Although it is a rehearsal, there is an appreciative audience and Zhang graciously acknowledges them. She turns toward the orchestra, a large audiovisual screen in the background. For this rehearsal of Holst’s The Planets, she tells the audience, they will play the movements in reverse order of how many instruments are playing, so that those who are not needed in every movement can leave early. They begin with “Mercury” and she holds approximately 100 instrumentalists in her hands, plus a chorus and organ. Her hands float through space, as the screen undulates with photos of the planet. Her baton soars on top of arpeggios as if tapping the air toward the instruments. “Mars” follows and her body language changes. She weaves back and forth as if dodging arrows while the images on the screen above her subdivide and multiply. In “Jupiter” the conductor holds sway over the world. 

Zhang is a guest conductor on this occasion as she will not assume her conductor role until Fall of 2025. A conductor with international credits, she has come a long distance from her birth during the Cultural Revolution in China in 1973. She started her piano lessons with her mother when she was three, on an instrument built by her father. At age 11, she studied at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees. She was already studying conducting with Professor Wu Lingfen, a woman conductor. At age 20, she debuted at the Central Opera House in Beijing.

In 1988 Zhang came to the United States and studied at the University of Cincinnati’s Conservatory of Music, earning a Doctor of Musical Arts. She was the youngest woman to conduct the Conservatory’s Concert Orchestra.

Zhang has an impressive list of firsts. She was: 

–The first person awarded the Arturo Toscanini Associate Conductor’s Chair, after serving as cover conductor for the New York Philharmonic from 2002 to 2004; 

–The First Woman conductor to play with the Staatskapelle Dresden in 2008;

–The First Woman conductor of a major Italian symphony orchestra when she was music director of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi in 2009;

–The First Woman conductor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, in 2015, after serving as guest conductor for several years;

–The First Woman principal guest conductor for the BBC, in 2015, when she led the BBC National Orchestra of Wales;

In September, 2025, she will claim another first, as the First Woman conductor of the Seattle Symphony. She has received several awards, and The Philadelphia Orchestra, under her baton, won Grammys in 2023.

If Zhang’s work with the Seattle Symphony for this guest concert is any indication, an audience member watching her rehearse can believe she is collaborative. She uses the term “we” often. “Do you think we could have a quicker crescendo in this measure?” She is also attentive to detail. After one movement, she refers back to a particular measure in which “one” of the horns had played a B that should have been a B-flat. Out of all the musicians on that stage, she heard that errant note.

It is not unusual for a First Woman to have more than one first. What distinguishes Xian Zhang is that she did this internationally. It seems fitting that she shares her name with a Chinese deity and a Chinese poet from almost one thousand years ago.

For more about Xian Zhang and her artistry, see her webpage

See The Conductor: With living First Women it can be difficult to find a photo that does not require prior permission for use. For a stunning photo of this artist, click on the first mention of the Seattle Symphony at the beginning of this article.  

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First Ann Baumgartner attended Smith College and graduated with a pre-med major. She went to work for Eastern Airlines in their public relations department and made time to learn to fly. When the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) was formed during World War II, Baumgartner joined. 

Her first assignment was as a tow target pilot at Camp Davis in North Carolina. The women pilots dragged targets behind their planes so that men on the ground could practice hitting a moving target with live ammunition. She flew five different aircraft during this time. 

She was then assigned to Wright Field in Ohio where she used her undergraduate degree testing aeromedical equipment. It was there she applied for assignment to the Flight Test Division. During that time she tested airplanes, and became the First Woman to pilot a jet plane, the Bell YP-59A. In all Baumgartner flew almost two dozen different planes. 

Ann Baumgartner had married Major William Carl, an engineer and aircraft designer, during the last year of the war. They had two children but, unlike many women of her generation, Baumgartner continued to work. She did not, however, work in the military. When the war ended, women were removed from their posts and the temporary branches of the services created for women were shuttered. Instead, she was a flight instructor for United Airlines and wrote for The New York Times and other publications about science. She wrote more than 2,000 columns and articles. 

