This Women’s History Month, we’re taking a look back at some of the influential women that were brave enough to be the first to do something. From politicians to occupations traditionally held by men, these are just some of the Florida women that helped pave the way for women today to live out their dreams.
- Betty Castor Bell, the first woman president of a major university at the University of South Florida
- Gwendolyn Sawyer Cherry, first Black woman legislator in Florida, elected for four terms. Also the first Black female law student to attend the University of Miami and first Black woman to practice law in Dade County
- Jacqueline Cochran, first woman pilot to break the sound barrier and to fly a bomber across the Atlantic Ocean
- Ruth Law, first female pilot to fly Florida’s skies
- Dorothy W. Glisson, first woman member of the Florida cabinet
- Rhea Grossman, first woman to temporarily sit on the Florida Supreme Court
- Betty Mae Jumper, first Chairwoman of the Seminole Tribe of Florida
- Gwen Margolis, the first woman president of the Florida Senate
- Carrie P. Meek, the first black woman elected to Congress from Florida
- Ruth Bryan Owen, first woman elected to Congress from Florida
- Janet Reno, first woman appointed U.S. Attorney General, Miami native
- JoAnn Hardin Morgan, first woman in senior management at Kennedy Space Center
- Marjorie Harris Carr, first female government wildlife technician. Her work in the 1960s led to what is now Payne’s Prairie State Preserve
- Elizabeth “Beth” McCullough Johnson, first woman in the Florida Senate after four years in the House
- Edna Giles Fuller, first woman elected to the Florida House of Representatives
- Charlotte E. Maguire, first female physician to open a pediatrics clinic in Orlando
- Dessie Smith Prescott, first licensed female pilot
- Maria Andreu, first female lighthouse keeper in Florida at St. Augustine Lighthouse
- Dr. Mary Jane Safford, Civil War nurse who became Florida’s first practicing female physician
- Marian Newhall Horwitz, first female mayor in Florida of Moore Haven
- Justice Rosemary Barkett, first woman elected to the Florida Supreme Court and the first female Chief Justice
- Susan Benton, first female sheriff elected in a general election in Florida for Highlands County
- Katherine Fernandez Rundle, first Cuban-American State Attorney
- Stephanie Murphy, first Vietnamese-American woman elected to Congress
- Val Demings, Orlando’s first female Chief of Police
- Kim Ng, first female general manager of the Florida Marlins, first in Major League Baseball all together
- Glenda Hood, first female Orlando mayor
- Daniella Levine Cava, first female mayor of Miami-Dade county
