100 Fun Facts About Womens History

In what year was the 19th Amendment, giving American women the vote, ratified?

Congress passed the 19th Amendment in June 1919; it needed 36 state ratifications and finally took effect on August 18, 1920.

Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize?

Marie Curie, a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist, was the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize, sharing the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903.

Who was the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom?

Margaret Thatcher served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990, becoming the first woman to hold the position.

Which American poet and author wrote the acclaimed autobiography 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'?

'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings' is a 1969 autobiography by American writer and poet Maya Angelou, detailing her early years and experiences.

Who co-founded Hull House in Chicago in 1889, one of America's first settlement houses?

Jane Addams co-founded Hull House with Ellen Gates Starr in 1889 to serve Chicago's immigrant poor; she later shared the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize.

Who was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon with a numbered entry?

Kathrine Switzer ran the 1967 Boston Marathon as registered entrant number 261; official Jock Semple tried to pull her off the course, but she finished.

Which American aviation pioneer was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean?

Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1932, a significant milestone in aviation history.

In what year did Rosa Parks refuse to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery, Alabama bus, sparking a bus boycott?

Rosa Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955 for refusing to vacate her seat, and the arrest ignited the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Which author wrote 'Frankenstein', often considered one of the earliest works of science fiction?

Mary Shelley wrote the Gothic novel 'Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus' in 1818, at the age of 20, which is widely recognized as a foundational work of science fiction.

Who was the last pharaoh of Egypt, famous for her ties to Julius Caesar and Mark Antony?

Cleopatra VII was the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, renowned for her political acumen and her alliances with Roman leaders Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.

Who is considered the first computer programmer for her work on Babbage's Analytical Engine?

Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron's only legitimate child, wrote seven notes on Babbage's Analytical Engine; Note G's algorithm for computing Bernoulli numbers is often called the first published computer program.

Who in 1988 became the first woman elected to head the government of a Muslim-majority country?

Benazir Bhutto was sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan in 1988, the first woman elected to lead a democratic government in a Muslim-majority country.

Which Mexican painter is known for self-portraits steeped in Mexico's nature and artifacts?

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) painted dozens of self-portraits, such as 'Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird' (1940), filled with Mexican plants, animals and folk artifacts.

Which American nurse founded the American Red Cross in 1881, after her Civil War work?

Clara Barton learned of the Geneva-based Red Cross, founded in 1863, while in Europe, and launched the American branch on May 21, 1881.

Who was the first American woman in space?

Sally Ride flew on Challenger in 1983, twenty years after the Soviet Union had put the first woman into orbit.

Which author won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel 'The Color Purple'?

Alice Walker's epistolary novel 'The Color Purple' won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making her the first African American woman to receive the award in that category.

Who in 1849 became the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States, graduating from Geneva Medical College?

Elizabeth Blackwell received her MD on 23 January 1849, the first woman to earn a medical degree from an American medical school.

Who was the first woman to serve as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives?

Nancy Pelosi made history in 2007 when she was elected the first woman to serve as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Which Nobel laureate survived a 2012 Taliban shooting after campaigning for girls' education?

Malala Yousafzai became an international symbol for girls' education after surviving an assassination attempt by the Taliban in 2012 and later became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 2014.

Which 'Queen of Soul' sang 'Respect' and '(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman'?

Aretha Franklin, often referred to as the 'Queen of Soul,' is celebrated for her powerful vocal performances and iconic songs such as 'Respect' and '(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.'

Which scientist's King's College London lab produced Photo 51, the X-ray image key to the DNA double helix?

Rosalind Franklin's King's College London lab produced Photo 51 in May 1952; her student Raymond Gosling took the image, which Maurice Wilkins showed James Watson without her permission.

Which NASA mathematician did John Glenn insist re-check the computer's numbers before his 1962 flight?

Katherine Johnson hand-checked the orbital calculations for John Glenn's Friendship 7 flight in February 1962; she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama in 2015.

Which Hollywood star co-invented a frequency-hopping torpedo guidance system with George Antheil in WWII?

Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil patented their frequency-hopping system in 1942; the idea underlies spread-spectrum communications, and both were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.

Which US Navy rear admiral devised machine-independent programming languages, leading to COBOL?

Grace Hopper, a US Navy rear admiral, wrote the A-0 compiler in 1952 and the English-like FLOW-MATIC language, the direct model for COBOL in 1959.

