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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

" a lady's imagination is very rapid : it jumps from admiration to love and from love to matrimony in a moment"

Jane Austen -   Pride and Prejudice

Her name is Jane

* Jane Addams

born September 6th 1860  died May 21st 1935

..... FIRST woman President of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections (1909) , in 1911 she was FIRST head of the National Federation of Settlements and in 1915 was President of the FIRST Women's Peace Congress. In 1912 she was the FIRST woman to make a nominating speech at a political convention when she seconded the nomination of Progressive Party presidential candidate Theodore Roosevelt. She was also the FIRST American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10th 1931. She sponsored child labour laws, educational schemes for foreign born adults, protection for immigrant girls and improved sanitary conditions.  In 1899 she secured the establishment of separate juvenile courts in Illinois

* Jane Austen

born 1775 died 1817

..... FIRST important woman novelist in the history of English literature. She was born in Hampshire, the seventh of eight children and by the age of eighteen had filled three volumes of what is now known as her Juvenitia. Her first novel Lady Susan was written when she was eighteen. Her main novels were written between 1795 and 1817 and include Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice.  Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were not published until 1811 after her death and for the first time her identity as their author became known

* Jane M Bolin

..... the FIRST African-American woman to be appointed as a judge - July 22nd 1939

* Jane Bradford

..... FIRST equal opportunities officer with the National Westminster Bank and introduced banking's FIRST career re-entry scheme for mothers in 1992. She was the bank's most senior woman executive which she joined from school in 1964

* Jane Bridge

..... won a gold medal in the FIRST ever ladies world championships in judo in 1980

* Jane Byrne

..... in 1979 she became the FIRST woman Mayor of Chicago when elected by a vote of more than five to one

* Jane Campion

..... New Zealand born director she was the FIRST woman director to win the Palme d'Or, the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival with her film The Piano and only the second woman director ever to receive an Oscar nomination

* Jane Clayton

..... in 1998 she became the FIRST woman President with the South Wales Society of Chartered Accountants when she was officially inaugurated at the District Society's Annual General meeting in Swansea

* Jane Colden

born 1724 died 11th March 1766

..... one of the FIRST women scientists of America - the New World- and the FIRST to identify the flowery gardenia bush as a species of a new genus of Old World plants. It is named after the 18th century Scottish naturalist Alexander Garden, but it was Jane who discovered it and gave it its name. Her father decided that she could study botany but that she would not be allowed to learn Latin as he did not think women were capable of learning it

*  Jane Couch

..... nicknamed ' the Fleetwood Assassin' she was the FIRST British woman world champion boxer when she beat title-holder Sandra Geiger of Strasbourg in Copenhagen by a unanimous points decision in 1996. On 23rd June 1998 she became the FIRST woman licensed woman professional to fight under the jurisdiction of the British Boxing Board of Control

* Jane Cunningham Croly

born December 19th 1828 died December 23rd 1901

..... American who was the FIRST woman reporter employed by a metropolitan newspaper to write in the office on a daily basis, FIRST woman to serve as a regular correspondent for out of town daily newspapers, FIRST woman to manage a woman's department of a newspaper and FIRST woman to teach a journalism course. She also founded Sorosis, the FIRST women's club in America in an aim to unite women to attain their potential and thus raise their status in society. She wrote under the nom-de-plume of 'Jenny June' and her columns on fashion, food, home decorating and her literary and dramatic reviews were avidly read at a time when there was little information geared for women in the newspapers. She was a pioneer in the field of journalism in an era when ladies did not work outside the home.  (P/L)

* Jane Deegan

..... FIRST woman Apprentice of the Year in Manchester, England. Aged 18 years at the time she trained in painting and decorating with the city council and was sent on a visit to the Soviet Union to meet other young construction workers in Leningrad, Moscow, Yalta and Kiev

* Jane Drabble

..... FIRST woman assistant managing director at the BBC, he most senior woman ever on BBC television when appointed in 1991. She had worked for the BBC all her working life after joining as a studio manager. In television she was editor of the day at Newsnight and a producer on Panorama before becoming editor of the Everyman religious programme

