Last year full of firsts for women, and the momentum is only continuing through 2015. Here are just a few reasons why.
JANUARY 2014
- President Barack Obama establishes the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault.
- Mary Barra becomes the first female CEO of General Motors.
FEBRUARY 2014
- Janet Yellen becomes the first female chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
- Women are finally allowed to compete in ski jumping at the Winter Olympics.
JULY 2014
- Adm. Michelle Howard becomes the first female four-star admiral in the U.S. Navy.
AUGUST 2014
- Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani becomes the first woman to win the Field Medal for mathematics.
- For the first time, women comprise more than a third of the United Nations Security Council.
SEPTEMBER 2014
- California Gov. Jerry Brown signs into law a bill requiring colleges to adopt affirmative consent policies, replacing "no means no" with "yes means yes."
- Columbia University student Emma Sulkowicz gains national media attention for carrying her mattress around campus as part of a performance art piece protesting how the university and police handled her alleged sexual assault.
DECEMBER 2014
- Rev. Libby Lane became the first female bishop in the Church of England.
- Malala Yousafzai, the 17-year-old Pakistani woman who survived a Taliban assassination attempt and went on to campaign for education for girls, becomes the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
