Agnethe Davidsen was born in Nuuk, Greenland. She grew up by her strict grandparents, who lived by their motto- “First duty, then pleasure.” She loved children, and during school holidays, she worked in a kindergarten, aspiring to become a kindergarten teacher. Though, at the time, there was no training for kindergarten teachers in Greenland. At 16, she met Aqqaluartaaq Davidsen, and two years later, the couple got married. At 22, to further her education, she relocated to Denmark, attending a nine-month course in commerce and office. On her return to Greenland, she found a position in the national court system. In 1979, at the age of 32, Davidsen was appointed a circuit judge in the Nuuk district court. Serving there in 1979-1983 and again 1989-1993. In 1983, she entered Parliament (Landsting) as a representative of the social democrat party Siumut (Forward). In that same year, 36 years old Davidsen was appointed Member of Parliament, becoming the first woman in Greenland to serve as a government minister. In the following year, the government fell, and Davidsen, who was not yet established nationally as a politician, was not re-elected but remained active in her party. She became more involved in municipal politics, and in 1989, was elected to Nuuk’s city council, where she served as the finance committee and Second Deputy Mayor. Two years later, she got promoted to First Deputy Mayor. In 1993, at 46, Davidsen was elected mayor, the second woman to serve as the mayor of the capital city, following Laannguaq Lynge. Until 1997, Davidsen was still involved with the Siumut party; thenm she resigned from her position at the national level to dedicate all her time to Nuuk’s municipal issues. During the 14 years she served as mayor, Davidsen focused on improving the conditions of the city’s residents, especially of children and young people, fought for solving housing problems, and expanded trade relationships with other countries. In 2007, while serving as mayor, she died suddenly of a brain hemorrhage, she was 60 years old. Read more...

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was born in London, England, and grew up in Aldeburgh. Her father, a successful businessman, supported her education and encouraged her interest in politics. Since there was no school in Aldeburgh, she was home-schooled until 13 years old and then studied at the Boarding School for Ladies in London. On her return to Aldeburgh, she continued to educate herself, studying Latin and arithmetic. In 1859, at the age of 23, she traveled to London to meet Elizabeth Blackwell – the first female doctor in the US. After a private meeting with her, she decided to become a physician as well. With her father’s approval and financial support, she embarked on a long and challenging journey to receive a medical degree. In the following year, she began to work as a surgery nurse at Middlesex Hospital, London. Within six months, she proved her nursing skills and was allowed to attend the hospital’s outpatients’ clinic, and soon after, she attended her first operation. Forbidden from attending medical school, she took private lessons in materia medica, anatomy, and physiology during the evenings while working as a nurse during the days. With the support of the school’s administration, she participated in the hospital’s classes, but after complaints from the all-male students, she was obliged to leave the hospital. Afterward, she applied to several medical schools across the UK, including Oxford and Cambridge, rejected by all of them. In 1862, with a certificate in anatomy and physiology she obtained privately, Garrett found a loophole that enabled her to study at the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries since it did not specifically forbid women from taking their examinations. Three years later, at the age of 29, she passed the society’s exams, becoming the first woman in Britain to obtain an LSA certificate that enabled her to practice as a physician. As a result, the Society of Apothecaries changed its regulations to prevent other women from obtaining a license. Even with her license, Garrett could not find a medical position, so she established her own practice in London. At first, not many patients wanted to be treated by a female physician, but soon her practice grew. Within less than a year, she opened the St Mary’s Dispensary for Women and Children, enabling poor women to receive medical care. In the following year, during the cholera outbreak in London, she admitted 3,000 new patients. At the time, Garrett became aware that the University of Sorbonne in Paris is admitting women as medical students. She immediately began to learn French, receiving her medical degree in 1870, though the British Medical Register did not recognize her qualification. In the same year, 34 years old Garrett was elected to the first London School Board and got nominated as a visiting physician to the East London Hospital – the first woman in Britain to be appointed to a medical post. There, she met James Anderson, and the couple married in the following year. Garrett was overstretched with her work at her practice and dispensary combined with having her first child, so she gave up her positions on the board and as a visiting physician after only three years. She expanded her dispensary, turning it into the New Hospital for Women and Children, specializing in women’s issues and gynecological conditions. In 1874, alongside Sophia Jex-Blake, she founded the London School of Medicine for Women, the only teaching hospital in Britain to offer medical courses for women and the only one to be staffed by only women. Two years after it opened, the act that permitted women to enter the medical profession had passed, much as a result of Garrett’s campaign on the matter, and the school was recognized as a medical school, guaranteeing its students a formal medical license. When Garrett became the schools’ dean in 1883, she made history as the first female dean of a British medical school. In 1902, Garrett retired from practicing medicine and returned to her hometown Aldeburgh. On 9 November 1908, she was elected the mayor of the city. The first female mayor in Britain. Throughout her life, Garrett was an active supporter of the women’s suffrage movement and co-founded the Central Committee of the National Society for Women’s Suffrage in 1889. She used her platform as mayor to promote the cause, giving speeches on the matter and campaigning for women’s right to vote. Garrett died at the age of 81. Read more...

Born Dianne Emiel Goldman in San Francisco’s exclusive Pacific Heights neighborhood, she was redirected from a Jewish religious school to a private Catholic high school to learn discipline. She initially wanted to study medicine but ended up graduating Stanford University with a degree in History and Political Science. Feinstein’s political career had many firsts, starting with being the first woman to head the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco. She also had her share of disappointments, as when she lost twice the elections for the position of mayor of San Francisco. Several years after, following the assassination of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, whom she found shot to death, she replaced Moscone in the office, and later elected to stay in the position. In 1992, together with Barbara Boxer, she became one of California’s first female senators and continued in conceiving achievements when she became the first woman to assume the role of the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2017, as well as the first woman to chair the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Today she is the oldest member of the Senate. Her most significant contribution was leading six years review of the CIA’s use of torture. Feinstein is one of the wealthiest senators of the US, with an estimated net worth of $58 million. The reports attribute a large portion of her wealth to her third husband, investment banker Richard C. Blum. Her only daughter, Katherine Feinstein, is a former Superior Court judge. She died on September 29th, 2023, at the age of 90. Read more...

Born as a third generation Washingtonian, to a Superior Court Judge. She lost her mother before turning 5 years old and was raised with her sister by their grandmother. Her father encouraged her to follow his footsteps towards a career in public service. She studied Political Science and later Law at Howard University. There, at the age of 18, she met Arrington Dixon, a fellow student, who will become her first husband. She gave birth to their first daughter in 1968, the same year that she graduated with her Law degree. She took motherhood as a priority and worked part-time until their two daughters were at school age – at her father’s law firm and lecturing at a law college. She then started setting a list of firsts – in her activity in the Democratic Party until becoming first female Democratic National Committee Treasurer; and in her work, as she climbed the corporate ladder at PEPCO, Washington’s utility company, until becoming company’s vice president – the first female and first black in the position. Her most notable public achievement was in 1989 when she decided to run for the mayor position of the Columbia District, winning with a record of 86%, becoming the first African-American woman to serve as mayor of a major American city. She served in the office only one term, in which she faced challenges of internal resistance of the administration, and public opinion – criticizing her as “upper-class black princess” and scandalous spending of public money on makeup. After coming third in the following elections, she went back to the private sector and in 2002 opened her own consulting company. Read more...