Today, TIME releases FIRSTS, a multimedia project highlighting 46 women who broke barriers across fields. FIRSTS includes an interactive site, short films, candid interviews, portraits, a social media campaign and, later this month, a hardcover book, featuring these pioneering athletes, scientists, lawmakers, entertainers and entrepreneurs. The issue features 12 covers, each highlighting a member of FIRSTS: Hillary Rodham Clinton, Mo’ne Davis, Ellen DeGeneres, Ava DuVernay, Sylvia Earle, Selena Gomez, Nikki Haley, Ilhan Omar, Lori Robinson, Katharine Jefferts Schori, Oprah Winfrey and Janet Yellen appear on issues worldwide. To experience the project, visit Time.com/Firsts.
TIME commissioned Brazilian photographer Luisa Dörr, whose work is best known on Instagram, to take portraits of each of the 46 women. Dörr photographed every woman with her iPhone, including the cover images.
See the covers: https://we.tl/FAJLkcrhoN
Nancy Gibbs, Editor-in-Chief of TIME, writes, “Our goal with this extraordinary project…is for every woman and girl to find someone who moves them, to find someone whose presence in the highest reaches of success says to them that it is safe to climb, come on up, the view is spectacular. They were candid about their challenges, aware of their responsibilities, eager to tell the stories that will surprise and inspire. We hope everyone, at every life stage, will encounter an insight here that will open a door to new ambitions.”
#SheIsTheFirst – TIME is asking readers to join the conversation on social media and to share stories about groundbreaking women in their lives who have been a “first” using the hashtag #SheIsTheFirst.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM FIRSTS:
FIRSTS includes several prominent U.S. political and government figures including Madeleine Albright, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Kellyanne Conway, Nikki Haley, Loretta Lynch, Nancy Pelosi and Janet Yellen.
From the entertainment industry, the project includes: Ellen DeGeneres, Ava DuVernay, Selena Gomez, Rita Moreno, Issa Rae and Oprah Winfrey.
Many of the women featured in FIRSTS broke barriers in sports including Serena Williams, Mo’ne Davis, Gabby Douglas, Danica Patrick, Kathryn Smith and more, while others are responsible for groundbreaking achievements in science including Patricia Bath, Elizabeth Blackburn, Eileen Collins, Sylvia Earle, Kathryn Sullivan and others.
Mo’ne Davis, the first girl to pitch a shutout and win a game in the Little League World Series, is the youngest person featured in the project at age 16. The oldest woman featured is Barbara Walters, the first woman to co-anchor a network evening news program, who is 87.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM FIRSTS INTERVIEWS
Madeleine Albright: “I am now so glad that it is a given that women can run for office…. What is wonderful is to have a lot of sisters and that we’re in this together.” http://ti.me/2eNkPAc
Hillary Rodham Clinton: “Sexism still exerts a pull on our lives and our choices. It is a very subtle but clear challenge that has to be acknowledged and confronted. So we have to be doing all we can to open the aperture of understanding and acceptance. My gender is my gender. My voice is my voice.” http://ti.me/2xQV3jf
Kellyanne Conway: “In explaining how I feel about one thing that Donald Trump said or did to my daughters, I would be remiss in not revealing the full conversation, which is also why mommy, who’s a woman, did not support the first female presidential candidate of a major party. I would tell them that I respect very much that Secretary Clinton was running for president, and it showed that in this country anybody can do anything if they set their mind to it. At the same time, I tried to explain to them that you can be excited for someone with whom you disagree and share in that moment in history as a proud American.” http://ti.me/2gNug3d
Ellen DeGeneres: “Leading up to coming out, I wasn’t trying to be political. I wasn’t trying to be an activist. When I did…it was the greatest thing that happened because it sent me on a different trajectory and here I am now…. I’m not ashamed of anything.” http://ti.me/2waROB7
Ava DuVernay: “I think there have been cracks made in the glass ceiling by women who can get close enough to hit it with the weapon of their presence. But I’m mostly bolstered by folks who create their own ceilings.” http://ti.me/2xRmJV9
Melinda Gates: “I wouldn’t say that the world sees women’s issues as ‘soft’ issues anymore. If I’m at the U.N., there are many Prime Ministers speaking about girls’ education these days, because they want their whole society to work. If girls participate in economic opportunities, it’ll change their countries.” http://ti.me/2eIQPC5
Nikki Haley: “I don’t think you should ever be so partisan to say we only want this kind of woman or that kind of woman. We need all women involved.” http://ti.me/2wbbSTW
Mae Jemison: “Being first gives you a responsibility— you have a public platform, and you must choose how to use it. I use mine to help folks become more comfortable with the idea that science is integral to our world.” http://ti.me/2eNGTuy
