History

Can You Guess What These Famous Women Were Known For?

Women have accomplished a lot in the course of history. Test your knowledge about women who have made a mark in history by taking our quiz.

Mary Wollstonecraft, known for her work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, was the mother of which other renowned author?

Mary Shelley

J.K. Rowling

Margaret Atwood

Ursula K Le Guin

Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, is Wollstonecraft’s daughter, who was ahead of her time in advocating for women’s education. For her work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, she was labeled a prostitute and accused of desiring to be a male.

Maria Montessori, the first woman to acquire a medical degree in Italy, developed sensory materials for her teaching techniques with the help of this influential woman. Who is it?

Princess Diana

Greta Thunberg

Helen Keller

Mary Wollstonecraft

Helen Keller
It turns out that trailblazing women support one another. Helen Keller was acquaintances with Maria Montessori, who was famed for her self-named Montessori schools and methodology. Keller aided Montessori in the development of sensory items for her experiential learning teaching style.

What legendary actress, who starred in The Big Sleep, coined the moniker “The Rat Pack” to describe some of her co-stars?

Eva Gardner

Lauren Bacall

Catherine Bergman

Angela Merced

Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall married Humphrey Bogart in 1945 after reigning on the silver screen during the Golden Age of cinema. Bacall, now a member of Hollywood’s upper crust, became close with Bogart’s drinking companions, notably Frank Sinatra. Bacall dubbed the group a “rat pack” on one occasion when things got out of hand, a moniker Bogart eventually embraced, though Sinatra didn’t like it.

What was NOT one of Ella Fitzgerald’s many nicknames?

Ella Fitz

First Lady of Song

Lady Ella

Queen of Jazz

Ella Fitz
Fitzgerald was known as the “Queen of Jazz,” “First Lady of Song,” and “Lady Ella” during her lifetime, despite the fact that she had wanted to dance rather than sing when she entered the entertainment industry.

Jacinda Ardern, the leader of the Labour Party, is the world’s youngest female head of government in which country?

Norway

Austria

New Zealand

North Korea

New Zealand
In 2017, Jacinda Ardern, just 37 years old, became the world’s youngest female prime minister (the youngest today is Sanna Marin of Finland). While in power, the progressive social democrat delivered birth, becoming the second elected head of state to do so.

Helen Keller, who was deaf and blind, was “best friends” with which renowned American author?

Toni Morrison

Ernest Hemmingway

Harper Lee

Mark Twain

Mark Twain
Helen Keller met Mark Twain at the Cambridge School for Young Ladies when she was 14 years old. “He viewed me not as a freak, but as a disabled lady seeking a method to circumvent enormous barriers,” she said in her biography, describing her buddy as “a handicapped woman seeking a way to circumvent remarkable challenges.”

Cleopatra was not Egyptian, despite her title as “Queen of Egypt,” so what nationality was she?

Austrian

Greek

American

Roman

Greek
Cleopatra was a descendant of Ptolemy I Soter, Alexander the Great’s Macedonian Greek commander. Ptolemy took over in Egypt when Alex died, and his leadership culminated in a three-century Greek dynasty. Cleopatra, his descendant, would eventually struggle with her brothers for the throne (and murder a number of them) — a fight that culminated in her suicide by snakebite.

Jane Goodall is the world’s leading expert on which animal in which she spent nearly half a century researching them in Tanzania?

Tarantula

Orangutans

Chimpanzees

Sloth

Chimpanzees
Jane Goodall, the world’s greatest chimp specialist, has spent decades working with the creatures in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park. Goodall has received several medals and distinctions for her work and contributions to environmental activism, including the Tanzanian Medal and her status as a United Nations Messenger of Peace.

Who is the youngest person to ever earn the Nobel Prize, with a day named after her by the United Nations?

Malala Yousafzai

Greta Thunberg

Marie Curie

Betty White

Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by the Talaban for writing about her experiences in Pakistan and speaking out for women’s education, was named co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 (together with Kailash Satyarthi). Malala founded a charity to assist global education for women and girls. The United Nations even designated July 12th as “World Malala Day.”

Known for “La Vie En Rose,” Parisian singer Edith Piaf was known as what?

Old Crow

The Queen’s Nightingale

Little Sparrow

Queen of Jazz

Little Sparrow
Edith Piaf’s soaring voice was anything from “small,” but she received the moniker “la môme piaf” (“Little Sparrow”) from the club’s owner during her first employment, and she later used it professionally.

What was Bessie Smith’s nickname when she was the highest-paid Black entertainer in the world?

Empress of the Blues

Siren Songstress

Queen of Jazz

Princess of Pop

Empress of the Blues
Before the Great Depression, Bessie Smith earned around $2,000 each week (around $30,000 now). She’d already established herself as the “Empress of the Blues” before dying in a vehicle accident at the age of 42.

When she ruled this country, Benazir Bhutto became the first female leader of a democratic Muslim majority country. What is the name of the country?

Afghanistan

Austria

Pakistan

Hong Kong

Pakistan
Benazir Bhutto served as Prime Minister of Pakistan twice, once in the late 1980s and again in the mid-1990s. She was not only Pakistan’s first female prime minister and the world’s youngest at 35 years old, but she was also the country’s only second nationally elected prime minister.

