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.
This article appears in Apr 29 – May 6, 2015.
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