Rachel Maddow: “A lot of what happens on cable news is, people debate about the news in pairs and in groups. I get the same sexist condescension that all women face in every environment. I don’t think I get more of it than anybody else. But what happens on the air happens out in the open.” http://ti.me/2j65qwd
Sheryl Sandberg: “I came into the workforce in 1991. I looked beside me: equal men and women. The women were just as smart, sometimes smarter (no offense, gentlemen). I looked above me, and it was men. I figured, “O.K., that’s historical discrimination. My generation will change it.” But as the years went on, there were fewer and fewer women in the meetings I was in.” http://ti.me/2wKr9gp
Serena Williams: “I think the biggest criticism that I have received, along with my female peers, is when someone says that we don’t deserve as much prize money as our male counterparts…. I see these young women, including myself, who are working so hard and training for hours and hours every day just to have the opportunity to go out on the court and play their best. There shouldn’t be any double standard.” http://ti.me/2eN2qn9
Oprah Winfrey: “I think there are a lot of us of my generation who swallowed a lot. I always knew that there would come a time when I would be in a position where I wouldn’t have to swallow it.” http://ti.me/2waZ7sq
Sept. 19, Time Inc. Books will publish a hardcover collection of the portraits and interviews. Pre-orders are available now at the TIME Shop: http://ti.me/2ixs1S3
TIME’s FIRSTS project is presented by Bai.
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THE 46 WOMEN FEATURED IN TIME’S FIRSTS:
Madeleine Albright, first woman to become U.S. Secretary of State
Mary Barra, first woman CEO of a major car company
Patricia Bath, first person to invent and demonstrate laserphaco cataract surgery
Elizabeth Blackburn, first woman to be president of the Salk Institute
Ursula Burns, first black woman to run a Fortune 500 company
Candis Cayne, first transgender woman with a major role on prime-time TV
Hillary Rodham Clinton, first woman to win a major party’s nomination for President of the United States
Eileen Collins, first woman to command a space shuttle
Kellyanne Conway, first woman to run a winning presidential campaign
Mo’ne Davis, first girl to pitch a shutout and win a game in a Little League World Series
Ellen DeGeneres, first person to star as an openly gay character on prime-time TV
Gabby Douglas, first American gymnast to win solo and team all-around gold medals at one Olympics
Rita Dove, first black U.S. poet laureate
Ann Dunwoody, first woman to rise to four-star general in the U.S. military
Ava DuVernay, first black woman to direct a film nominated for a Best Picture Oscar
Sylvia Earle, first woman to become chief scientist of the U.S. National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration
Aretha Franklin, first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Melinda Gates, first woman to give away more than $40 billion
Selena Gomez, first person to reach 100 million followers on Instagram
Nikki Haley, first Indian-American woman to be elected governor
Carla Hayden, first woman and first African-American to be Librarian of Congress
Mazie Hirono, first Asian-American woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate
Mae Jemison, first woman of color in space
Maya Lin, first woman to design a memorial on the National Mall
Loretta Lynch, first black woman to become U.S. Attorney General
Rachel Maddow, first openly gay anchor to host a prime-time news program
Rita Moreno, first Latina to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony
Jennifer Yuh Nelson, first woman to solo-direct a major Hollywood animated feature
Ilhan Omar, first Somali-American Muslim woman to become a legislator
Danica Patrick, first woman to lead in the Indy 500 and the Daytona 500
Nancy Pelosi, first woman to become Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
Michelle Phan, first woman to build a $500 million company from a web series
Issa Rae, first black woman to create and star in a premium cable series
Shonda Rhimes, first woman to create three hit show with more than 100 episodes each
Lori Robinson, first woman to lead a top-tier U.S. Combat Command, including NORAD
Sheryl Sandberg, first woman to become a social-media billionaire
Katharine Jefferts Schori, first woman to be elected presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church
Cindy Sherman, first woman to break $1 million in a photography sale
Kathryn Smith, first woman to become a full-time coach in the NFL
Kathryn Sullivan, first American woman to walk in space
Barbara Walters, first woman to co-anchor a network evening news program
Alice Waters, first woman to win the James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef
Geisha Williams, first Latina CEO of a Fortune 500 company
Serena Williams, first tennis player to win 23 Grand Slam singles titles in the open era
Oprah Winfrey, first woman to own and produce her own talk show
Janet Yellen, first woman to chair the Federal Reserve
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The Sept. 18, 2017 double issue of TIME goes on sale Friday, Sept. 8.
