Caroline Mikkelsen (20 November 1906[1] – 15 September 1998,[2] later married Mandel) was a Danish-Norwegian explorer who on 20 February 1935 was the first woman to set foot on Antarctica,[3] although whether this was on the mainland or an island is a matter of dispute.

[3] She did not publicly speak about her Antarctic voyage until sixty years after her landing in 1995 when she spoke about her journey to the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten having been contacted by Davis Station Leader Diana Patterson.

[1][2] In 1998 and 2002, Australian researchers published historical articles in the Polar Record concluding that the landing party from the Thorshavn—and thus Mikkelsen—landed on the Tryne Islands where a marker at Mikkelsen's Cairn can still be seen today.

No alternative mainland landing site for the Mikkelsen party has been discovered, in spite of years of searching by Davis Station workers.

[15][16] Consequently, Mikkelsen is regarded as the first woman to set foot on Antarctica, and Ingrid Christensen as the first to stand on the Antarctic mainland.