Women Pioneers & Trailblazers

Women have added to human knowledge and skill in every field, from the arts and humanities to aviation, sports, science, and government. Biographies of some of the prominent women who broke new ground in women's endeavors in selected areas are listed below.

Aviation and Aerospace

Eileen Collins, Jacqueline Cochran, Amelia Earhart, Mae Jemison, Shannon Lucid, Sally Ride, and Valentina Tereshkova

Arts and Humanities

Marian Anderson, Anne Bradstreet, Aphra Behn, Phillis Wheatley, Sarah Bernhardt, Simone de Beauvoir, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sarah Caldwell, George Sand, Frida Kahlo, Pearl Buck, Bessie Smith, Georgia O'Keeffe, Ellen Zwilich, Sarah Caldwell, Maria Tallchief, and Emily Carr

Science and Medicine

Elizabeth Blackwell, Susan Picotte, Marie Curie, Mary Walker, Chien-Shiung Wu, Barbara McClintock, Mary Leakey, Florence Sabin, Beatrice Alice Hicks, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Florence Nightingale, and Lucy Beaman Hobbs Taylor

Politics and Government

Golda Meir, Madeleine Albright, Margaret Thatcher, Sandra Day O'Connor, Victoria Woodhull, Corazon Aquino, Indira Gandhi, Jeannette Rankin, Frances Perkins, Eleanor Roosevelt, Barbara Ann Mikulski, Carol Moseley Braun, Hattie Caraway, Janet Reno, Juanita Morris Kreps, Kim Campbell, Margaret Chase Smith, Mary Church Terrell, Patricia Roberts Harris, Rosa Louise Parks, Sharon Pratt Kelly, Shirley Chisholm, Sojourner Truth, and Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

Education

Mary McLeod Bethune, Emma Willard, Mary Lyon, Catharine Beecher, and Alice Palmer

Sports

Babe Didrikson, Gertrude Ederle, Helen Wills, Wilma Rudolph, Althea Gibson, and Billie Jean King