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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

" Getting married in our civilization is rather like getting born. It is a matter of luck. Staying married is a work of art "

Barbara Cartland

Her Name is Barbara

* Barbara Frances Adams

Baroness Wootton of Abinger

born 1897 died 1988

..... academic, writer on social and economic questions, a JP, a governor of the BBC, one of the FIRST life peeresses in the House of Lords and the FIRST woman to sit on the Woolsack.  In 1924 she was the only woman invited to join a department committee under Lord Colwyn to report on taxation and the national debt

* Barbara Whitchurch Freire-Mareco Aitken

born 1879 died 1967

..... FIRST woman anthropology graduate from Oxford University who lived with and studied three tribes of Southwest Indians between 1910 and 1913. In recent years many of her unpublished papers had been located at Oxford University, the University of Arizona and the Smithsonian in Washington D.C.

* Barbara Beck-Coulter

..... German lady who was the FIRST woman chairman of the Reform Club in 1991, a traditionally male club

* Barbara Bodichon

neé Leigh Smith

born 1827 died 1891

..... FIRST paper on suffrage in 1865 was read by her, she supported the FIRST suffrage petition in 1866, was co-founder of the FIRST women's college at Cambridge (Girton College) and was promoter of the FIRST organisation to promote women's rights. A landscape painter and water colourist she was called 'Rosa Bonheur of landscapes' by the French critics. She married a French doctor and travelled widely in Canada, America, France, Spain and North Africa painting views wherever she went. She campaigned actively for women's rights and collected thousands of signatures for the Married Women's Property Act in 1856. A year later she write 'Women and Work' and in 1858 helped to finance the Englishwoman's Journal  ( see Bessie Parkes) which became the major feminine voice for the rest of the century

* Barbara Brandon

..... FIRST nationally syndicated black female cartoonist in the US

* Barbara Buttrick

..... FIRST ever female world boxing champion when she took the world bantamweight and flyweight titles in America on October 8th 1957

* Barbara Anne Castle

neé Betts

born October 6th 1910 died 2002

..... FIRST woman Minister of Overseas Development (1964/65)  and FIRST woman Minister if Transport in Britain (1965/68) with the Labour government when she introduced the 70 mph speed limit and the 'breathalyzer' test for drunken drivers. She was also First Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity from 1968/70 and from 1974/77 was FIRST Secretary of State for Social Services

* Barbara Clayton

..... professor of chemical pathology and human metabolism and Dean of the faculty of medicine at the University of Southampton,  in 1984 she became the FIRST woman President of the Royal College of Pathologists

* Barbara Dulinsky

..... the FIRST female United States marine to serve in a combat zone

* Barbara Edwards

..... in 1974 she became Britain's first television weather woman

* Barbara Gatehouse

..... FIRST woman leader of the Labour Group with Oxford City Council

* Barbara Hancock

  ..... FIRST person in Wales to be treated with cryotherapy for kidney cancer when the operation took place at the Morriston Hospital, Swansea

* Barbara Harmer

..... FIRST woman to fly the English Concorde when she took charge of the BA flight from London to New York on 25th March 1993

* Barbara Harris

born 1931

..... FIRST woman bishop of the Anglican Communion when appointed assistant bishop of the Episcopalian diocese of Massachusetts in September 1988. Her election caused a furore among the clergy in Britain. Ms Harris said " It marks a historic moment for the Diocese of Massachusetts, the Episcopal Church in the United /states and the worldwide Anglican Communion"

* Barbara Hepworth

born January 10th 1903 died May 21st 1975

..... FIRST English woman sculptor to achieve an international reputation. By the end of the fifties her work was winning prizes abroad from São Paulo to Tokyo and she received many academic honours and awards. In 1958 she was appointed CBE and in 1965 DBE by which time her reputation was probably greater that that of any other woman sculptor

* Barbara Herman

neé Feather

..... FIRST woman to play the famous Blackpool Tower Wurlitzer organ

* Barbara Ann Hogan

..... at the age of 30 she became the FIRST white woman to be convicted in South Africa for high treason - 1982/83 - when she was sentenced to four years in prison for being "an enthusiastic and dedicated" member of the banned African National Congress (ANC) and a further ten years for high treason. The sentences were to run concurrent and she was refused leave to appeal

* Barbara Issatt

..... FIRST cabin services director with British Airways at Manchester Airport

* Barbara Ward Jackson

born 1914 died 1981

..... FIRST woman to address the Vatican - 1971. She was a brilliant  writer on economics and one of Britain's few women life peers in 1976. Her first book was published in 1918 and during the 1940s she became a household name in Britain for the part she played in the radio programme The Brains Trust

* Barbara Jordan

born 1936 died 1996

..... FIRST African-American elected to either house of the U.S Congress since the Civil War and in 1883 was the FIRST African-American elected to the Texas State Commission. She served three very successful terms of office and because of her accomplishments many civil rights leaders wanted her to join them in their organisations to fight for justice for African Americans.  In 1979 she became a professor at the University of Texas and was special advisor on ethics to the governor of Texas

* Barbara Piasecka Johnson

..... American who opened the FIRST privately-owned bank in post-war Poland in 1989. She established the bank in Gdansk with initial capital of only $6 to $10 million and intended it to act as a magnet for hard currency already in Poland