Who in 1975 became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest?

Junko Tabei of Japan reached the summit on 16 May 1975, twelve days after surviving an avalanche at Camp II; in 1992 she became the first woman to complete the Seven Summits.

Around 1471 BC, the female pharaoh Hatshepsut sent a celebrated trading expedition to which land?

Hatshepsut's expedition to Punt, recorded in reliefs at Deir el-Bahari, brought back living myrrh trees that were planted in front of her mortuary temple.

Elizabeth I was the only surviving child of Henry VIII and which of his wives?

Anne Boleyn's daughter reigned from 1558 to 1603 as the last and longest-reigning monarch of the House of Tudor.

Catherine the Great was born Princess Sophie in Stettin, then part of which kingdom?

Catherine was born in 1729 in Stettin, Pomerania, then in the Kingdom of Prussia; the city is today Polish Szczecin. She ruled Russia from 1762 to 1796.

Wu Zetian, the only woman in Chinese history to hold the title huangdi, proclaimed which dynasty in 690?

Wu Zetian proclaimed the Zhou dynasty in 690, interrupting the Tang; it ended in 705 when she was deposed and the Tang restored.

Queen Victoria's nine children married into royal houses across the continent, earning her which nickname?

Her 63-year reign was the longest of any British monarch until Elizabeth II passed it in September 2015.

What was the first name of the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha cousin Queen Victoria married in 1840?

Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha on 10 February 1840; the marriage produced nine children, and she wore mourning black for the rest of her life after his death in 1861.

Sojourner Truth gave her 'Ain't I a Woman?' speech in 1851 at a convention in which Ohio city?

Sojourner Truth spoke at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in Akron on 29 May 1851; the 'Ain't I a Woman?' title was attached years later through Frances Gage's 1863 account.

Boudica, who led a failed uprising against Roman rule in Britain around AD 60, was queen of which tribe?

Boudica was queen of the Iceni of modern Norfolk; after Roman officials flogged her and assaulted her daughters, she led the tribe in revolt around AD 60, sacking Camulodunum, Londinium and Verulamium.

In 1972 Ruth Bader Ginsburg co-founded the Women's Rights Project at which organization?

Ruth Bader Ginsburg co-founded the ACLU's Women's Rights Project in 1972 and went on to argue six gender-discrimination cases before the Supreme Court, winning five.

Which president nominated Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme Court in 1993?

Bill Clinton nominated Ruth Bader Ginsburg in June 1993 to succeed retiring justice Byron White; the Senate confirmed her 96-3 on 3 August 1993.

Which president nominated Sandra Day O'Connor to the Supreme Court in 1981?

Ronald Reagan nominated Sandra Day O'Connor in July 1981, keeping a campaign pledge to name a woman to the Court; the Senate confirmed her 99-0 and she served until January 2006.

In the 1973 "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match, Billie Jean King defeated which former champion?

Bobby Riggs was 55 to King's 29 when they met in the Houston Astrodome before a huge television audience, a landmark moment for women's sport.

At which Games did Wilma Rudolph become the first American woman to win three golds at a single Olympics?

Wilma Rudolph won the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay at the 1960 Rome Olympics after overcoming childhood polio, the first American woman to take three golds at one Games.

In which state did Georgia O'Keeffe spend her last four decades painting?

Georgia O'Keeffe moved permanently to New Mexico in 1949, three years after the death of her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz, and painted at Abiquiú and Ghost Ranch until her death in 1986.

Which Austen novel opens 'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune...'?

'Pride and Prejudice' opens with that line; Austen published it in January 1813 anonymously, credited only as 'the author of Sense and Sensibility'.

Toni Morrison won the 1988 Pulitzer for which novel, loosely based on the life of Margaret Garner?

'Beloved' (1987), inspired by the story of Margaret Garner, won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; Morrison received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993.

Bessie Coleman, the first Black woman pilot, had to travel to which country in 1921 for her license?

Bessie Coleman earned her license in France on 15 June 1921 from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale after no American school would train her; she had studied French at a Berlitz school in Chicago.

Madam C. J. Walker, America's first self-made female millionaire per Guinness, built her fortune selling what?

Madam C. J. Walker, born Sarah Breedlove, built her fortune on hair care products for Black women, beginning with 'Madam Walker's Wonderful Hair Grower' in 1905.