Baumgartner died one year after her husband, in 2008 at the age of 90.

More About Women in the Service

After World War II, Baumgartner could no longer serve because the women’s branches of the service were disbanded. It was not until 1974 that the Navy accepted women in pilot training and not until 1977 that the Air Force did the same. If the women’s branches had not been discontinued, however, Baumgartner still could not have served, as women were immediately dismissed from service when they became pregnant. Although there were some waivers for pregnant woman to serve as early as 1971, the policy did not change for all branches and all women until 1975. 

A Reflection

When the first astronauts were selected, there was a group of women who completed the same physical tests the men had taken. In some instances, they exceeded the performance of the men. However, it was decided that astronauts must be qualified test pilots. Because women could not fly in the military, where planes were tested, none of the potential women astronauts met this qualification. I wondered why Ann Baumgartner was not considered. Then I calculated her age; she was 41 at the time, just over the age requirement. All the men selected were in the thirties. Perhaps that is the reason. Or was it her gender that disqualified her? Sally Ride was the First Woman Astronaut in the United States. She joined NASA in 1978 and flew to space in 1983. What if Ann Baumgartner had been born twenty or thirty years later?

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Kamala Harris

Much is made of the fact that Kamala Harris is the First Black Woman to serve as Vice-President or that she is the First South-Asian American Woman to serve as Vice-President, but let’s call this what it is. In spite of her ethnic disadvantages, she is the FIRST WOMAN—period—to serve as Vice-President of the United States. It is also cool that her husband is the first second-gentleman in the United States. 

Sarah McBride

The first openly transgender state senator was Sarah McBride who was elected to the Delaware General Assembly in 2021. 

Avril Haines

President Biden nominated, and Congress approved, Avril Haines at the First Woman to serve as director of national intelligence. Previously, she had been Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and Deputy National Security Advisor in Obama’s administration. She was the First Woman to hold both of those posts as well.

Janet Yellen

Janet Yellen was the First Woman to head the Treasury Department since its creation in 1789. Although the Treasurer of the United States has been a woman since President Truman appointed Georgia Neese Clark in 1949, at no time in our history has a woman held the Cabinet position for our nation’s finances. Yellen was also the First Woman to chair the Federal Reserve. 

Sarah Thomas

When Sarah Thomas took the field at the 2021 Super Bowl, she became the First Woman to officiate an NFL Super Bowl game. Previously she had been the First Woman to work a major college football game and the First Woman to referee an NFL playoff game. 

Amanda Gorman

Only six poets have spoken at presidential inaugurations in the United States. Of the three men and two women who preceded her, Amanda Gorman is the youngest. She was also the First Poet at a Super Bowl Game.

Chloé Zhao

Nomadland’s director, Chloé Zhao, was the First Asian Woman to win a Golden Globe for best director. This is a moving film of a widow living in her van, which stars Frances McDormand. Only one other woman has won a Golden Globe for director, Barbara Streisand in 1984. Do the math—a 37 year gap!

Wally Funk

On July 20, 2021, Wally Funk was on board the Blue Origin rocket, the First octogenarian Woman to fly into space. Funk was originally one of 13 women who trained for the astronaut program, before it was determined women were not eligible because they had not been test pilots. In spite of the fact that they had lacked opportunities to join the military, where test pilots were trained, no exceptions were made. Oh, yes, one exception was made to the strict rules—for John Glenn. He was admitted in spite of the fact that a college degree was required and Glenn did not have one. Glenn went back into space when he was 77, but Funk bested him as she was 82.

Jill Biden

It bears mentioning that Jill Biden is the First First Lady to retain her professional position in spite of obligations as First Lady.

When the day comes that there are so few First Women we no longer note them, we shall be joyous. Meanwhile, I’ll continue to report on women’s progress. 

