On January 20, 2021, Kamala Harris became the first female vice president of the United States. Hers was a hard-won victory, taking place over 100 years after women were initially granted the right to vote.
But she was not the first, and she certainly won’t be the last, woman to showcase just how capable the female sex truly is. In fact, women have been proving their ability to set and beat records in just about every area imaginable throughout history. Long before that fateful day in 1920 when the men leading the country finally agreed to give them a voice with the long-awaited passage of the 19th amendment guaranteeing American women the right to cast a ballot.
The women’s suffrage movement brought these trailblazers into the limelight but there are countless others whose stories deserve to be told. We’d like to give a shout out to these five female record breakers who prove there is no limit to what a determined woman can accomplish.
Madam C.J. Walker (1867-1919)
Born Sarah Breedlove, Walker was the original female entrepreneur — a Black woman who fought her way to success and financial freedom. After becoming a widow at the age of 20, this single mother had to find a way to support herself and her young daughter. She went to work as a sales agent for a hair product company she hoped would provide the necessary income to keep them both afloat.
What she got was so much more than she’d even known to dream of at the time.
Determined, smart and innovative, Walker took what she learned while hocking other people’s hair products and eventually developed her own line. Rebranding herself as Madam C.J. of “Madam C.J. Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower,” she created products based on what she as a woman knew women like her wanted. And she used her knowledge and charisma to build a name for herself and her brand.
It was a company that would flourish, ultimately landing her the Guinness title of “First Woman to Earn a Personal Fortune of More Than $1,000,000.” Self-made, a single mom and the first of her siblings to be born outside of slavery; everything about Walker and her accomplishments stood out, making her even more impressive in the historical context within which she was raised.
Nellie Bly (1864-1922)
If you’ve heard the name Nellie Bly, it’s most likely because of her work as the journalist who had herself committed to a mental hospital to uncover the corruption within. She risked her life and came out ahead, not only exposing the corruption she’d suspected she would find, but also paving the way for mental health care reforms that saved lives and led to better care for those most in need.
The horrors she endured while committed were first shared with the public as a series of articles and then in a book entitled, “Ten Days in a Mad-House.” Nearly 130 years later, her story would again be told in a film of the same name.
But Bly’s willingness to become a part of the stories she told didn’t end there. More than just a faux mental patient with an axe to grind, she also went on to set the record for the quickest trip around the world. This was an endeavor she decided upon after reading Jules Verne’s “Around the World in 80 Days,” a previously fictional feat she believed she could accomplish herself. Not only did she prove that presumption right, she beat it: making her way around the world by train, ship, horse and other means of transportation in just 72 days’ time.
Ruth Law (1887-1970)
We can’t talk about historical female record breakers without acknowledging one of the most impressive: an aviatrix who would become Florida’s first female pilot.
Not only was Ruth Law the first woman to fly Florida’s gorgeous blue skies, she was also one of the longest and highest earning aviators of her time. In 1917, she earned as much as $9,000 a week — an extraordinary amount for any person, man or woman, to bring in at the time.
Law had lofty flight goals from the start, with an eye on record-breaking and proving herself as one of the greatest pilots of her time. When she announced her desire to fly from Chicago to New York in a single day, most believed she would fail, spouting that no pilot — let alone a woman — would have the endurance required to make such a trip work. But she proved them wrong, achieving her goal and breaking the nation’s record for longest distance flight on November 19, 1916.
It was an achievement that required more than just bravery and know-how on her part. It also meant altering a small plane to carry the amount of gas necessary for such a feat and conditioning her body for the elements she would face.
Law’s competitive spirit meant that wasn’t the only record she would set, however. She also achieved the altitude flight record for women, became the first known female pilot to fly at night and earned the right to be the first woman to wear an Army aviation uniform.
Marie Curie (1867-1934)
One of the things that all our historical female record breakers have in common is the fact that they each found success in areas previously dominated by men. Marie Curie was no exception, paving the way for all women in science who would one day follow her lead.
Born to a teacher of mathematics and physics, Curie worked as a governess to fund her sister’s medical studies before pursuing her own advanced education at the age of 24. It was an effort that just eight years later would lead to the discovery of polonium and radium, kicking off a lifetime of achievements to the scientific community.
Curie’s work and extraordinary scientific mind resulted in her becoming the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in 1903 for physics. It was an honor she would achieve again in 1911, only this time for chemistry. To this day, she remains the only woman (and one of only four scientists) to have earned the Nobel Prize in two different fields.
Her scientific contributions laid the groundwork for our understanding of radioactivity today and likely helped save the lives of countless soldiers in World War I back then — as she was one of the first to develop what would become portable X-ray machines that doctors were able to use in the field for greater precision and accuracy in surgery and medical treatment.
Mae Jemison (1956--)
Thirty years after the first man entered space, Mae Jemison made history as the first Black female to do the same. That flight was a dream come true for the young girl she’d once been, watching the early Apollo flights on television and bemoaning the lack of female astronauts at the time.
Accomplished in both dance and science, Jemison would battle discrimination throughout her education and career. But she never let that stop her from reaching toward her dreams, first earning dual bachelor’s degrees in chemical engineering and African and Afro-American studies at Stanford University then attending medical school at Cornell University and eventually joining the Peace Corps.
But it wasn’t until Sally Ride became the first American Woman in space in 1983 that this doctor, engineer and eventual NASA astronaut would pursue the childhood dream of diversifying the field of astronauts other young children might one day look up to.
Jemison first applied to the NASA space program in 1985 only to have the program briefly shut down following the Challenger explosion in 1986. Never one to give up easily, she tried again when the program reopened in 1987. This time, she became one of 15 people, chosen out of 2,000 applicants, to be selected.
Following years of rigorous training, Jemison received her first mission in 1989. In 1992, she donned that space suit she’d once yearned to see a woman wear and set her own record as the first Black female astronaut in space.
Today, Jemison works to encourage other budding young scientists in their groundbreaking endeavors. She created an international space camp for adolescents, wrote a children’s book about her adventures and leads the 100-year Starship project, which aims to ensure space travel continues to expand into the next century.