Women in History Quiz

1. Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. In which fields did she win?

1. Chemistry only
2. Medicine and Chemistry
3. Physics (1903) and Chemistry (1911)
4. Physics only

2. Cleopatra VII was the last pharaoh of Egypt. She was notable for:

1. Being the first female pharaoh
2. Building the Great Pyramid
3. Her military conquests of Rome
4. Her political intelligence, alliances with Caesar and Antony, and being the first of her dynasty to learn Egyptian

3. Rosa Parks is famous for what act of civil rights resistance in 1955?

1. Co-founding the NAACP
2. Joining Martin Luther King in jail
3. Leading the March on Washington
4. Refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus to a white passenger

4. Florence Nightingale is famous for reforming nursing during the Crimean War. What statistical innovation did she also pioneer?

1. She created the polar area diagram to visualise causes of soldier deaths, pioneering statistical data visualisation
2. She developed germ theory
3. She invented antiseptic surgery
4. She invented the stethoscope

5. Emmeline Pankhurst was a leader of which movement?

1. The British suffragette movement campaigning for women's right to vote
2. The British trade union movement
3. The Irish independence movement
4. The US Civil Rights Movement

6. Amelia Earhart was the first woman to do what in aviation?

1. Fly a plane
2. Fly around the world
3. Fly faster than the speed of sound
4. Fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean

7. Malala Yousafzai became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Why was she shot by the Taliban in 2012?

1. For campaigning for girls' education in Pakistan's Swat Valley
2. For converting to Christianity
3. For speaking out against Taliban rule in Afghanistan
4. For working with Western governments

8. Ada Lovelace is considered the world's first computer programmer. What was she working on?

1. An early electrical calculator
2. Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine — a mechanical computer that was never built
3. Early telephone technology
4. The first telegraph system

9. Queen Elizabeth I of England (r.1558-1603) is celebrated for what achievements?

1. Converting England to Catholicism
2. Ending the English Civil War
3. Leading England during its defeat of the Spanish Armada and a cultural 'Golden Age'
4. Marrying Philip II of Spain

10. Harriet Tubman escaped slavery and then helped approximately how many enslaved people to freedom via the Underground Railroad?

1. About 1,000 people
2. About 13 people
3. About 300 people
4. About 70 people

11. Rosalind Franklin's X-ray crystallography work was crucial to the discovery of what?

1. The double-helix structure of DNA
2. The existence of viruses
3. The structure of penicillin
4. The structure of proteins

12. Indira Gandhi was notable for being:

1. India's first and only female prime minister, who served twice (1966-77 and 1980-84)
2. India's first female president
3. The daughter of Mahatma Gandhi
4. The founder of the Indian National Congress

13. The suffragette Emily Wilding Davison died in 1913 doing what?

1. Being force-fed during a hunger strike in prison
2. Chaining herself to the gates of Buckingham Palace
3. Setting fire to a post office
4. Stepping in front of the King's horse at the Epsom Derby

14. Catherine the Great (r.1762-96) expanded which empire?

1. The Austro-Hungarian Empire
2. The Ottoman Empire
3. The Prussian Empire
4. The Russian Empire

15. Sojourner Truth gave her famous 'Ain't I a Woman?' speech at a women's rights convention in which year?

1. 1829
2. 1851
3. 1865
4. 1876

16. Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space in which year?

1. 1957
2. 1961
3. 1963
4. 1969

17. Mary Wollstonecraft's 1792 book 'A Vindication of the Rights of Woman' argued for what?

1. An end to marriage as an institution
2. Women's right to own property
3. Women's right to vote only
4. Women's rights to education equal to men's, and women's rational capacity equal to men's

18. Eleanor Roosevelt was instrumental in drafting which foundational document?

1. NATO's founding charter
2. The Geneva Convention
3. The UN Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
4. The US Constitution

19. Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. What was she known for at the time?

1. Her humanitarian work in refugee camps
2. Her peaceful leadership of Myanmar's pro-democracy movement while under house arrest
3. Her role in ending the Vietnam War
4. Her role in Myanmar's military government

20. Who was the first woman elected as a head of government (prime minister) in the world?

1. Golda Meir of Israel (1969)
2. Indira Gandhi of India (1966)
3. Margaret Thatcher of the UK (1979)
4. Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Ceylon/Sri Lanka (1960)