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After Ray completed her undergraduate education, she taught at Howard University, in their Preparatory and Normal Department where she assisted in training school teachers. Later she applied to the Howard University School of Law. Whether her application listing her name as C.E. Ray was a factor in her admittance is still disputed, but Howard University at that time was committed to accepting both men and women. When she completed her law degree, she became the First African American Woman lawyer in the United States.

After Ray completed her undergraduate education, she taught at Howard University, in their Preparatory and Normal Department where she assisted in training school teachers. Later she applied to the Howard University School of Law. Whether her application listing her name as C.E. Ray was a factor in her admittance is still disputed, but Howard University at that time was committed to accepting both men and women. When she completed her law degree, she became the First African American Woman lawyer in the United States.

She was also the First Woman allowed to argue before Washington, D.C.’s Supreme Court. In the case Gadley v. Gadley, she successfully defended an uneducated woman who was in an abusive relationship and wanted a divorce. She was known to be eloquent, and she placed advertisements in Frederick Douglass’ newspaper, the New National Era and Citizen, but neither asset drew enoughclients for her to be successful in attracting clients. Perhaps another factor was that, at that time, men prevented women from joining professional associations that aided advancement, regardless of their credentials. 

The notorious Kate Kane Rossi, a firebrand lawyer in Chicago, said of Charlotte Ray, “although a lawyer of decided ability, on account of prejudice [she] was not able to obtain sufficient legal business and had to give up. . .active practice.” The double burden of having dark skin and being a woman was too much to overcome. 

After a few years Ray moved to New York and went back to teaching. In Brooklyn, where she taught in the public school system, she married. The fight was still in her, however, and she became an active suffragist. She was a delegate to the National Woman’s Suffrage Association conference in 1876. She was also an active member of National Association of Colored Women. Little is known of the last decades of her life. 

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Before Stanton worked for women’s rights, she married a proselytizer for the freedom of slaves and took up the cause of abolition. Her path veered, however, when she accompanied her husband to an Anti-Slavery Convention in London and discovered that women could not be seated as delegates but must sit in the visitors’ gallery.

Women’s Rights Convention

With Lucretia Mott she organized a women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls in 1848. She wrote a Declaration of Independence modeled on that of the founding fathers. “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal.” As the convention debated about what should be included in the declaration, it was Stanton who insisted that the right to vote must be one of their demands. 

Stanton was always a bit ahead of her sisters in suffrage. When she married she dropped the word “obey” from the wedding vows. She wanted to fight for changing divorce laws that would protect women and to provide equitable wages for women and argued that women should serve on juries and be able to withhold sex from their husbands. She was successful in winning property rights for women after marriage, rights to shared guardianship of children, and better divorce laws. When she wrote The Woman’s Bible in which she accused organized religion of contributing to the subjugation of women, much of the women’s movement disowned her. 

In 1866 Stanton ran for the House of Representatives. After researching the situation, she determined there was nothing to prohibit her running, even if women could not vote. Stanton received 24 votes out of the approximately 22,000 cast. 

Right to Vote

Stanton worked closely with Susan B. Anthony, writing most of Anthony’s speeches. In 1878 when an amendment to the constitution permitting the vote for women was introduced in the Senate, it was Stanton who spoke to the gentlemen gathered in the Senate Hall. The Senators enraged her by reading newspapers and smoking while she spoke. 

Every year after that, from 1878 to 1919, a new suffrage bill was introduced in the Senate—until it finally passed. Stanton lived to the age of 86 years,  not long enough to see the crowning jewel of her efforts achieved.  

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Their achievements are remarkable but not surprising given their upbringing. They and their seven siblings were raised by a father who believed all his children should be educated to their limits. Dinner discussions often included moral issues such as child labor, slavery, and women’s rights. 

