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" nature had endowed the female mind with a capacity for all knowledge and in depriving women of the opportunity for acquiring knowledge men work against the best interests of the public welfare"

Marie Edgeworth

Her Name is Marie

* Marie Axton

.....  FIRST woman Proctor at Cambridge University

* Marie Butcher

..... FIRST female mechanic in Manchester to pass level two of the NVQ for apprentice vehicle mechanics in April 1995

* Marie Caldwell

..... FIRST and only person to win the Sportsman of the Year trophy  awarded by Bury Sports Advisory Council in Manchester twice in its 20-year history

* Marie Anna de Cupis de Camargo

born 1710 died 1770

..... French ballet dancer who was FIRST to wear ballet shoes without heels  and one of the FIRST celebrities to lend her name to merchandising shoes and wigs. She was the FIRST to wear the shortened skirt and the FIRST to attain the entrachat quatre - criss-crossing of the legs whilst in the air. Of Spanish descent she was born in Brussels where she made her debut and then went to Rouen and then to the Paris Opera. She was a reformer who freed herself and expanded the range of her own technique by shortening the skirt of her stage costume and removing the heels of her dance slippers.  Her career was marked by her rivalry with Marie Salle ( see 1707), another reformer, but she was very popular and set the fashion in shoes and hairstyles. She finally retired in 1751 on a pension from the French government

* Marie Curie

neé Sklodowska

born 7th November 1867 died 4th July 1934

..... FIRST scientist and FIRST woman to win Nobel Prizes for both physics and chemistry, one of the FIRST two women in Europe to gain a PhD, FIRST woman Professor at the Sorbonne. In 1908 she gave the FIRST course on radioactivity in the world. With her husband Pierre, they became the FIRST to discover the nature of radioactivity and to recognise and isolate polonium ( named after her native Poland). In spite of all this she was still refused membership to the French Academy of Sciences on the grounds of her sex.  In 1995 she became the FIRST woman to be buried in the Paris Pantheon

* Marie DressIer

..... FIRST performer to achieve simultaneous premiers on stage and screen when on December 30th 1914 she opened at the 39th Street Theatre in A Mix Up and her film Tillies Punctured Romance had its world premier at the New York Film Theatre

* Marie Josefina Mathilde Durocher

born 1809 died 1893

..... French/Brazilian who was one of the FIRST women doctors in Latin America and in 1834 the FIRST diploma to be granted at the newly organised medical school in Rio de Janeiro was received by her. She married, was widowed young and left with two children to support. She wore men's clothing and practised her profession for 60 years. In 1871 she was given titular membership of the National Academy of Medicine

* Marie Ebner-Eschenbach

neé Von Dubsky

born 1830 died 1916

..... Austrian who was the FIRST woman to be awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Vienna in 1900

* Marie Kane

..... FIRST Women's Officer in Scotland with Stirling District Council (P/L)

* Marie Leefe

..... winner of Britain's FIRST official women's boxing bout when she beat her best friend Marie Davies on 31st October 1997

* Marie Elizabeth Luders

born 1888 died 1966

..... FIRST woman to obtain a doctorate in political science and economics (1912). With others she founded the National Women's Service in the First World War and in 1916 became head of a war office department dealing with female labour. In 1919 she went into politics and during the 1930s campaigned openly against the Nazis. Her women's organisations were disbanded and she was arrested by the Gestapo in 1937 and spent the war in exile. In 1947 she returned to Berlin and ten years later was made Honorary President of the Federal Democratic Party

* Marie Marvingt

 died 14th December 1963

..... the most decorated woman in the history of France, she had more than 34 medals and decorations. She was a world class athlete and won numerous prizes in swimming, canoeing, fencing, shooting, ski-jumping, skating and bobsled. She especially dominated the 1908-1910 winter sports seasons in France where she won more than 20 first place awards. She was a world class mountain climber and the FIRST woman to climb most of the peaks of the French and Swiss Alps - 1903-1910. The French Academy of Sports gave her a medal in March 1910 " for all sports" ( the only one they ever gave for more than one sport). In 1908 when she was not allowed to participate in the Tour de France ( it was a man's sport) she nevertheless rode the course after the race and completed it. On October 26th 1909 she was the FIRST female pilot to fly a balloon across the North Sea and the English Channel from Europe to England. In 1910 she studied fixed wing aviation with Hubert Latham in the Antoinette airplane and was credited with being the FIRST woman to solo a monoplane. In June 1910 she was the FIRST French woman to get a balloon pilot's licence when she was issued with licence number 145 by the Aero Club of France. In 1910 she was the FIRST person to propose the development of airplane ambulances to the French government. On November 8th 1910 she became the third woman in the world licensed as a pilot ( number 281) the only one ever licensed to fly the difficult Antoinette - the FIRST woman licensed in an Antoinette and possibly the second licensed in a monoplane ( records are unclear as to whether Marthe Niel was the First) In competing for the Coupe Femina in December 1910 she set the FIRST official women's flight record for duration and distance. In 1915 she served as a volunteer pilot flying bomber missions over German-held Lorraine, probably the FIRST woman to fly in combat ( from Dave Lam)

* Marie Popelin

born 1846

..... FIRST woman to earn a degree as a Professor of Law in Belgium but she was denied admission to the bar in 1888 because she was a woman. Through this she became the driving force behind the FIRST Belgian feminist organisation in 1892 and as President of the Belgium League of Women's Rights she organised an International Feminist Congress at Brussels five years later

* Marie Charlotte Carmichael Stopes

born October 15th 1880 died October 2nd 1958

..... in 1904 she was the FIRST woman to join the science department as a lecturer at Manchester University where she passed 3 degrees in Botany and obtained a Doctorate, Britain's youngest Doctor of Science. The FIRST sex manual, Married Love, was written and published by her in 1918 despite the fact that she was still a virgin at the age of 37 and it sold over 1m copies. Later in the same year she published her second book, one of the FIRST about contraception but unfortunately she got the women's 'safe period' the wrong way round. In 1921 she opened the FIRST birth control clinic in England in London but many people though the clinic was a disgrace and she was forced to go to court. In 1936 she opened the Mother's Clinic in Belfast, the FIRST family planning clinic in Ireland

* Marie Tucek

  ..... in 1893 she patented a 'breast supporter' looking very much like a modern brassiere. It was the FIRST support to use shoulder straps rather than pushing up the bust from below. However the idea did not catch on - see Mary Phelps Jacob

* Marie Elizabeth Zakraweska

born 1829 died 1902

..... FIRST woman to form a Medical Society when in 1878 she founded the New England Hospital Medical Society and became its President

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