Two years later, in 1924, Florence Fifer Bohrer, daughter of Governor Fifer, was the first woman elected to the Illinois Senate.
Floy Clements of Cook County became the first African-American woman to be elected to the Illinois House in 1958.
Fifty years after the first woman from Illinois was elected to the U.S. House, the first African-American woman was elected to that position. Cardiss Collins became a U.S. Representative in 1973 and served until 1997. In 1979 she became president of the Congressional Black Caucus.
The first woman in a leadership position in the Illinois legislature was Celeste Stiehl who became the first Assistant House Minority Leader in 1975.
Earlene Collins, elected as the first African-American woman to the Illinois Senate in 1977, served until 1999.
In 1985 Adeline Geo-Karis became the first woman to serve as Assistant Majority Leader in the Illinois Senate.
Dawn Clark Netsch was elected as Comptroller in 1990 becoming 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.
In 1994, Carol Mosely-Braun became the first African-American woman in the U.S. Senate.
Also in 1994, Judy Baar Topinka was elected State Treasurer, the office she held until she ran for governor in 2006. In 2010 she became Comptroller. Topinka was the first woman to become the Illinois GOP’s nominee for governor, first woman to serve as state Republican chairman and first woman to win two different statewide offices.
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.
In 1997, Sonia Silva became the first Hispanic woman to be elected to the Illinois House.
Corrine Wood served as the state's first woman Lieutenant Governor beginning in 1999.
In 2003, the first Hispanic woman, Iris Y. Martinez, was elected to the Illinois Senate.
And, in 2003, Lisa Madigan was the first woman to be elected Attorney General in Illinois.
Debbie DeFrancesco Halvorson became the first woman to hold the position of Senate Majority Leader in 2005.
State Senator Christine Radogno became the state's first woman Caucus Leader, Minority Leader of the Illinois Senate in 2009.
Information from the website of the Illinois Conference of Women Legislators.