Lucy Stone

Two of the Blackwell brothers married strong women who hold their own firsts. Their brother Henry married Lucy Stone, the First Woman in Massachusetts to graduate from Ohio’s Oberlin College. She lectured on slavery and women’s rights and scandalized many by wearing “bloomers” that were visible below her shortened skirt. She believed marriage degraded women but agreed to marry Henry if they would be equal in their marriage, a promise Henry kept. Lucy Stone did not give up her name when she married and, to this day, the term Lucy Stoner is used to designate a woman who does the same. Lucy and Henry had a daughter who carried both their names: Alice Stone Blackwell became a suffrage leader like her mother.  

Antoinette Brown

 The Blackwell sisters’ brother Sam married Antoinette Brown, the First Woman ordained as a mainstream Protestant minister in the United States. She preached in favor of abolition, temperance, and women’s rights. Of their five daughters, two received medical degrees.

Apart from their own family, the Blackwell sisters associated with other dynamic women. Elizabeth Blackwell, in particular, had contacts with many accomplished women in the United States and in Europe. 

Lady Byron and Ada Lovelace

A close friend of Elizabeth’s was Anne Isabella Noel, Lady Byron (wife of the poet). She disagreed strongly with Elizabeth about women’s place in the world. After having devoted her life to Lord Byron, she maintained the belief that women were naturally dependent creatures and that women who were equal to men were the exception. In spite of her avowed philosophy, Lady Byron’s own daughter, Ada Lovelace, became a renowned mathematician.

Elizabeth Garrett

When Elizabeth relocated to England, where she had been born, she mentored Elizabeth Garrett, who became the First Woman in Britain to qualify as a doctor. Garrett’s list of firsts is lengthy: First Woman co-founder of a female-staffed hospital, First Woman dean of a British medical school, First Woman elected to a school board in England, and First Woman mayor in Britain.

Mary Putnam

In Paris Elizabeth befriended Mary Putnam, the daughter of George Putnam, who had published Elizabeth’s first book. She would become the First Woman to receive a degree in Paris and the First Woman accredited by the New York College of Pharmacy in 1865. 

Florence Nightingale

Elizabeth also knew Florence Nightingale, who founded the first secular nursing school in the world. They disagreed, however, as Nightingale believed women should be nurses not doctors.

Rebecca Lee Crumpler

Both Blackwell sisters practiced their beliefs and included African American women practitioners at their infirmary. Among them was Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the First African American Women to graduate from the New England Female Medical College.

What does it take to be a First Woman? Perhaps there is some inner strength that propels them forward; perhaps there is a sense of injustice that will not be denied; perhaps there is a lack of fear about what others will think. It also helps if they are surrounded by supportive family and women like themselves. 

For more about Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell, check out The Doctors Blackwell by Janice P. Nimura:

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These seven First Women in Television are presented below in chronological order of their First Woman achievement. 

Martha Rountree (1911-1999): First Moderator of Meet the Press – 1947

Martha Rountree is recognized as the First Woman moderator of Meet the Press, but not as its creator. History often reports that Meet the Press was co-created by Lawrence E. Spivak and Martha Rountree, but this does not appear to be the case. Spivak became co-producer after the show had already debuted, so Rountree was probably the creator.  

The concept for the show was unique in television. Rountree conducted unscripted live interviews with political figures. It was the first show on which a sitting president appeared (Gerald Ford, in 1975). As of this writing, the show is the longest-running show on television—74 years! Rountree hosted the show from 1947 to 1953. Eleven very high-powered names in news broadcasting have hosted the show since then. All have been men; no other woman has moderated the show. 

Irna Phillips (1901-1973): Creator of the Television Soap Opera – 1949

Daytime serials began on the radio and were designed so that women could listen while doing their housework. When Irna Phillips created These are My Children for television in 1949 the format was only 15-minutes long because the owners of television stations still believed that women would not want to stop their housework to sit down and watch television. 

