Q: Who was the first woman to run a print shop in America?

A: Anne Catherine Hoof Green became the first women to run a print shop in America.  She took over the Annapolis business after her husband died in 1767.  In addition to being Maryland’s official printer, Green also published the Maryland Gazette, the province’s principal news source.  The masthead of the newspaper read “Anne Catherine & Sons.”

Green was a supporter of colonial revolution early on and the newspaper often attacked British policy.  A single mother of six, Green also pushed for women to play a more active role in the community.

Q: Who was the first African American woman to serve as mayor of a major U.S. city?

A: Sharon Pratt became the first African American woman to serve as mayor of a major U.S. when she became mayor of Washington, D.C. in 1991.  A D.C. native, Pratt initially wanted pursue an acting career.  But after graduating from Howard University’s School of Law, she became an associate at her father’s law firm.  She went on to become the first woman and first African American to hold the Vice President of Public Policy position at PEPCO.  Pratt was an active member of the Democratic National Committee and became the first woman to be named Treasurer in the DNC.

Her first foray into public office was when she ran for mayor of D.C. with the campaign slogan “Clean House.”

Pratt currently owns Pratt Consulting, LLC, a management and technology consulting firm.

Q: Who was the first woman to run for President of the United States?

A: Victoria Woodhull became the first woman to run for President of the United States in 1872.  Newspapers at the time called her a leader of the women’s suffrage movement in the 19th Century and she was known for her views on spiritualism, business reform and free love.

Woodhull and her sister made a fortune as the first female Wall Street brokers and used their money to found a newspaper which became notorious for publishing opinions on topics like sex education, free love, vegetarianism, suffrage, spiritualism and licensed prostitution.

In 1871, she announced her intention to run for president and was nominated by the Equal Rights Party the next year. Frederick Douglass was nominated for Vice President, although he never acknowledged this.  In spite of her declaration, nomination and ratification as a nominee, many have questioned the legality of her run for a number of reasons, including: the government declined to print her name on the ballot, she was not 35, she did not receive any electoral votes and she was a woman.

She later moved to England, where she gave lectures and published a magazine with her daughter.

Q: Who was the D.C. resident who became a founding member of the NAACP, the first black woman appointed to the D.C. Board of Education, president of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs and integrated the local chapter of the American Association of University Women?

A: The daughter of two slaves, Mary Church Terrell was a Washington, D.C. teacher who helped work for civil rights and women’s suffrage.  She was appointed to the D.C. Board of Education in1895, becoming the first black woman in the U.S. to hold such a position.  The next year, she became the first president of the newly formed National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs and she also founded the National Association of College Women, which later became the National Association of University Women.

In 1909, she became a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.  She also served as president of the Women’s Republican League during Warren G. Harding’s 1920 presidential campaign.  In the 1950s, she led a campaign to integrate restaurants in the District, picketing, boycotting and sitting-in until segregated eating places were ruled as unconstitutional.

After turning 80, Terrell continued to picket and protest.  She also persuaded the local chapter of the American Association of University Women to admit black members.

Q: A proponent of women’s suffrage and black civil rights, this woman is recognized for organizing the American Red Cross.

A: At the start of the Civil War, Clara Barton began tending to wounded soldiers.  After the First Battle of Bull run, she established an agency to collect and distribute supplies to wounded soldiers and later received permission to travel to the front lines and organize the hospitals there.  Barton also helped develop nursing as a skilled profession during the war.

In 1873, Barton started a movement to gain recognition for the International Committee of the Red Cross by the U.S. government.  She succeeded during the administration of President James Garfield and became president of the American branch of the society which was founded in 1881 in New York.

She died in Glen Echo, MD.  Her home is now the Clara Barton National Historic Site and was one of the first dedicated to the accomplishments of a woman.

Q: Who was the first American woman to go into space?

A: Dr. Sally Ride became the first American woman to go into space in 1983.  At the time, she was also the youngest person to go into space.  Ride joined NASA in 1978, after answering a newspaper ad seeking applicants for the space program.  She was preceded in space by two Soviet women. She is president and CEO of Sally Ride Science, a company she founded that creates science programs and publications for young people, with a focus on girls.

Q: Known as “Moses,” this woman helped hundreds of slaves escape to freedom, led a band of scouts during the Civil War, and joined the women’s suffrage movement after the war.

A: Harriet Tubman was a runaway slave from Maryland who became known as the “Moses of her people.”  Between 1850 and 1858, she helped more than 300 slaves reach freedom.  She also became a leader in the abolitionist movement and during the Civil War she was a spy for the federal forces in South Carolina.  After the war, she became a major supporter of the women’s suffrage movement.

In 1990, President George H.W. Bush designated March 10th Harriet Tubman Day.

Q: Who was the first black woman elected to Congress?

A: Shirley Chisholm became the first black woman elected to Congress in 1968.  She served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1969-1982.  In 1972, she became the first major-party black candidate for President of the United States and the first woman to run for the Democratic presidential nomination.

A native New Yorker, Chisholm began a career in elementary education before being elected to the New York State Legislature in 1964.  In 1968 she was elected to the  U.S. House, representing New York’s 12th District congressional seat.  All of the staffers she hired for her officer were women and half of them were black.

During her presidential campaign, she survived three assassination attempts.  During the Democratic National Convention, she received 152 first-ballot votes for the nomination.

During her tenure in the U.S. House, Chisholm championed several issues including education, civil rights, aid for the poor and women’s rights.  She retired from Congress in 1982 and went back into education, teaching politics and women’s studies.

Q: Who was the first American First Lady to run for public office?

A: Hillary Rodham Clinton became the first American First Lady to run for public office when she entered — and won — the election for U.S. Senator for New York in 2000.  In the 2008 presidential election, Clinton was also a leading Democratic candidate, ending her run after losing a string of primaries in the spring.  She is currently U.S. Secretary of State.  In this capacity she travels extensively and undertakes diplomatic efforts as part of the Obama Administration.

Earlier this week she launched the “100 Women Initiative: Empowering Women and Girls through International Exchanges” to coincide with the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day.  As part of the initiative 100 women from 92 countries are participating in a three-week professional exchange program in the U.S.  Clinton is also on the current cover of Newsweek.

Q: Who was the original author of the first version of the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution?

A: Alice Paul helped lead a successful campaign for women’s suffrage that resulted in the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.  Paul went to undergrad at Swarthmore College and went on to earn an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, her LL.B from the Washington College of Law and and LL.M and a Doctor in Civil Laws from American University.  In the midst of all of that, she joined the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).

She later helped found the National Woman’s Party in 1916.  She wrote the first version of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment — also known as the Lucretia Mott Amendment — to the Constitution in 1923.  The ERA didn’t make it through the House and Senate until 1972.  After being passed by the Senate, the ERA needed 38 states to ratify it, but only 35 voted in favor by the June 30, 1982 deadline.  Efforts to pass an equality movement continue to this day, although nearly half of U.S. states have adopted the ERA into their constitutions.