| Ann Teresa Mathews | First woman whose invention received a patent (for cleaning and curing corn) - it was granted to her husband | 1715 |
| Mary Katherine Goddard | First woman postmaster | 1775 |
| Betsy Ross | First person to be a U.S. flagmaker | 1776/77 |
| Hannah Adams | First woman to become professional writer | 1784 |
| Lucy Brewer | First woman marine | 1812 |
| Elizabeth Blackwell | First woman to receive a medical degree | 1849 |
| Amelia Jenks Bloomer | Publisher/editor of first prominent women's rights newspaper | 1849 |
| Harriet Tubman | First woman to run underground railroad to help slaves escape | 1850 |
| Lucy Hobbs | First woman to graduate from dental school | 1866 |
| Susan B. Anthony | Co-Founder of first US woman's suffrage organization | 1869 |
| Arabella Mansfield Babb | First woman admitted to the bar | 1869 |
| Frances Elizabeth Willard | First woman to become a college president (Evanston College) | 1871 |
| Victoria Chaflin Woodhull | First woman to be presidential candidate | 1872 |
| Helen Magill | First woman to receive a Ph.D. degree (Boston University) | 1877 |
| Belva Ann Lockwood | First woman to practice law before U.S. Supreme Court | 1879 |
| Clara Barton | Founder of the American Red Cross | 1881 |
| Maud Booth | Co-Founder of Salvation Army and Volunteers of America | 1887/96 |
| Suzanna Madora Salter | First woman mayor (Argonia, Kansas) | 1887 |
| Mary McLeod Bethune | First woman to establish secondary school that became 4-year accredited college | 1904 |
| Founder of National Council of Negro Women | 1935 | |
| Blanche Scott | First woman to fly an airplane | 1910 |
| Jeannette Rankin | First woman U.S. House Representative (Montana) | 1916 |
| Kate Gleason | First woman president of a national bank | 1917 |
| Jeannette Rankin | First woman in Congress | 1917 |
| Florence E. Allen | First woman judge | 1920 |
| Hallie Ferguson | First woman governor of U. S. state (Texas) | 1924 |
| Katherine Bement Davis | First person to conduct national survey of sexual attitudes | 1929 |
| Jane Addams | First woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize | 1931 |
| Hattie Wyatt Caraway | First woman elected to U.S. Senate | 1932 |
| Amelia Earhart | First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean | 1932 |
| Ruth Bran Owen | First woman foreign diplomat | 1933 |
| Pearl S. Buck | First woman to win a Nobel Prize for Literature | 1935 |
| Hattie McDaniel | First African-American of any gender to win an Academy Award (she won for Best Supporting Actress in the film, Gone with the Wind). | 1939 |
| Linda Darnell | First woman to sell securities on the New York Stock Curb Exchange | 1941 |
| Conchita V. Cintron | First U.S. woman bullfighter in Spain | 1949 |
| Georgia Nesse Clark | First woman treasurer of the United States | 1949 |
| Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova | First woman to fly in space, aboard Vostok 6. | 1963 |
| Muriel Siebert | First woman to own seat on the New York Stock Exchange | 1967 |
| Janice Lee York Romary | First woman to carry U.S. flag at the Olympic Games | 1968 |
| Mary Clarke | First woman to be named major general in U.S. Army | 1978 |
| Ella Grasso | First woman govenor to be re-elected (Connecticut) | 1978 |
| Sandra Day O'Connor | First woman a justice of the U. S. Supreme Court | 1981 |
| Sally Kristen Ride | First American woman to reach outer space. | 1983 |
| Joan Benoit (Samuelson) | First woman to win an Olympic marathon | 1984 |
| Penny Harrington | First woman police chief of major U. S. city (Portland, OR) | 1985 |
| Ann Bancroft | First woman to walk to North Pole | 1986 |
| Christa McAuliffe | First woman citizen passenger on a space mission | 1986 |
| Lt. Col. Eileen Collins | First American woman to pilot a Space Shuttle | 1995 |
| Madeleine K. Albright | First woman Secretary of State and highest ranking woman in the U.S. government | 1997 |
| Hillary Rodham Clinton | Only First Lady ever elected to the United States Senate | 2000 |
| Halle Berry | First African-American woman to win a Best Actress Oscar | 2002 |
| Condoleezza Rice | First African-American woman to be appointed Secretary of State | 2005 |
| Nancy Pelosi | First woman to become Speaker of the House | 2007 |
- There were 152 million females in the United States as of November 1, 2006. That exceeds the number of males (148 million). As of July 1, 2005, males outnumber females in every five-year-age group through the 35 to 39 age group. Starting with the 40 to 44 age group, women outnumber men. At 85 and over, there are more than twice as many women as men.
- There were 203,000 active duty women in the military as of September 30, 2005. Of that total, 35,000 women are officers, 168,000 are enlisted.
- The percentage of women in the armed forces reached 15% as of September 30, 2005. In 1950, women comprised less than 2 percent.
- There are 1.7 million female military veterans.
