‘Blazing the Trail’: What 4 Women Learned From Being the First Women in Their Fields (Video)

Sherry Lansing, Maria Contreras-Sweet, Ibtihaj Muhammad and Christine Simmons compared notes Friday on achieving a few female firsts. Lansing was the first woman to head a Hollywood movie studio — 20th Century Fox — and in 2005, she became the first female movie studio head to place hand and foot prints at the Chinese Theater. Contreras-Sweet was the first Latina to lead the U.S. Small Business Administration and founded the first Latino-formed commercial bank in California. Muhammad became the first Muslim American woman to wear a hijab while competing at the Olympics for team U.S.A. in fencing. And Simmons became the first African-American team president in Los Angeles as president and COO of the Los Angeles Sparks.