7 times women made history in 2021

Vice President Harris is the first Black and South Asian-American woman to serve as vice president in American history. Her husband, Doug Emhoff, is also the first-ever second gentleman.

When she was elected to the Senate in 2016, Harris became the second African-American woman and first South Asian-American senator in history. Since she left her role in the Senate to serve as vice president, there are currently no Black women serving as senators.

Two other women have run for vice president on a major party ticket: Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and Sarah Palin in 2008.

Upon taking office, Delaware state senator Sarah McBride became the highest-ranking transgender elected official in the US.

"As I reflect on the journey till today I am reminded of the change that it reflects: that we are a community and a country that has continuously opened our hearts and changed our minds and increasingly judged people on their skills and talents not on their identities," she said at her swearing-in ceremony in Claymont, Delaware.

Haines was nominated to serve as director of national intelligence by President Biden and became his first Cabinet member when she was confirmed by the Senate on Inauguration Day in 2021.

She previously served as deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency and deputy national security advisor during the Obama administration, and was the first woman to hold both of those roles.

President Joe Biden chose Janet Yellen to head the Treasury Department, and she was sworn in by Vice President Harris in January.

Yellen was also the first woman to serve as chair of the Federal Reserve. In addition to being the first woman to serve as treasury secretary, Yellen would also be the first person of any gender to have led the Federal Reserve, the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and the Treasury Department.

Thomas is the first full-time female referee in the NFL's 100-year history. She was also the first woman to referee at an NFL playoff game in 2019, and the first woman to work a major college football game.

"I've always said that if you do something because you love it and not try to prove somebody wrong or get recognition for it, the recognition probably just is going to happen," Thomas told CBS News in 2019.

Zhao won the best director award for "Nomadland," a film starring Frances McDormand about a widow who decides to live out of her van. She is the second woman ever to win a Golden Globe for directing — the first was Barbra Streisand for "Yentl" in 1983 — and the first Asian woman to win.

Also a first: more than one woman was nominated in the best director category at the 2021 awards. Regina King was nominated for the period drama "One Night in Miami" and Emerald Fennell for "Promising Young Woman."

Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a Nigerian-American economist, previously served as Nigeria's finance minister and foreign minister, and was the first woman to hold both of those positions.