Who in 1905 became the first woman awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?

Bertha von Suttner, author of the 1889 anti-war novel 'Lay Down Your Arms!', received the 1905 Nobel Peace Prize, the first woman so honoured.

In 1876 Bertha von Suttner briefly worked in Paris as secretary to which man?

Alfred Nobel employed Bertha von Suttner in Paris for about a week in 1876; they corresponded until his death in 1896, and she is credited with encouraging him to endow a peace prize.

Before becoming vice president in 2021, Kamala Harris served as a senator from which state?

Kamala Harris represented California in the US Senate from 2017 to 2021, after serving as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general.

Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the world's first elected woman prime minister, led which country?

Sirimavo Bandaranaike became prime minister of Ceylon, today Sri Lanka, in July 1960, and held the office three times, the last from 1994 to 2000.

Golda Meir, Israel's first female prime minister, grew up in which American city?

Golda Meir's family emigrated from Kyiv to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1906; she embraced Labor Zionism there before leaving for Palestine in 1921.

Which physicist first explained nuclear fission with Otto Frisch, yet missed the 1944 Nobel Prize?

Lise Meitner and her nephew Otto Frisch published the first theoretical explanation of nuclear fission in February 1939; the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to Otto Hahn alone.

Mae Jemison became the first African-American woman in space in 1992 aboard which Space Shuttle?

Mae Jemison flew as a mission specialist on Endeavour's STS-47 mission, 12-20 September 1992, spending nearly eight days in orbit.

In which month is Women's History Month celebrated in the United States?

It lines up with International Women's Day on 8 March; Canada instead marks it in October.

Where was the week-long 1978 celebration held that grew into America's Women's History Month?

A local school district built the week around 8 March; historians at a Sarah Lawrence conference the next year took the idea national.

Which US president proclaimed the first National Women's History Week in 1980?

Jimmy Carter issued the first presidential proclamation of National Women's History Week on 28 February 1980, for the week of 8 March.

In which year did Congress first designate the whole of March as Women's History Month?

Congress passed Public Law 100-9 in March 1987, designating the whole month as Women's History Month; fourteen states had already declared a month by 1986.

Which senator and congresswoman co-sponsored the first Women's History Week resolution in 1981?

Senator Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, and Representative Barbara Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat, co-sponsored the 1981 joint resolution for National Women's History Week, making it bipartisan from the start.

Which Santa Rosa, California group led the lobbying that made March a commemorative month?

The National Women's History Alliance of Santa Rosa, founded in 1980 as the National Women's History Project, led the lobbying for the month and took its Alliance name in 2018.

Which 'godmother of women's history' founded the first master's programme in the field?

Gerda Lerner, born in Vienna in 1920, founded the first master's programme in women's history at Sarah Lawrence College in 1972, after teaching a pioneering college course in the field in 1963.

Why does Canada hold Women's History Month in October rather than March?

On 18 October 1929 the Judicial Committee ruled that women were 'persons' eligible to sit in the Senate.

Who were the 'Famous Five' behind Canada's Persons Case?

Henrietta Edwards, Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, Emily Murphy and Irene Parlby took the fight all the way to London.

The earliest 'Woman's Day' was organised in New York City in 1909 by which group?

The Socialist Party of America held the first Woman's Day in New York on 28 February 1909 at Theresa Malkiel's suggestion; in 1910 Clara Zetkin proposed an international day in Copenhagen.

A textile workers' demonstration on 8 March 1917 in which city touched off the February Revolution?

Women textile workers in Petrograd marched for 'Bread and Peace' on 8 March 1917 (23 February Old Style); the strikes spread across the city and Nicholas II abdicated on 15 March.

In which year did the United Nations begin celebrating International Women's Day?

It had proclaimed 1975 International Women's Year; in 1977 it invited every member state to pick a day for women's rights.

Where was the first women's rights convention held in July 1848?

The Seneca Falls Convention met on 19-20 July 1848 in the Wesleyan Chapel at Seneca Falls, New York, organised by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Quaker women around Lucretia Mott's visit; it produced the Declaration of Sentiments.

For what was Susan B. Anthony arrested in Rochester in 1872?

Susan B. Anthony was arrested for voting illegally in the 1872 presidential election in Rochester; tried in 1873, she was fined $100 and never paid. Her portrait went on the 1979 dollar coin.

