 14th July 1900, she drove her 6 hp Parisian Daimler to win over three other entrants in a special Ladies Race held at Ranelagh
* Wendy
* Whina Josephine Cooper - Dame
neé Te Wake
born December 9th 1895 died 1994
..... the most influential Maori woman of the 20th century she was the FIRST President of the Maori Women's Welfare League in 1952, an association which probably did more for the health and living standards of Maoris than any other. She was the daughter of a chief and trained as a teacher but by the age of 20 she was campaigning for better conditions for the Maoris and in 1940 was president of Panguru Federated Farmers. At the age of 80 she led more than 5,000 people on a 500-mile march for Maori land rights. She was a respected figure in government circles, was appointed MBE in 1953, CBE in 1974 an DBE in 1981
* Whitney Houston
..... FIRST female artist to enter the album charts at No 1 in 1987 with her second album Whitney. She has sold over 100m records in virtually every country in the world and in 1994 she won three Grammy Awards, bringing her total to five. She also has 21 American Music Awards, 11 Image Awards, 5 People's Choice Awards, 2 Emmys and 6 Soul Train Awards. In November 1995 she was inducted into the Soul Train Hall of Fame
* Whoopi Goldberg
..... American film star who was the FIRST woman to receive the Mark Twain Prize for American Humour in October 2001
* Wilhelmina Carstairs
..... on 9th November 1847 she became the FIRST child to be born alive with the aid of anaesthesia. Her father was Dr William Carstairs of the Indian Medical Service and contrary to popular legend she was not christened Anaesthesia
* William Brown (birth name unknown)
..... FIRST known black woman to serve in the Royal Navy, which she did disguised as a man
* Williamina Paton Fleming
born 1857 died 1911
neé Stevens
..... born in Scotland she became the FIRST American woman elected to the Royal Astronomical Society in 1906
* Wilma Mankiller
..... FIRST female chief of the Cherokee Nation
* Wilma Rudolph
born 1940 died 1994
..... American who was the FIRST woman runner to win 3 gold medals in the track and field events at a single event and which was achieved in the Rome Olympics in 1960. Earlier in the year she set the world record for the 200 metres and her accomplishments earned her the reputation of being the fastest woman runner in the world. She was also honoured in the same year by the news media when made Athlete of the Year . As a child she suffered scarlet fever and polio which left her crippled at the age of four and had to wear a brace on her left leg. However she was determined to walk and run and by the age of eight the brace was removed, by the age of 22 she could run and play normally. She won many races in high school and was also a star basketball player. In 1956 she scored 803 points during one season. Because of her outstanding athletic ability she was given a scholarship to run on their track team by Tennessee State University
* Win Offland
..... FIRST woman television buyer and media director in the UK, founder of one of the most successful agencies in Britain and the instigator of the revolutionary agency-owned 'media shop'
* Winefride Maisi Jackson
born May 5th 1909 died 1999
..... influential writer on British fashion she was the FIRST women's editor of The Sunday Telegraph in 1961. After the years of wartime clothing coupons and shortages she did more than any other journalist to re-establish the British fashion industry and her reports in The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph were followed by readers, couturiers and manufacturers
* Winifred Atwell
born 1913 died 1983
..... FIRST British recording star to have 3 million-selling hits and the FIRST black performer to have a No 1 hit in the UK. On November 3rd 1952 she appeared in the FIRST Royal Variety Performance for the new Queen Elizabeth 11. Between 1952 and 1960 she had no less than 11 top ten hits and was one of the most successful female instrumentalists ever to appear in the British pop charts. At the peak of her popularity her hands were insured for £40,000 and her fan club had over 50,000 members. She also played classical music and in 1954 one of her recordings reached number nine in the pop charts. In 1954 she packed the Royal Albert Hall as a soloist accompanied by the London Philharmonic Orchestra
* Winifred Cowl
..... in June 2000 she was awarded the FIRST ever Certificate of Honour
* Winifred Clara Cullis
born 1875 died 1956
..... one of the FIRST 6 women elected to the Physiological Society in 1915 and the FIRST incumbent of the Jex-Blake Chair
* Winifred Shotter
born November 5th 1904 died 1996
..... said to be the FIRST actress to appear on the London stage wearing pyjamas in 1928. She made her name in the late 1920s as a member of a comedy team which performed a series of farces by Ben Travers. In 1935 she went to Hollywood where she starred in a film Petticoat Fever but returned to the London stage 18 months later. In 1946 she was selected from 600 applicants to be one of the BBC's two women television announcers but gave up the job after a year
* Winnie Mandela
neé Nkosikazi Nobandle Nomzamo Madikizela
born 1936
..... FIRST black medical social worker in South Africa she was the wife of Nelson Mandela, ANC leader who was convicted of treason and sentenced to life in prison in 1962. During this time she was banned from attending or organizing any public or private meetings and was forced out of each and every job she took when the security police intimidated her employers. She continued to speak out against apartheid and in 1990 her husband was finally set free but they were later divorced
* Wislawa Szymborska
..... on 4th October 1996 she became the FIRST Polish woman to receive a Nobel Prize when awarded the Literature Prize for her poetry
* Wu Zhao
born c650
..... FIRST and only woman ruler of China
* Wyomia Tyus
born 1945
..... American who was the FIRST runner - man or woman - to win an Olympic sprint race twice - 1964 when she won the 100m and retained it in 1968 with a world record 11.0 seconds