In 1956, Phillips created As the World Turns, one of the first two daytime serials to run for a half-hour. (The Edge of Night premiered the same day.) As the World Turns was the highest-rated daytime drama for two decades, from 1958 until 1978. 

Hazel Scott (1920-1981): First Black American to Host her own TV Show – 1950

Hazel Scott was classically trained as a musician at Juilliard. She performed classical and jazz music for audiences in the United States and abroad and especially enjoyed wowing the audience by playing two pianos at once. Concert venues, the radio and the movies had already showcased her widely-recognized talent.

Although Ethel Waters had been the First Black American to host a TV special (in 1939), Hazel Scott was the First Black person to host her own regularly-scheduled TV Show. The Hazel Scott Show ran during the summer of 1950. Because she was an activist for equal rights, Scott became a target of the House Unamerican Activities Committee’s communist witch hunt. After being called before them, she moved to Paris where she performed throughout Europe before returning to the United States in 1967.   

Anna May Wong (1905-1961): First Asian American Lead in a Television Show – 1951

Anna May Wong is called the First Chinese American Hollywood star. Before television, she had already worked on stage, radio and silent film (including with Douglas Fairbanks in The Thief of Bagdad). An early adopter of the flapper look, she was named “the world’s best dressed woman” in 1934. Frustrated with stereotypical characters, she spent part of the 1930’s in Europe, seeking better roles. In 1935 she hoped to play the lead character O’Lan in Pearl Buck’s The Good Earth but the role went to a white woman using yellowface makeup. Wong was offered another role but refused it. 

In 1951, Wong starred in The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, the first U.S. television show with an Asian American lead. A decade later she looked forward to playing Madame Liang in the film production of Flower Drum Song, but she died in her sleep of a heart attack before the filming began. It was only a year after she had been awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

Gertrude Berg (1899-1966): First Woman to win an Emmy Award for Lead Actress – 1951

Gertrude Berg created the fictional Jewish Goldberg family for radio in 1928. She wrote almost all the episodes of the fifteen-minute serial that ran daily. She was convinced the show was translatable to the new medium of television and campaigned to have it broadcast. The show was first televised in 1949. The sets were simple, costume changes were actually the shedding of one costume for another underneath it, and it was shot live but without a studio audience. 

In 1951 Berg won the very first Emmy awarded to a Lead Actress in a Television Series. She had already played the role of Molly Goldberg for twenty years. When the show left television, after a combined radio-television run of 27 years, Berg re-created herself as a serious actress. She was 52 years old when she won a Tony for Best Actress. 

Betty White (1922- ): First Woman to Produce a Sitcom – 1955 and First Woman to win an Emmy for Outstanding Daytime Game Show Host – 1983

When we hear the name Betty White, we are not likely to think of her as a leader in early television. We see images of a sweet, animal-loving, perhaps a bit ditzy woman, with a wonderful sense of humor. But this same Betty White was the First Woman to produce a television sitcom. 

Her career began on the radio, then moved to television where she hosted an unscripted television show that ran five and a half hours, six days a week for four years. In 1953, she co-created and produced Life with Elizabeth for television with herself as the title character. 

In 1955 she was named honorary Mayor of Hollywood. She went on to appear on many game shows and hosted the show Just Men! for which she was the First Woman to win an Emmy for Outstanding Daytime Game Show Host in 1983. She appeared in many popular sitcoms and is the only woman in this blog post still active today at the age of 99. 

Lucille Ball (1911-1989): First Woman Head of a Production Studio – 1962

Similar to Betty White, we know Lucille Ball for the most part as the ditzy comic with red hair who could stuff a factory-full of bonbons into her mouth. She was also, however, a smart executive. When the networks would not sponsor the I Love Lucy show, she took it on the road to prove that her Hispanic husband, Desi Arnaz, was marketable to audiences.

