Today we are going to talk about women that have broken amazing records in various countries all over the world. 

Here we have a list of women that many have looked up to as an inspiration towards thriving and utilizing your own potential;

Bessie Coleman – The First African American Woman Pilot

To say that Bessie (Elizabeth) Coleman faced obstacles on her path to becoming the first African American woman pilot would be an understatement. She wasn’t allowed to attend flight schools in the United States, so she learned French and learned to fly in Paris. This is where she earned her license before returning to the United States. Here, she made a career out of performing stunts and air show demonstrations. Segregation was not allowed at her airshows. She made it her personal mission to break down racial barriers wherever she could, and that included at her own shows.  

Amy Johnson – The First Woman to Set Records for Distance and Speed

Amy Johnson was a British pilot who earned her license in 1929. It wasn’t long after that when she started breaking records. She was the first woman to fly from London to Australia alone and has set various other records for distance and speed.

Aviation has traditionally been a male-dominated profession, but this woman has chipped away at the barriers and provided others with equal opportunity. It is amazing to think about what these women have accomplished in their lives. She has provided proof and inspiration to younger generations that anything is possible.

Victoria Woodhull - The First Woman to Run for President of the United States in 1872.

What’s even cooler? She did so before women even had the right to vote.

Woodhull campaigned on the idea of “free love” declaring in a lecture that it’s an “inalienable, constitutional and natural right to love whom I may, to love as long or as short a period as I can; to change that love every day if I please.”

Sandra Day O’Connor - The First Woman Appointed to the US Supreme Court in 1981.

After graduating from law school, she said that at least 40 firms denied her an interview simply because she was a woman.

“I was a woman, and they said, ‘We don’t hire women,’ and that was a shock to me. It was a total shock. It shouldn’t have been. I should have known better. I should have followed what was going on, but I hadn’t,” she said in an interview with NPR. “And it just came as a real shock because I had done well in law school, and it never entered my mind that I couldn’t even get an interview.”

Vanessa Williams - The First African-American Winner of the 1984 Miss America pageant.

Williams actually had to relinquish her title to the runner-up when Penthouse magazine announced that they’d be publishing unauthorized racy photos of her. The scandal propelled her into stardom, but she doesn’t give the incident credit to her fame. 

“It took me a long time to get where I am,” she told People when she was just 25. “I’m here because of my guts and my talents.”

Kathryn Bigelow, director of “The Hurt Locker” - The First Woman to Win an Academy Award for Best Director in 2010.

She beat out her ex-husband, James Cameron, for the award and said backstage that she hopes one day the gender of the director will be a “moot point.”

“But I’m ever grateful if I can inspire some young, intrepid, tenacious male or female filmmaker and have them feel that the impossible is possible and never give up on your dream,” Bigelow continued.

Ella Fitzgerald - The First Woman to Ever Take Home a Grammy in 1959.

Fitzgerald is hailed as the ‘Queen of Jazz’ and ‘First Lady of Song’ for her revolutionary work in the music industry. She was also awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Medal of Arts. She didn’t speak of her successes often but, in an interview that The New York Times recalls she finally revealed how she felt about being a legend. 

“I don’t think I noticed it at first,” she said. “But when Norman Granz and I began recording the ‘Songbook’ series in the mid-’50s, it just seemed that more people began to like my singing. The awards I started winning didn’t make me feel important, but they made me realize people loved me.”

It’s never too late to break an amazing record. All you need is to buckle up and know exactly where you are heading to in life. These women can be used as a guide in making such a thing possible for you.  You got what it takes towards becoming like them. Believe in yourself!