Some Maine women traveled elsewhere to make an impact on society. But on September 13, 1920, those in Maine were the first to exercise their vote under the 18th Amendment, since the state held its general elections earlier than other states until 1960. Women have held important leadership roles, recognized by the Maine legislature in 2013.
With the election of 2008, which brought Chellie Pingree to the U.S. House of Representatives, Maine became the first state to have a women as a majority of its congressional delegation. The other members were U.S. Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins.
The following women were residents of Maine when they achieved historic firsts in cultural, government, and political affairs. Women’s influence in the Maine State Legislature has grown substantially since 1820.
| Year | First Maine woman to . . . | Who? |
| 1800 | publish a novel (Madam Wood) | Sayward Barrell Keating Wood |
| 1849 | climb Mount Katahdin | Elizabeth Oakes Smith |
| 1872 | be admitted to practice law in Maine | Clara Hapgood Nash |
| c.1890 | be elected assessor in Maine, Dennistown Plantation | Octavia Moulton Graffte |
| 1901 | receive an honorary degree from Bowdoin College | Sarah Orne Jewett |
| 1904 | first woman in the nation to head an experiment station | Edith M. Patch |
| 1915 | graduate from the University of Maine School of Law | Ada M. Gleszer |
| 1921 | serve as President of the U.S. League of Women Voters | Maud Wood Park |
| 1923 | serve in the Maine State Legislature, the House of Representatives | Dora B. Pinkham |
| 1927 | serve in the Maine Senate (along with Dora Pinkham) | Katherine C. Allen |
| 1929 | serve in the Maine Legislature as a lawyer | Gail Laughlin |
| 1932 | argue a case before the Maine Supreme Court (she won) | Alice Parker |
| 1938 | serve as a national bank president, the Limerick National Bank | Frances Estelle Moulton |
| 1948 | be elected to the U.S. Senate without first having been appointed to complete another’s term | Margaret Chase Smith |
| 1959 | become a member of legislative leadership, as House Minority Leader | Lucia Cormier |
| 1960 | challenge another woman (Margaret Chase Smith) in a U.S. Senate election | Lucia Cormier |
| 1961 | be elected to the resident faculty at the 150 year old Bangor Theological Seminary | Rev. Clarice H. Bowman |
| 1971 | graduate from Bowdoin College | Susan D. Jacobson |
| 1973 | preside in a Maine courtroom, in this case the Maine District Court | Harriet Putnam Henry |
| 1976 | graduate from a four-year maritime college, Maine Maritime Academy | Deborah Doane Dempsey |
| 1976 | be elected Secretary of the Maine Senate | May Ross |
| 1980 | be elected to the French Academy | Marguerite Yourcenar |
| 1981 | serve as President of a University of Maine System campus. | Constance Carlson |
| 1983 | serve on the Maine Supreme Court | Caroline Glassman |
| 1987 | be elected Maine Senate Majority Floor Leader | Nancy Randall Clark |
| 1994 | be nominated, as the Republican candidate, for governor by a major political party | Susan Collins |
| 1997 | serve as Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives | Elizabeth Mitchell |
| 1997 | be elected to a constitutional office, State Treasurer | Dale McCormick |
| 2001 | become Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Court | Leigh I. Saufley |
| 2002 | become President of the Maine Senate | Beverly C. Daggett |
| 2009 | become Maine’s Attorney General | Janet Mills |
| 2019 | become Maine’s Governor | Janet Mills |
| 2019 | become an astronaut and participate in an all-female spacewalk. | Jessica M. Meir |
| 2020 | become Maine Secretary of State | Shenna Bellows |