Madeleine Korbel Albright (born May 15, 1937) is the first woman to become a United States Secretary of State.

She was appointed by U.S. President Bill Clinton on December 5, 1996, and was unanimously confirmed by a U.S. Senate vote of 99-0. She was sworn in on January 23, 1997.

Albright now serves as a Professor of International Relations at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service. In addition to her PhD from Columbia University.

She also holds Honorary Doctors of Laws awarded by the University of Washington in 2002; Smith College in 2003; University of Winnipeg in 2005; the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2007, and Knox College in 2008.

Gertrude Caroline Ederle (October 23, 1905 – November 30, 2003) was an American competitive swimmer. In 1926, she became the first woman to swim across the English Channel.

Gertrude Ederle was the daughter of a German immigrant who ran a butcher shop on Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan; she was born in New York City. She was known as Trudy as a youth.

Her father taught her to swim in Highlands, New Jersey, where the family owned a summer cottage. Among other nicknames, the press sometimes called her Queen of the Waves.

She trained at the Women's Swimming Association, the WSA, which produced such competitors as Eleanor Holm and Esther Williams. She joined the club when she was only thirteen.

Jeannette Pickering Rankin (June 11, 1880 – May 18, 1973) was the first woman in the U.S. Congress. A Republican, she was elected statewide in 1916 and again in 1940.

A lifelong pacifist, she voted against the entry of the United States into both World War I and World War II, the only member of Congress to vote against the latter. To date, she is the only woman to be elected to Congress from Montana.

Rankin was born on a ranch near Missoula, Montana Territory, the first of seven children born to John Rankin, a rancher and builder who had immigrated from Canada, and Olive Pickering, a Yankee  who was a former schoolteacher.

Her parents were well-to-do and prominent in Montana affairs. Jeannette Rankin never married. She attended the University of Montana and graduated in 1902 with a bachelor of science degree in biology.

Tomoe Gozen (? ??) (1157–1247), was a late twelfth-century concubine of Minamoto no Yoshinaka, known for her bravery and strength.

Tomoe was a rare female samurai warrior (onna bugeisha). She is believed to have fought and survived the Genpei War (1180–1185).

According to historical accounts:

"Tomoe was especially beautiful, with white skin, long hair, and charming features. She was also a remarkably strong archer, and as a swordswoman she was a warrior worth a thousand, ready to confront a demon or a god, mounted or on foot."

Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova (Russian: ?????????? ????????????? ??????????) (born 6 March 1937) is the first woman in space, now a retired Soviet cosmonaut.

Out of more than four hundred applicants and then out of five finalists, she was selected to pilot Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963 and become the first woman to fly in space.

This also made her the first civilian in space (she was only honorarily inducted into the USSR's Air Force as a condition on joining the Cosmonaut Corps). On this mission, lasting almost three days in space, she performed various tests on herself to collect data on the female body's reaction to spaceflight.

Before being recruited as a cosmonaut, Tereshkova was a textile-factory assembly worker and an amateur parachutist. After the female cosmonaut group was dissolved in 1969, she became a prominent member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, holding various political offices.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, she retired from politics and remains revered as a hero in Russia.