Ladies Firsts
Topic: Women's History Month
1916
Jeanette Pickering Rankin (1880-1973)- The first woman elected to congress, she was elected before women had the right to vote in federal elections- Montana.

1924
Mary Teresa Hopkins Norton (1875-1951)- One of the first women elected to the House after passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. She was the first to be elected from an eastern state (NJ) and the first female democrat who was not preceded by her husband.

1924
Nellie Taylo Ross (1876?-1977)- The nations first female governor- Wyoming. She was elected the same day as Miriam Ferguson of Texas, but she was inaugurated first and thus claims her place in history.

1926
Bertha Ethel Knight Landes (1868-1949)- First woman elected as mayor of a major city- Seattle.

1928
Ruth Bryan Owen (1885-1954)- The first woman elected to the House from south-Florida.

1942 & 1948
Margaret Madeline Chase Smith (1897-) -The first woman elected to both the House and Senate-Maine.

1972
Barbara Jordan (1936-1996)- The first black woman elected, and re-elected, to the House of representatives- Texas.

1978
Nancy Landon Kassebaum (1932-)- The first woman elected to the US Senate who was not preceded by her husband-Kansas.