What is generally considered as the earliest organised women's meet of modern times took place at Vassar College, USA, on 9 November 1895. In addition to the USA, other English speaking countries such as Britain, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa held women's meets since the first decade of the 20th Century, However, the real boost came from France where a fervent "suffragette" names Alice Milliat founded the "Fédération Féminine Sportive de France" in 1917. The tenacious French pioneer organized the first multi-national women's meet held at the Principauté de Monaco from 24-31 March 1921. This was essentially an Anglo-French festival that included eleven events on the programme.
Later in 1921, Madame Milliat and her associates founded the "Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale" (FSFI). Six countries were represented: France, Britain, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Spain, and USA and the inaugural Women's World Games where held in Paris on 20 August 1922. The 100m hurdles was won by Camille Sabie (USA) in 14 2/5. In 1926 the International Olympic Committee finally voted (12 to 5) to include women's events in the Olympics. The occasion for this historic event was the 1928 Games in Amsterdam where the women's programme featured only 5 events: 100m and 800m, High jump, discus and 4x100m relay.
In 1936 when the FSFI and the IAAF merged to ensure that men's and women's athletics would at last have one an the same governing body. The early days of women's athletics were not a bed of roses, though international competitions held between the World Wars certainly provided a notable impetus for the development of women's athletics. One serious problem however was gender identity. The lack of sex tests made it possible for people posing as women to chalk up sensational records. Incidentally the IAAF did not introduced sex testing until 1966.
The only hurdle race in use as of 1940 was the 80m, with 8 hurdles 2ft. 6in. (76.2cm) high. Outstanding among early champions was Ruth Engelhard of Germany, who won the 1934 world title in 11.6. This time was equaled in the semi-final of the Berlin Olympics in 1936 by Trebisonda Valla of Italy, who went on the win the final the next day. This was a highly competitive race with the first four sharing the same time, 11.7. The "Zielzeitkamera", used as backup evidence to verify placing gave the following times: 1. Valla 11.748, 2. Anni Steuer (Germany) 11.809, 3. Elizabeth Taylor (Canada) 11.811, 4. Claudia Testoni (Italy) 11.818. Testoni made further progress in subsequent years. In 1938 she won the European title and the following year she lowered the world record to 11.3, a time she achieved on two occasions (Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Dresden).
Perhaps Australia's most famous hurdler was Shirley Strickland de la Hunty (born at Guildford, Western Australia on 18 July 1925. She collected seven Olympic medals with gold in the 80m hurdles twice (1952 and 1956) and in the sprint relay (1956).
The last world record holder for the 80m hurdles was Vyera Korsakova of USSR with a time of 10.2 at Riga in 1968. She was only 1.64cm tall, a height which did not represent a handicap for such a short race, run over 76cm hurdles. In earlier years USSR had a more distinguished performer in Irina Press (1.68m. / 65kg), the younger of two famous sisters and certainly one of the most versatile talents seen up to that time. She won the 80m hurdles twice in the Olympics (1960 and 1964) and lowered the world record to 10.3 (1965). She retired shortly before the 1966 European Championships in Budapest, officially on account of a knee injury though some Western reporters suspected a connection between her decision and the introduction of sex tests by the IAAF.
In 1969, the 100m hurdles replaced the 80m hurdles with the new event comprised of ten flights of 2 ft. 9 in. (84cm) hurdles. This event obviously presented a test that called for greater athletic ability to clear the higher barriers whilst maintaining the same sort of speed throughout the race. Among established stars of the 80m hurdles who did not suffer the transition unduly was Karin Balzer née Richert of East Germany (1.71m / 64Kg) who at different times held the world record for both the 80m (10.5 in 1964) and 100m hurdles (12.7 in 1970). She was an Olympic champion at the shorter distance in 1964, and eight years later she won a bronze medal at the longer distance.
The first world record for the 100m hurdles time using the automatic electronic timing system was at the Munich Olympics in 1972 when East German born Annelie Ehrhardt (1.66m / 58Kg) posted a time of 12.59s. Another star performer of that period was Grazyna Rabsztyn of Poland (1.72m / 63kg) ran 12.36 in Warsaw in 1980. This performance was remarkable in view of her unexceptional speed of only 11.42 for the 100m sprint.
Two Bulgarians, Yordanka Donkova and Ginka Zagorcheva were dominant figures of the event in the late eighties. Yoranka (1.77m / 67kg) as a junior was good enough to make the Olympic semi-final at Moscow in 1980 but had to wait till 1986 to win her first major title at the European Championships in Stuttgart. She went on the win Olympic Gold at Seoul in 1988. She beat the world record several times with her best effort of 12.21 at Stara Zagora on 20 August 1988 still the current world record.
Dominant figures of the nineties were Lyudmila Engquist and Gail Devers, who between them won most of, if not all, the global (Olympic/World) titles awarded during that period. In 1992 Lyudmila started on a high note with a new personal best of 12.26 which was to remain the fastest time recorded in the 1990's. In 1993, Russian born Enquist (1.74m / 66kg) failed a drug test and was sentenced by the IAAF to a 4-year suspension. Enquist maintained that her vitamin supplement had been spiked by her husband. Later a Russian court lifted this ban and in December 1995 the IAAF reinstated her under a so called "exceptional circumstances" rule. She then went on to win Olympic Gold at the Atlanta Games. Two years later it was revealed that she was suffering from breast cancer and in the spring of 1999 she had her right breast removed. Four months later she stunned the track world when she showed up at an international meet in Stockholm and won her event in 12.68.
This information was taken from the following book compiled by Roberto L Quercetani titled "Athletics: A history of modern track and field athletics (1860-2000) Men and Women".