Famous Female Firsts
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| Famous Female Firsts |
James Brown might have sung that it's a man's, man's, man's world, but we disagree. We ascribe more to the Aretha Franklin outlook on life, that sisters are doin' it for themselves. In honor of Women's History Month, check out 18 fabulous females who paved the way for womankind.
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| Mariah Carey |
Mariah CareyFamous First: First female artist to debut a single at #1 on the charts
Year: 1995
Not only did "Fantasy" make Mariah the first woman to debut a single atop the Billboard Hot 100, but she was also the second person ever to do so. The first? Michael Jackson, who did it less than a month earlier with "You Are Not Alone."
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| Oprah Winfrey |
Oprah WinfreyFamous First: First woman to own and produce her own talk show
Year: 1986
Running nationally since Sept. 8, 1986, "The Oprah Winfrey Show" has since become one of the
longest-running daytime TV talk shows. Maybe that's why Oprah's the only person in the world to be named to Time magazine's Most Influential People list each year since its inception.
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| Barbra Streisand |
Barbra StreisandFamous Firsts: First woman to produce, direct, write and star in a major motion picture ("Yentl"); first female composer to win the Best Song Oscar for "Evergreen" ("A Star is Born")
Year: 1983 and 1977, respectively
Babs can play everything from a cross-dressing yeshiva student from a Polish shtetl to Fanny Brice in "Funny Girl." Girlfriend has range.
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| Beyonce |
BeyonceFamous First: First female artist to be awarded the International Artist Award at the American Music Awards
Year: 2007
When B joined the ranks of Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Michael Jackson, Rod Stewart and the Bee Gees to
accept the International Artist Award at the AMAs, she also became the award's youngest recipient.
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| Barbara Walters |
Barbara WaltersFamous First: First female co-anchor of network evening news
Year: 1976
Before Barbara took a seat at the "ABC Evening News" desk, she was what she called a "tea pourer" at
"TODAY" because at the time nobody would take a woman reporting hard news seriously.
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| Whoopi Goldberg |
Whoopi GoldbergFamous First: First woman to host the Oscars solo
Year: 1994
Before Whoopi took the stage to host the 1994 Oscars, Helen Hayes, Carol Burnett, Diana Ross, Shirley MacLaine, Goldie Hawn, Ellen Burstyn, Jane Fonda, Liza
Minnelli and Rosalind Russell had all emceed the event. However, all these ladies had been cohosts.
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| Jennifer Lopez |
Jennifer LopezFamous First: First female spokesperson for the Boys & Girls Club of America
Year: 2010
It's strange to think that before J.Lo repped the Boys & Girls Club of America, all the organization's celebrity
spokespeople were men. Let's hear it for the girls!
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| Kathryn Bigelow |
Kathryn BigelowFamous First: First woman to win Best Director at the Oscars
Year: 2010
Not only was Kathryn's Best Director win for "The Hurt Locker" sweet because it was a female first, but
defeating her ex-husband James Cameron and his big-budget flick "Avatar" made it even sweeter.
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| Chris Evert |
Chris EvertFamous First: First female tennis player to earn $1 million in career prize money; first tennis player, male or female, to win 1,000 singles matches
Year: 1976 and 1984, respectively
During the mid-'70s, as Chris racked up tennis titles for
her WTA winnings, she also earned another -- "Ice Maiden" -- for her tough demeanor on the court.
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| JK Rowling |
JK RowlingFamous First: First female billionaire book author
Year: 2004
Not only is this "Harry Potter" scribe the first woman to make a billion dollars on books, but she's also the first human to do so. Take that, dudes.
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| Queen Latifah |
Queen LatifahFamous First: First female rapper to win a Grammy
Year: 1995
Sure, women had been taking home Grammys since 1959, but it was the Queen who broke up the hip-hop boy's club by snagging the award for Best Rap Solo
Performance from Coolio, Craig Mack, Snoop and Warren G.
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| Jackie Joyner-Kersee |
Jackie Joyner-KerseeFamous First: First female athlete to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, aside from the swimsuit edition
Year: 1987
Voted the greatest female athlete of the 20th century by
Sports Illustrated, Jackie holds the world record in heptathlon.
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| Sandra Day O'Connor |
Sandra Day O'ConnorFamous First: First female Supreme Court justice
Year: 1981
In 1983, the New York Times printed an editorial about the increasing use of acronyms, taking issue with the "nine men" of the Supreme Court being called SCOTUS.
Sandra corrected them in a pithy retort and gave herself the nickname FWOTSC: First Woman on the Supreme Court.
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| Tina Turner |
Tina TurnerFamous First: First woman to be on the cover of Rolling Stone
Year: 1967
It didn't take long for Rolling Stone to put a woman on its cover. In fact, Tina appeared on the cover of the
magazine's second issue, right after John Lennon.
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| Danica Patrick |
Danica PatrickFamous First: First woman to win a major closed-course auto race
Year: 2008
Whoever says women are bad drivers obviously hasn't met Danica. This racer has been breaking records and
driving circles around her male competitors since she went pro for the IRL IndyCar series in 2005 and was named Rookie of the Year.
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| Lucille Ball |
Lucille BallFamous First: First woman in television to head a major studio
Year: 1962
Lucille and her husband Desi Arnaz had set up Desilu Productions in 1950 to produce "I Love Lucy." But the
couple divorced in 1960, and in 1962, Lucille bought out her ex's shares and took over as president of the company. She eventually sold the company to conglomerate Gulf+Western, but not before making history.
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| Candice Bergen |
Candice BergenFamous First: First female host of "Saturday Night Live"
Year: 1975
While Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin and Laraine Newman were all part of the original "SNL" cast, it wasn't until the fourth episode that a woman hosted. Another famous first
happened that evening: It was the first time that the cast gathered on the stage to say goodbye to the audience at the end of the episode, a tradition that endures today.
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| Helen Hayes |
Helen HayesFamous First: First woman to win the EGOT
Year: 1976
Here's how Helen got her EGOT: She won a Best Actress Oscar in 1932 for "The Sin of Madelon Claudet," a Best Actress Tony in 1947 for "Happy Birthday," a
Best Actress Emmy in 1953 for "Medallion Theatre," and a Best Spoken Word Recording Grammy in 1976 for "Great American Documents."