Roughly how many rescue missions did Harriet Tubman make on the Underground Railroad?

Harriet Tubman made about 13 trips back to Maryland, freeing roughly 70 people; she said she 'never lost a passenger' and in 1863 guided the Combahee Ferry raid that liberated more than 700.

Who in 1968 became the first Black woman elected to the US Congress?

Shirley Chisholm won New York's 12th district in 1968, the first Black woman elected to Congress; in 1972 she became the first woman to seek the Democratic presidential nomination.

Who was the first woman in space, flying solo aboard Vostok 6 in 1963?

Valentina Tereshkova, a former textile worker and amateur skydiver, orbited Earth 48 times aboard Vostok 6 on 16-19 June 1963, nearly three days alone in orbit.

Which journalist's 1890s lynching investigations earned a posthumous Pulitzer citation in 2020?

Ida B. Wells documented lynchings in pamphlets such as 'Southern Horrors' (1892); the Pulitzer board awarded her a special citation in 2020, and she was among the founders of the NAACP in 1909.

Which country was the first self-governing nation to grant women the right to vote in national elections?

New Zealand enacted the Electoral Act on September 19, 1893, making it the first self-governing country in the world to grant all women the right to vote in parliamentary elections.

Who in 2014 became the first woman to win the Fields Medal in mathematics?

Maryam Mirzakhani, an Iranian-born Stanford professor, received the Fields Medal in 2014 for work on the geometry of Riemann surfaces; she died of cancer in 2017 aged 40.

Which author wrote the influential feminist work 'A Room of One's Own'?

'A Room of One's Own' is an extended essay by English writer Virginia Woolf, first published in 1929. The work explores themes of women and fiction, asserting that a woman must have money and a room of her own to write.

In which modern Olympic Games did women first officially compete?

Women first officially competed in the modern Olympic Games at the 1900 Paris Games. Approximately 22 women participated in sports like tennis, golf, croquet, sailing, and equestrianism.

Who founded the American Birth Control League in 1921, forerunner of Planned Parenthood?

Margaret Sanger founded the American Birth Control League in 1921; the organisation became the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in 1942.

Which contralto gave a 1939 Lincoln Memorial concert after the DAR barred her from Constitution Hall?

Marian Anderson sang to about 75,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial on 9 April 1939 after the Daughters of the American Revolution refused her Constitution Hall; Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the DAR in protest.

Which campaigner founded the Women's Social and Political Union in 1903 under the motto 'deeds, not words'?

Emmeline Pankhurst founded the Women's Social and Political Union in Manchester in October 1903; she had earlier co-founded the Women's Franchise League in 1889 with her husband Richard.

Which 1792 Wollstonecraft work argued women seem inferior only for lack of education?

'A Vindication of the Rights of Woman' (1792) argued that women appear inferior only because they are denied education; Wollstonecraft also wrote novels, a travel narrative and a children's book.

Which French playwright wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen?

Olympe de Gouges, born Marie Gouze, published the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen in 1791; she was guillotined in November 1793.

Who was the first woman to serve in a US presidential cabinet, as Secretary of Labor from 1933?

Frances Perkins served as Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, the first woman in a US cabinet; she championed Social Security and the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Journalist Nellie Bly circled the globe in 72 days, emulating which fictional character?

Nellie Bly, born Elizabeth Jane Cochran, set out in 1889 to beat Phileas Fogg's fictional 80-day circuit from 'Around the World in Eighty Days' and finished in 72 days, 6 hours.

Jeannette Rankin, the first woman in US federal office, represented which state from 1916?

Jeannette Rankin was elected to the House from Montana in November 1916, before most American women could vote; a lifelong pacifist, she voted against entering both world wars.

Who in 1966 became India's first female prime minister?

Indira Gandhi won the Congress party's leadership vote against Morarji Desai after Lal Bahadur Shastri's sudden death, and went on to serve two separate stints as prime minister.

Which 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe novel depicted the brutality of American slavery?

Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century in the United States, galvanising anti-slavery feeling in the North in the decade before the Civil War.

Rachel Carson's 1962 book that helped launch the environmental movement was titled what?

'Silent Spring' (1962) attacked the misuse of pesticides and helped bring about the 1972 US ban on DDT; Carson, a marine biologist, was already a bestselling author for her sea trilogy.

Which queen of Castile, alongside Ferdinand of Aragon, financed Columbus's 1492 voyage?

Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon financed Columbus's voyage in 1492, the year their forces took Granada, completing the Reconquista, and the Alhambra Decree expelled Spain's Jews.

Liliʻuokalani, deposed in an 1893 coup, was the last sovereign monarch of which kingdom?

Liliʻuokalani reigned over the Kingdom of Hawaii from 1891 until the 1893 overthrow led by American businessmen; its only queen regnant, she composed 'Aloha ʻOe'.

In 1926 Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim across which body of water?

Gertrude Ederle swam the English Channel from Cap Gris-Nez to Kingsdown on 6 August 1926 in about fourteen and a half hours, nearly two hours faster than the men's record; New York gave her a ticker-tape parade.

Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the UN commission that drafted which 1948 document?

Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the UN Commission on Human Rights that drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948.

Edith Wharton was the first woman to win the Fiction Pulitzer, in 1921, for which novel?

'The Age of Innocence', set in 1870s New York high society, won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel; Martin Scorsese filmed it in 1993 with Daniel Day-Lewis and Michelle Pfeiffer.

Betty Friedan co-founded and became the first president of which group in 1966?

Betty Friedan co-founded the National Organization for Women in June 1966 and served as its first president until 1970; her 1963 book 'The Feminine Mystique' had helped spark second-wave feminism.

Which French existentialist wrote the 1949 feminist landmark 'The Second Sex'?

Simone de Beauvoir published 'The Second Sex' in 1949; her lifelong open partnership with Jean-Paul Sartre was as famous as her writing, and the two share a grave in Montparnasse Cemetery.

Florence Nightingale became 'The Lady with the Lamp' nursing the wounded of which war?

Florence Nightingale ran the barracks hospital at Scutari during the Crimean War (1853-56), across the Bosporus from Constantinople, and later pioneered statistical diagrams to argue for hospital reform.

Six-year-old Ruby Bridges desegregated William Frantz Elementary in 1960 in which city?

Ruby Bridges integrated William Frantz Elementary in New Orleans on 14 November 1960; federal marshals escorted her past protesters daily, a scene Norman Rockwell painted in 1964 as 'The Problem We All Live With'.

Dorothy Hodgkin mapped the structure of which compound, earning the 1964 chemistry prize?

Dorothy Hodgkin determined the structure of vitamin B12 (cobalamin) by X-ray crystallography in 1955-56, the work cited for her 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry; she had confirmed penicillin's structure in 1945 and solved insulin in 1969.

Which astronomical object did doctoral student Jocelyn Bell Burnell discover in 1967?

Jocelyn Bell Burnell spotted the first pulsar, a rapidly rotating neutron star, in Cambridge radio-telescope data in 1967; her supervisor Antony Hewish shared the 1974 physics Nobel while she was left out.

Marie Tharp's maps of the ocean floor revealed which feature, bolstering plate tectonics?

Marie Tharp, working with Bruce Heezen from echo-sounder data, mapped the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and in 1952 spotted a rift valley running down its centre, which Heezen at first dismissed as 'girl talk'.

In which city was Joan of Arc put on trial for heresy in 1431?

Captured by Burgundians and sold to the English, Joan was tried at Rouen, the English headquarters in Normandy, and burned at the stake there on 30 May 1431, aged about nineteen.

Jane Goodall began studying chimpanzees in 1960 at Gombe Stream, in which modern country?

Gombe Stream lies in Tanzania on Lake Tanganyika; Louis Leakey sent Jane Goodall there in July 1960, where her sightings of chimps stripping twigs to fish for termites overturned the idea that only humans make tools.

Chien-Shiung Wu's 1956 experiment showed that which symmetry is violated in beta decay?

Chien-Shiung Wu's cobalt-60 experiment at the National Bureau of Standards showed that parity is violated in beta decay; Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang, who proposed the test, won the 1957 physics Nobel while she was passed over.

Which medieval writer published 'The Book of the City of Ladies' in 1405?

Christine de Pizan, born in Venice and raised at the Paris court, wrote 'The Book of the City of Ladies' in 1405; widowed at 25, she supported her children by her pen, one of Europe's first professional women authors.

Who in 1980 became the world's first woman directly elected as a head of state?

Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, a former theatre director, won Iceland's presidential election in June 1980 and served four terms until 1996, the first woman anywhere directly elected as a national head of state.