The show premiered in 1951 and was a pioneer in television production. Within six months it was the nation’s number one show. At that time, when there were only 15 million televisions in the United States, 11 million sets were tuned to I Love Lucy. Her audience is almost as large as those of NCIS, the most-watched show on primetime television in 2020 (with 11.65 million views). Unlike many of the productions created by or featuring other women in this article, whose work has not survived, Ball filmed her show in expensive 35-mm film. This meant that the show was preserved for additional viewing, in other markets, in other countries, and in future decades. When Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz divorced, Ball bought out her husband’s interest in Desilu Productions and became the First Woman to run a production studio.

Want to Know More?

Four of these women (Hazel Scott, Irna Phillips, Gertrude Berg, and Betty White) are featured in When Women Invented Television by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, but all are mentioned in her book. If you want to know more, you might enjoy reading the results of her extensive research. 

You will also find longer blogs on Martha Rountree and Lucille Ball on this website. Links are incorporated in relevant sections above.

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The Queens of Animation: The Untold Story of the Women who Transformed the World of Disney and Made Cinematic History

In her book, The Queens of Animation, Nathalia Holt tells the story of the women who worked for Walt Disney. Through the lens of Disney’s corporations and their women artists, Holt parallels the historical arc of the women’s movement in the twentieth century and beyond. Her book begins when Disney started forming the Disney companies, at a time period when women were rarely hired or heard, never credited, and treated in ways we would now label as toxic. 

Through the years of World War II, as in the broader society, women received larger roles at Disney, in order to free the men to fight. Following the war, Disney likewise followed the general pattern of firing women to make room for men to return to work. Women were not consulted about whether they wished to continue their careers. 

During the fifties, Disney hired fewer women, and hardly ever in positions of authority or influence. At Disney this time period extended through much of the balance of the twentieth century. Only in the latter part of the century were women once again hired in higher numbers.

Two First Women from Disney

Brenda Chapman – Chapman held a key artistic position on the team that created Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Later she was the First Woman head of story for an animated feature film when she worked on Disney’s The Lion King. When Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg joined Steven Spielberg and David Geffen to found DreamWorks, he recruited Chapman to join them. At Dream Works in 1998 she directed The Prince of Egypt, the First Woman to direct an animated feature from a major studio. In 2012 Chapman was at Pixar, which Disney had purchased. For Pixar she co-directed the film Brave and was the First Woman to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Brave is the story of an independently-minded redheaded princess who rides and fights and does not, in the end, marry a prince.

Jennifer Lee – Lee is the Chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studies. She was the writer and co-director of Frozen. She is the First Woman director of an animated feature that earned more than $1 billion. 

Disney’s Success

It is interesting to note that Disney’s fortunes as a company follow a curve that correlates to the influence of women within the company. In the early years its animation was widely recognized and praised, fueled by the creativity of women with unique perspectives. The number of women declined after the war and by the 1970’s and 1980s few women artists worked at Disney; Disney fell into a slump. When the number of women hired increased in the tail end of the twentieth century, Disney films again became popular. This may be coincidental but the popular topics of the Disney films in the last decades were largely conceived, designed, and even directed by women like Brenda Chapman and Jennifer Lee. They also often have strong, independent, creative women as their protagonists—perhaps reflecting their creators.

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Manley and Baseball

Effa Manley with her husband Abe owned and managed the Newark Eagles in the Negro National League from 1935 to 1948. It was Effa Manley who handled promotions, publicity, financial management, scheduling, recruitment and contract negotiation. In 1946, her work bore fruit, when the Eagles won the Negro World Series. 

Manley worked for better pay and accommodations for players and tried to convince black owners to build their own stadiums so they were not subject to the whims of the owners of stadiums built for white teams. She pushed owners to be more professional and was incensed when Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers signed Jackie Robinson without compensating the owners of the black team that had recruited and trained him. 

