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In
1922, just two years after women were given the right to vote,
Lottie Holman O'Neill was the first woman elected to the
Illinois State legislature. She continued to serve in the
Illinois House and Senate for 40 years.
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Two
years later, in 1924, Florence Fifer Bohrer, daughter of
Governor Fifer, was the first woman elected to the Illinois Senate.
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Genoa S. Washington of Cook County became the first
African-American woman to be elected to the Illinois House in 1967.
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Fifty years after the first woman from Illinois was elected to the
U.S. House, the first African-American woman was elected to it.
Cardiss Collins became a U.S. Representative in 1973 and
served until 1997. In 1979 she became president of the
Congressional Black Caucus.
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Earlene Collins, elected as the first African-American woman to
the Illinois Senate in 1977, served until 1999.
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The
first woman in a leadership position in the Illinois legislature was
Celeste Stiehl who became the first Assistant House Minority
Leader in 1975.
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Adeline Geo-Karis is a trail-blazer and in 1985 she became the
first woman to serve as Assistant Majority Leader in the Illinois
Senate.
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Dawn Clark Netsch was elected as Comptroller in 1990, she became
the first woman to be elected to a constitutional office. Four
years later she ran for governor, becoming the first woman in
Illinois to be nominated by a major party.
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In
1994, Carol Mosely-Braun became the first African-American
woman in the U.S. Senate. Judy Baar Topinka was elected
State Treasurer, the office she held until she ran for governor in
2006.
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After 18 years in the Illinois House, Barbara Flynn Currie
became the first woman to become the House Majority Leader in 1997,
a position which she continues to hold.
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In
1997 Sonia Silva became the first Hispanic woman to be
elected to the Illinois House.
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Corrine Wood served as the state's first woman Lieutenant
Governor beginning in 1999.
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In
2003, the first Hispanic woman, Iris Y. Martinez, was elected
to the Illinois Senate.
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In
2003, Lisa Madigan was the first woman to be elected Attorney
General in Illinois. In 2006 she was elected to her second
term earning the largest vote of any statewide candidate.
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Debbie DeFrancesco Halvorson became the first woman Democrat to
hold the position of Senate Majority Leader in 2005.