* Barbara Jones

..... FIRST woman ballroom manager in the history of Mecca Dancing when she took charge of the Birdcage Ballroom in Ashton and the Cat's Whiskers in Oldham

* Barbara Thomas Judge

..... FIRST woman to chair the UK Atomic Energy authority is an American - 2005. She trained as a lawyer in New York and has a varied corporate career which includes director at merchant bank Samuel Montagu, chairman of the food firm Whitworth's, adviser to Express newspaper boss Richard Desmond and executive director at News International, publisher of the Sunday Times

* Barbara Keeley

..... Labour MP who became Worsley's (Manchester, UK) FIRST woman MP when elected in the General election in May 2005

* Barbara Ker-Seymer

born January 20th 1905 died 1993

..... English photographer who ran one of London's FIRST launderettes in order to support her son Max after her marriage was dissolved

* Barbara Latham

born August 17th 1944

..... FIRST woman to work in the breakdown department of the Automobile Association ( P/L)

* Barbara Mandrell

neé Grenville-Wells

born July 15th 1920 died 1998

..... FIRST woman television newsreader in Britain when she made her debut on September 2nd 1955 reading the 12 o'clock news for Independent Television, five years before Nan Winton read the news for the BBC. However she remained a newscaster for less than a year when management decided that it was ' not appropriate for women to be associated publicly with war stories, disasters and tragedies'. Thereafter she worked as a scriptwriter and copy-taster.  She retired from ITN in 1980 and began a new career writing guide-books to European countries

* Barbara Ann Mandrell

born December 25th 1948

..... FIRST artist to win a CMA Entertainer of the Year Award for two consecutive years and one of only five women to win this award. Previous winners were Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire and Shania Twain.  She has over 75 awards and in 1999 was inducted into the Country Gospel Music Hall Of Fame

* Barbara Marlow

..... in 1997 she was the FIRST woman appointed to the governing body of the Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham , a bastion of opponents of women priests.  The Shrine was built in 1931 when High Church Anglicans revived Walsingham as a place of pilgrimage

* Barbara McClintock

died 1992

..... in 1944 she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and subsequently was the FIRST woman to become president of the Genetics Society of America. During the 1960s and 1970s she received numerous awards, including the National Medal of Science and in 1983 became the FIRST woman to win an unshared Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine

* Barbara Mills

..... English QC who in 1992  became the FIRST woman Director of Public Prosecutions when she succeeded Sir Allan Green who had retired. In 1990 she had became head of the Serious Fraud Office and had presided over its transformation into one of the most high profile law offices in the country

* Barbara Ronson

..... in 2004 she became the FIRST woman to be elected leader of Bolton (UK) council  and its variations in it's 160-year history and is the Council's FIRST Liberal Democrat leader for twenty years and only the second woman council leader in Greater Manchester after Tory Councillor Susan Fildes took control in Trafford. Labour Councillor Prentice Howarth also became the FIRST female mayor in Bolton for twenty years since Barbara Hurst in 1984

* Barbara Rosenthal

….. FIRST woman to join Manchester's Rotary Club - January 2001

* Barbara Ryder

….. one of the FIRST in the U.K to become a 'non-directed altruistic kidney donor' when the law was changed to allow organ donations to strangers - see also 14th December 2007

* Barbara Salt

born September 30th 1904 died December 18th 1975

..... FIRST woman in the Diplomatic Service to become Counsellor, Minister and Ambassador-Designate. She was appointed Ambassador to Israel in 1962, the FIRST such post to go to a woman but sadly lost both legs through disease and was unable to take up the posting. She was appointed MBE in 1946, CBE in 1959 and DBE in 1963

* Barbara Skeggs

..... FIRST woman High Sheriff of Northumberland when appointed on  23rd March 1994, breaking 1000 years of tradition

..... FIRST ever female chief executive with Salford City Council, she will take over her post in April 2006

* Barbara Joanna Steel

..... FIRST woman to seek election to Edinburgh Town Council in 1907

* Barbara Switzer

nee McMinn

.....  FIRST woman to sit on the Labour Party's National Executive Committee in November 1990 and FIRST woman on the Trade Union section at a Labour Party Conference when elected in the Constituency section of its National Executive Committee.  When she first began work as an engineering apprentice at Metro Vickers she met with a wall of male chauvinism and was incensed that she was not put on the full rate as the men when she reached the age of 21. When working at Mather and Platts as a qualified electrical technician she was known as 'Red Ruby' because she used to wear a pink coat

* Barbara Thomas

..... FIRST woman to serve on the UK board of Samuel Montagu banks main UK board when appointed in 1983 and was also one of the very few women in top banking positions in the UK. Her main attraction lay in her detailed knowledge of the American and international securities market and the bank were keen and determined to secure her services

* Barbara Tuchman

..... writer who was the FIRST woman to be elected President of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. In 1963 she became the FIRST woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction

* Barbara Denis de Vitre

..... FIRST woman Assistant Inspector of Constabulary, a post which she held until her death in 1960. She joined the police force in 1928 and from 1945 to 1948 was the FIRST woman Staff Officer to the Inspectorate of constabulary. She was awarded an OBE

* Barbara Walters

..... FIRST regular anchorwoman in the history of network television in America in 1976

* Barbara Polk Washburn

..... FIRST woman to climb Mt McKinley

* Barbara Wiese

..... FIRST woman Cabinet Minister of the South Australian Labour government

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