- The median annual earnings of women ages 16 and older who work full time, year-round is $32,168, in 2005. Women earned 77 cents for every $1 earned by men.
- In the District of Columbia, women who worked year-round, full-time earned 91 cents for every $1 their male counterparts earned in 2005. Among all states or state equivalents, the district was where women were closest to earnings parity with men. Maryland and Connecticut were the only states where median earnings for women were above $40,000, as was the District of Columbia.
- The median earnings of women working in computer and mathematical jobs, $58,906, the highest for women among the 22 major occupational groups. Among these groups, community and social services was the only group where women's earnings as a percentage of men's earnings were higher than 90 percent.
- The estimated work-life earnings of women with a professional degree (i.e., medical, law, dental or veterinarian) who work full time, year-round is $2.9 million. For women, like men, more education means higher career earnings. It is estimated that women without a high school diploma would earn $700,000 during their work lives, increasing to $1 million if they had a high school diploma and $1.6 million if they had a bachelor's degree.
- The amount women, who worked full time, year-round, earned 77 cents for every $1 their male counterparts earned in 2004. This amount is up from 76 cents for every dollar in 2003.
- The revenue for women-owned businesses reaped more than $939 billion in 2002, up 15 percent from 1997. There were 116,985 women-owned firms with receipts of $1 million or more.
- The number of women-owned businesses climbed to nearly 6.5 million in 2002, up 20 percent from 1997. (The increase was twice the national average for all businesses.) Women owned 28 percent of all non-farm businesses.
- More than 7.1 million people were employed by women-owned businesses. There were 7,231 women-owned firms with 100 or more employees, generating $274 billion in gross receipts.
NOTE: Nearly one in three women-owned firms operated in health care and social assistance, and other services such as personal services, and repair and maintenance. Women owned 72 percent of social assistance businesses and just over half of nursing and residential care facilities. Wholesale and retail trade accounted for 38.2 percent of women-owned business revenue.
- The average rate of growth in women-owned firms in Nevada reached 43% between 1997 and 2002, which led the nation. Georgia (35 percent), Florida (29 percent) and New York (28 percent) followed.
- Women 16 or older who participated in the labor force in 2005 equalled 59%. This amounts to 69.3 million women, 35 million of which were full-time, year-round jobs. Men in this range amounted to a 73% rate of participation.
- In a management, professional or related occupations, women chipped in 37 percent of the work force, as compared to 31% of men.
- More women work in educational services, health care and social assistance industries than in any other, the total amounting to 21.1 million. Breaking it down further, 10.7 million work in the health care industry and 8 million in educational services.
- Thirty-two percent of women ages 25 to 29 attained a bachelor's degree or higher in 2005, which exceeded that of men in this age range (25 percent). Eighty-seven percent of young women and 85 percent of men in this same age range had completed high school. The last year young women and men had equal rates of high school and college attainment was 1995.
- 27% of women 25 or older who had obtained a bachelor's degree as of 2005. This rate was up 10.5 percentage points from 20 years earlier.
- The projected number of bachelor's degrees that will awarded to women in the 2006-07 school year is 870,000. Women are also projected to earn 390,000 master's degrees during this period. Women would, therefore, earn 58
- The percentage of women 25 or older who had completed high school was 85.4% as of 2005. High school graduation rates for women continue to exceed those of men (84.9 percent).
- The number of women 25 or older with a bachelor's degree or more education was 26.1 million in 2005, more than double the number 20 years earlier.
- The estimated number of mothers of all ages in the United States is 82.5 million.
- The average number of children that women 40 to 44 had given birth to was 1.9 as of 2004, down from 3.1 children in 1976, the year the Census Bureau began collecting such data. Likewise, the percentage of women in this age group who were mothers was 81 percent in 2004, down from 90 percent in 1976.
- There are 63 million married women (including those who are separated or have an absent spouse) in 2005. There are 55 million unmarried (widowed, divorced or never married) women.
- Only 17% of married couples are comprised of the women earning at least more than $5,000 than the husband in 2005. Yet 22 percent of married couples show the wife as having more education than the husband.
- There are 5.6 million stay-at-home mothers nationwide in 2005. This up from 4.4 million a decade ago.
- Reversing the computer "gender gap" during the 1980s and 1990s, 84% of women used a computer at home - two percentage points higher than the corresponding proportion of men.
- In the 2004 Presidential election, 65% of reported voters were female citizens. Higher than their male counterparts, only 62% of which cast a ballot.
- The number of girls who participated in high school athletic programs in the 2004-05 school year reached 2.9 million. Only 1.3 million participated in athletic programs during the 1973-74 school year.
- The number of women who participated in NCAA sport in 2004-05 was 166,728.
- Among those who purchased aerobic shoes in 2004, the proportion who were women is 85%. Women also comprised a majority (64 percent) of those who bought walking shoes.
- 57% percent of women who participated in gardening at least once in the past 12 months, compared with 37 percent of men. Women are much more likely than men to have done charity work (32 percent versus 26 percent), attended arts and crafts fairs (39 percent versus 27 percent) and read literature (55 percent versus 38 percent).
Data courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau
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