When one of her own players, Larry Doby, was recruited by the Cleveland Indians, she encouraged the move, while negotiating compensation for his contract. The amount paid was well below what was paid to white owners, but she pushed for the principle. Earlier Manley had tried to get the white major leagues to incorporate black teams into their organization. That did not happen and she knew that the integration of major league baseball would be the death knell for the Negro Leagues. 

It wasn’t until the twenty-first century that a committee of the National Baseball Hall of Fame reviewed the teams of the Negro League to see which players might have merited induction but had been overlooked. Twelve players and five executives were inducted in 2006. Effa Manley was among the executives included; her husband was not. 

Manley and Social Responsibility

In 1934, before she took over the Newark Eagles, Manley organized a boycott through the Citizens’ League for Fair play. Her slogan was “Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work.” As a result Blumstein’s Department Store, which had a significant number of black customers, began hiring black clerks. Manley also was treasurer of the local chapter of the NAACP.

She did not hesitate to use her baseball team to make statements about the way in which blacks in this country were treated. On one occasion she held an “Anti-Lynching Day” at one of the stadiums where the Eagles played, playing a part in pushing Congress to pass an anti-lynching law.

She also scheduled entertainment for black troops at Fort Dix, when the military was still segregated and raised money for Booker T. Washington Community Hospital. Mindful of those who could not afford to attend games, and perhaps as a marketing tool to build future fans, Manly made sure that black youth could attend her games for free. 

Manley’s Legacy

Effa Manley’s name was forgotten for many years. This was partly because black teams had never been accepted as equivalent to white teams and then she had another “strike” against her; she was a woman. Now her name is known, although the recognition came posthumously, and she is enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. 

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Referee

Sarah Thomas received the most media recognition, the First Woman referee in a Super Bowl. When she was younger, Thomas was a superstar in softball and basketball. She was born and still lives in Mississippi. From personal experience, I can say that it is not surprising she would wind up in the game of football. In Mississippi, football is practically a second religion, regardless of gender. 

Thomas is used to being first. As a referee in college football she was:

–the First Woman to officiate a major college football game

–the First Woman to officiate a bowl game

–the First Woman to officiate in a Big Ten stadium

Shannon Eastin holds the distinction of being the First Woman to officiate an NFL game, when she was a replacement during the 2012 referee lockdown, but Sarah Thomas was the First Woman official in the NFL hired in a permanent full-time position.

As referees are wont to do, she remained largely unseen, calm amidst the action, but it was exciting when her blond hair bobbed as she slid into her place.

Coaches

There were also firsts among the Buccaneers coaching staff. Although Katie Sowers was the First Woman coach in a Super Bowl, her team, the San Francisco 49ers, lost last year. That makes Lori Locust, assistant defensive line coach and Maral Javadifar, strength and conditioning coach, the First Women coaches to coach a Super Bowl winning team. 

Locust was a professional football player in the women’s semi-professional league and has held coaching positions in semi-professional and professional teams since 2010. She is in her second year with the Buccaneers. 

 Javadifar was a basketball player in college. She went on to earn a bachelor of science in molecular biology and a doctoral degree in physical therapy. This is also in her second year with the Buccaneers.

They will be able to wear Super Bowl rings, just like the players. 

Pre-Fame Flyover

There was a dramatic moment involving a woman before the game began. During the “Star-Spangled Banner,” three planes made a flyover above the field. On television it lasted maybe twenty seconds. It was the first Super Bowl flyover in formation by a trifecta, three different planes: a B-2, a B-1B, and a B-52. And the lead pilot, in the B-2 stealth bomber, was Captain Sarah Kociuba, the First Woman to lead a flyover at the Super Bowl. The crew received special Super Bowl patches for their uniforms.  

Non-Athletic First

Amanda Gorman was the First Poet at a Super Bowl game (no First Woman qualifier needed). 

Personal Note about the Brawny Guys

It was affirming, for those of us of a certain age, to see the dude with experience and maturity outplay the young whippersnapper. 

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