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This women's history month trivia quiz has 100 free questions with answers and works two ways. The first block is about the observance itself: the Sonoma County school week in 1978, Jimmy Carter's 1980 proclamation, the 1987 act of Congress that made March official, why Canada marks it in October, and how International Women's Day grew out of a 1909 New York socialist rally and a 1917 strike in Petrograd. The rest is women in history from Hatshepsut to Kamala Harris: suffragists and abolitionists, scientists who cracked DNA and wrote the first compilers, athletes who beat polio and Bobby Riggs, authors who won Pulitzers and Nobels, and the first women in space, in Congress and on the Supreme Court. Questions run from easy to expert, so it suits a classroom activity in March, a workplace lunch-and-learn or a themed pub quiz round. Every answer has been checked against a primary source such as Wikipedia, the Nobel Prize archive or NASA records, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what year was the 19th Amendment, giving American women the vote, ratified?
1920
Congress passed the 19th Amendment in June 1919; it needed 36 state ratifications and finally took effect on August 18, 1920.
Q 02Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize?
Marie Curie
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.
Q 03Who was the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom?
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990, becoming the first woman to hold the position.
Q 04Which American poet and author wrote the acclaimed autobiography 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'?
Maya Angelou
'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings' is a 1969 autobiography by American writer and poet Maya Angelou, detailing her early years and experiences.
Q 05Who co-founded Hull House in Chicago in 1889, one of America's first settlement houses?
Jane Addams
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.
Q 06Who was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon with a numbered entry?
Kathrine Switzer
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.
Q 07Which American aviation pioneer was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean?
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1932, a significant milestone in aviation history.
Q 08In what year did Rosa Parks refuse to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery, Alabama bus, sparking a bus boycott?
1955
Rosa Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955 for refusing to vacate her seat, and the arrest ignited the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Q 09Which author wrote 'Frankenstein', often considered one of the earliest works of science fiction?
Mary Shelley
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.
Q 10Who was the last pharaoh of Egypt, famous for her ties to Julius Caesar and Mark Antony?
Cleopatra VII
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.
Q 11Who is considered the first computer programmer for her work on Babbage's Analytical Engine?
Ada Lovelace
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.
Q 12Who in 1988 became the first woman elected to head the government of a Muslim-majority country?
Benazir Bhutto
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.
Q 13Which Mexican painter is known for self-portraits steeped in Mexico's nature and artifacts?
Frida Kahlo
Q 21Which scientist's King's College London lab produced Photo 51, the X-ray image key to the DNA double helix?
Rosalind Franklin
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.
Q 22Which NASA mathematician did John Glenn insist re-check the computer's numbers before his 1962 flight?
Katherine Johnson
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.
Q 23Which Hollywood star co-invented a frequency-hopping torpedo guidance system with George Antheil in WWII?
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.
Q 14Which American nurse founded the American Red Cross in 1881, after her Civil War work?
Clara Barton
Clara Barton learned of the Geneva-based Red Cross, founded in 1863, while in Europe, and launched the American branch on May 21, 1881.
Q 15Who was the first American woman in space?
Sally Ride
Sally Ride flew on Challenger in 1983, twenty years after the Soviet Union had put the first woman into orbit.
Q 16Which author won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel 'The Color Purple'?
Alice Walker
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.
Q 17Who in 1849 became the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States, graduating from Geneva Medical College?
Elizabeth Blackwell
Elizabeth Blackwell received her MD on 23 January 1849, the first woman to earn a medical degree from an American medical school.
Q 18Who was the first woman to serve as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives?
Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi made history in 2007 when she was elected the first woman to serve as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Q 19Which Nobel laureate survived a 2012 Taliban shooting after campaigning for girls' education?
Malala Yousafzai
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.
Q 20Which 'Queen of Soul' sang 'Respect' and '(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman'?
Aretha Franklin
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.'
Hedy Lamarr
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.
Q 24Which US Navy rear admiral devised machine-independent programming languages, leading to COBOL?
Grace Hopper
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.
Q 25Who in 1975 became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest?
Junko Tabei
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.
Q 26Around 1471 BC, the female pharaoh Hatshepsut sent a celebrated trading expedition to which land?
Punt
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.
Q 27Elizabeth I was the only surviving child of Henry VIII and which of his wives?
Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn's daughter reigned from 1558 to 1603 as the last and longest-reigning monarch of the House of Tudor.
Q 28Catherine the Great was born Princess Sophie in Stettin, then part of which kingdom?
Prussia
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.
Q 29Wu Zetian, the only woman in Chinese history to hold the title huangdi, proclaimed which dynasty in 690?
Zhou
Wu Zetian proclaimed the Zhou dynasty in 690, interrupting the Tang; it ended in 705 when she was deposed and the Tang restored.
Q 30Queen Victoria's nine children married into royal houses across the continent, earning her which nickname?
Grandmother of Europe
Her 63-year reign was the longest of any British monarch until Elizabeth II passed it in September 2015.