• First Mom
Jane Long (1798-1880) was a pioneer Anglo American woman settler in Texas. She became known as the "Mother of Texas" because she was believed at one time to be the first English-speaking woman to bear a child in Texas. Census records dispute that claim but the nickname remains.
[Biography]

• Elected State Official
Dr. Annie Webb Blanton became the State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1918, the first year that women in Texas could vote, making her the first woman elected to statewide office in Texas. She was a UT educator until her death in 1945.
[Biography]

• State Senator
Margie Elizabeth Neal of Carthage was elected Texas' first woman senator in 1926. Other firsts for Ms. Neal include first woman member of the board of regents of the State Teachers Colleges and first woman member of the State Democratic Executive Committee.
[Biography]

• Governor
To date, Texas has had only two women serve as governor. Miriam Amanda "Ma" Ferguson was the first. Her husband preceded her in the office and "Ma" Ferguson served twice, from 1925 to 1927 and from 1933 to 1935. She was only the second female to serve as governor of the United States yet due to the date of elections in Texas, she was technically the first woman elected as a US governor.
[Biography]

• African American First
A few decades ago the U.S. Department of Agriculture employed cooperative extension agents who went around to homes offering women tips and in-home demonstrations on more efficiently running their homes and farms. The first female African American home cooperative extension agent in Texas was Dr. Jeffie O.A. Conner of Waco. She later served as a supervisor in the public schools and President of the Texas Association of Colored Women.
[Biography]

• US Congress
Among her many accomplishments, Barbara Jordan was the first black woman from a Southern state to serve in Congress and the first woman to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic national convention. Originally from Houston, she spent many years in Austin including teaching at UT and serving as ethics advisor under Governor Ann Richards. After her death in 1996 she was buried here in the State Cemetary.
[Biography]

• Austin City Council
While many of us think of Emma Long as a park along Lake Austin, in 1948 she was the first woman elected to the Austin City Council, serving for 17 years. Emma Long was also the first woman elected Mayor Pro Tem.
[Info]

• Austin Mayor
Before she was the first woman elected Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts or the first woman elected to the Texas Railroad Commission, Carole Keeton Rylander, then known as Carole Keeton McClellan, was the first woman elected mayor of Austin. Her other firsts include first woman president of the Austin School Board and first woman president of the Austin Community College Board of Trustees.
[Biography]

• Education
One of the earliest women faculty members of the School of Education at UT (1919), Clara May Parker was involved in starting a Faculty Women's Club and the Austin branch of the American Association of University Women. She also was a pioneer in recording the education contributions of Dr. Annie Webb Blanton.
[Biography]

• Women's Studies
While attending the University of Texas, Mattie Lloyd Irvin Wooten wrote her thesis "The Rôles of Pioneer Women in the Texas Frontier Community," one of the first sociological studies of women on the Texas frontier. She later wrote other works focusing on sociological issues involving women.
[Biography]

• Popular Myth
Despite little supporting documentation and many conflicting accounts, Emily D. West, a free black from Connecticut who came to Texas in early 1836, will forever remain as the "Yellow Rose of Texas". The myth of her dalliance with Santa Anna that led to his defeat at the Battle of San Jacinto led to popular belief that she was the girl in the song.
[Biography]

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