* Jane Drew

neé Joyce Beverley

born March 24th 1911 died 1996

..... one of the foremost British architects of the Modern Movement who was the FIRST woman elected as full Professor at Harvard and MIT in America and was FIRST woman President of the Architectural Association. She was also the FIRST woman to sit on the RIBA council

* Jane Elliot

..... FIRST female champion horse trainer in America

* Jane Frank

..... nutritional therapist at Tesco, Handforth Dean, Greater Manchester (UK). In April 2005 she became the FIRST supermarket "personal shopper"

* Jane Franklin

born 1791 died 1875

.....  Englishwoman who was the FIRST woman to climb Mt Wellington, New Zealand and in 1860 became the FIRST woman to be awarded the Royal Geographical Society's Founders medal. In 1843 she began the Tasmanian Society for the Reformation of Female Prisoners and also founded a state school. In 1845 her husband set off on a voyage to explore the Arctic and when no news of him was received she organised her own expedition to find him. Between 1850 and 1857 she fitted out five ships, the last of which found that he had discovered the long sought-after North West passage. Her journeys and the expeditions of her ships contributed greatly to contemporary knowledge

* Jane Glover

..... Englishwoman who was the FIRST woman to conduct at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1982 when in June she conducted The Barber of Seville and in July and August six performances of Don Giovanni. She was already chorus director at Glyndebourne and was later appointed musical director of its touring company

* Jane Gleeson and Christine Peirson

..... two of Greater Manchester's FIRST women fire-fighters. Christine later resigned due to "personal and domestic reasons"

* Jane Harrison

born 1850 died 1928

..... in 1898 she became the first woman lecturer in classical archaeology at Cambridge University. In 1900 she was the first woman to be granted a research fellowship

..... FIRST woman residentiary canon of the Church of England

* Jane Holland's grandmother

..... the FIRST person to go down the Cresta Run head first (tobogganing) when she won the Ladies Grand National in 1885. In 1996 her granddaughter Jane maintained the family tradition on the run. Women were allowed to use the run only on the last day of the season

* Jane Murfin

born 1893 died 1955

..... owner of the FIRST great dog star, Strongheart, an Alsatian. She was an actress and author of Lilac Time

* Jane Percy

..... Northumberland's FIRST female Lord-Lieutenant - 2009

* Jane Ramsay

..... in February 1995 she was the FIRST woman regional manager with Yates's Wine Lodge in Bolton, Manchester

* Jane Root

..... in December 1998 she became the FIRST woman television controller in the history of the BBC when she became controller of BBC2 after a meteoric rise through the corporation

* Jane Salt

..... FIRST woman to become 1st Lieutenant at the Royal Naval College at Greenwich in 1988 where she was responsible for the smooth running of the college including its security

* Jane Tabor

..... FIRST woman to officiate in the Davis Cup ( tennis) when she was nominated by the International Tennis Federation as one of the two umpires for the 1989 World Group first-round tie between Israel and France 

* Jane Tomlinson

died September 2007

..... from Leeds, she is the FIRST terminally ill cancer patient to complete an Ironman triathlon when she took to the sea off Panama City Beach in Florida for a 2.4 mile swim. This was followed by a gruelling 112 mile bike ride and then a 26 mile night-time marathon - November 2004

* Jane Wiggins

..... FIRST woman to join a British Rotary Club in 1989 when her nomination as a member of the Chiswick and Brentford Club in West London was approved by a ballot of members. The Rotary Club, founded in 1905 in Chicago, had changed its rules earlier in the year to admit women

* Jane Woodhead

..... FIRST woman to scale the previously all-male bastion of ombudsman governing the financial services industry in 1991 when she was appointed the second building societies ombudsman

..... FIRST actress to win an Oscar for a non-speaking role - Johnny Belinda (1948)

* Jane Wyndham-Kaye

..... from 1982-83 she was the FIRST woman leader of a union when she became General Secretary of the Health Visitors Association

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