First women in Antarctica

There are two contenders for the title of first woman to reach Antarctica depending on the criteria. Caroline Mikkelsen (Denmark) disembarked from the whaling resupply ship M/S Thorshavn on to the Tryne Islands, a few kilometres from the Antarctic mainland, on 20 February 1935. Two years later, on 30 January 1937, four Norwegian women – Ingrid Christensen, her daughter Augusta Sofie Christensen, Ingebjørg Lillemor Rachlew and Solveig Widerøe – also sailing on the M/S Thorshavn, became the first women to step foot on the continent's mainland at Scullin Monolith in Mac. Robertson Land.

Caroline Mikkelsen has a 235-m (770-ft) coastal mountain named after her within Prydz Bay in Princess Elizabeth Land. The feature was so-named by her husband Captain Klarius Mikkelsen during their 1934–35 exploratory voyage on board M/S Thorshavn; their expedition was funded by Norwegian shipping and whaling businessman Lars Christensen (the husband of Ingrid and father of Augusta Sofie). Caroline was part of a group of nine that rowed to land to construct a cairn topped with the Norwegian flag. For many decades, it was believed they may have landed in the Vestfold Hills region on the coast of Antarctica's Princess Elizabeth Land but subsequent evidence points to their landing point, in fact, being in the Tryne archipelago.

Having sailed to the region in 1931, Ingrid Christensen and her companion Mathilde Wegger (Norway) are thought to be the first women to have observed the Antarctic continent on 5 February 1931, during which Bjerkö Head on MacKenzie Bay, Mac. Robertson Land, was named after whaler Reidar Bjerkø. Christensen made two further trips to Antarctica in 1933–34 but was unable to land on either occasion. It was only on her fourth voyage in 1937, accompanied by her daughter and two friends (Rachlew and Widerøe), that a landing was accomplished. A stepped feature in the seabed of Prydz Bay, dubbed the "Four Ladies Bank", was named in their honour. On the same expedition, which involved a number of aerial surveys, Ingrid Christensen also became the first woman to fly over Antarctica.

Two other polar pioneers worthy of mention is Edith Ann Maslin, aka Jackie Ronne, and Jennie Darlington (both USA). They were the first women to overwinter in Antarctica as part of a 1946–48 expedition stationed on Stonington Island that was led by her husband, Finn Ronne. Jackie Ronne in particular, as the expeditioner's chronicler and an active part of the research team collecting scientific data across hundreds of thousands of square kilometres, has been credited as the "first female Antarctic explorer".