Which original Dragon was the first woman to join BBC's Dragon's Den?

Rachel Elnaugh was the first woman among the original Dragons on BBC's Dragon's Den.

Elnaugh joined the programme when it launched in 2005, appearing alongside Peter Jones, Duncan Bannatyne, Doug Richard and Simon Woodroffe. Her business background came from the retail and gift sector rather than television presenting.

She co-founded Red Letter Days, a company selling experience gifts, with her husband. The business became one of the best-known British experience-gift brands, although it later encountered financial difficulties and was sold. Deborah Meaden subsequently became the more enduring female presence on the panel, which can cause confusion about who was first. Elnaugh's Dragon tenure was brief, but her place in the original line-up makes her the correct answer.