Who was the first member of the Royal Family to dwell in Buckingham Palace, Alexandrina?

Queen Victoria

Queen Elizabeth I

Queen Elizabeth II

Queen Anne

Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria, named after her godfather, Tsar Alexander I, was the first monarch to reside in Buckingham Palace. She moved in after assuming the throne and began remodeling the property, building a completely new wing.

What previous first lady organized press conferences exclusively for female reporters? She also received 35 honorary degrees.

Betty Ford

Rosalynn Carter

Eleanor Roosevelt

Laura Bush

Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt was the first First Lady to let female journalists into the press room in 1933, earning more honorary degrees than her husband FDR. The act not only promoted the participation of female reporters, but it also helped FDR win female votes.

What was Harriet Tubman’s codename as a key conductor of the Underground Railroad?

Moses

Noah

Abraham

Messiah

Moses
Harriet Tubman had a remarkable life. She was not just a conductor of the Underground Railroad, known as “Moses” and “Canaan” at times, but she was also a Union spy who led a raid during the Civil War.

Russian Empress Catherine the Great established a friendship with Voltaire and led the country into what renowned era?

Age of Reason

Age of Enlightenment

Age of Romance

Age of Exploration

Age of Enlightenment
Russia was ushered into the Age of Enlightenment by Catherine the Great. The great Russian Empress was a voracious reader with a library of 44,000 volumes and a supporter of the arts, so much so that her personal art collection is housed at the Hermitage Museum at the Winter Palace. Catherine began a correspondence with Voltaire, who had published a history of Peter the Great.

Frida Kahlo’s life was marred by tragedy, beginning with a disability brought on by which disease?

Measles

Corona Virus

Polio

HIV

Polio
When Kahlo was six years old, she developed polio, which marked the start of her lifelong infirmity. Polio caused one of her legs to be shorter and thinner than the other, resulting in a limp that caused her to be teased at school. To disguise the damage, she donned long multicolored skirts. She was also engaged in a vehicle accident when she was 18 that fractured multiple bones, including her spinal column, resulting in 35 procedures and lifelong agony. Kahlo resumed painting throughout her recuperation period.

Known for her role in West Side Story, what star’s decades-long career has earned her an EGOT and a Presidential Medal of Freedom?

Liza Minnelli

Judy Garland

Rita Moreno

Patti LuPone

Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno, a Puerto Rican actress, is best known for her roles in Singin’ in the Rain and West Side Story, for which she earned an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. George W. Bush awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004.

What Argentina’s first lady was named “Spiritual Leader of the Nation” by Congress for her work with the sick and poor?

Eva Perón

Mommy D

Marie Curie

Madonna

Eva Perón
Eva Perón, often known as Evita, was adored by the people of Argentina, to the point where her state burial was attended by almost three million people. Because of her efforts with the impoverished, the national assembly named her “Spiritual Leader of the Nation” before she died of cancer at the age of 33 in 1952.

What is the name of the famous astrologer whom Queen of France Catherine de Medici employed as a court seer during the 16th century?

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa

Eva Longoria

Nostradamus

Queen Elizabeth

Nostradamus
Catherine de Medici was born into the prestigious and rich Medici aristocratic family of Florence, Italy, and via her marriage to King Henry II, she became Queen of France and mother to three French monarchs. Catherine sought the vision of Nostradamus, the astrologer and seer, throughout her reign. According to mythology, Nostradamus accurately foretold Henry II’s death.

What author created six books, including Northanger Abbey, and was first published anonymously with just the postscript “By a Lady”?

Harper Lee

Jane Austen

Toni Morrison

Isabelle Allende

Jane Austen
Jane Austen was born in the 18th century in England, during a period when women were not accepted in the literary world, which is why she preferred to write anonymously. Although she wrote Sense and Sensibility under the pen name “A Lady,” her following works were acknowledged to “the Author of Sense and Sensibility.”

Which of the following was NOT one of the three talented Bront sisters who wrote eight books between them?

Charlotte

Jane

Emily

Anne

Jane
The writings of three English sisters, Emily, Anne, and Charlotte Bront, have endured the test of time. Anne authored The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Emily wrote Wuthering Heights, and Emily wrote Jane Eyre.

What other great philosopher was Simone de Beauvoir’s longtime companion after coming in second to him in a renowned French exam?

Jean Jacques Rousseau

René Descartes

Thomas Aquinas

Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre
Simone de Beauvoir was the youngest person to complete the agrégation in philosophy, a famous French test, and was only beaten out by Jean-Paul Sartre, who was three years her senior. They were nicknamed the Prince and Princess of French intellectual society after becoming lifelong intellectual and personal companions.

Whoopi Goldberg is a member of what elite award-winning club and is known for her appearances in Ghost and Sister Act?

Pulitzer Prize winners

EGOT winners

Nobel Prize winners

MTV Movie Award winners

EGOT winners
Only 12 persons have ever won all four major entertainment awards: the Emmy, the Grammy, the Academy Award, and the Tony. All of them have been won by Whoopi Goldberg. Her Emmy was for Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel, her Grammy was for Whoopi Goldberg: Direct from Broadway, her Oscar was for Ghost, and her Tony was for Thoroughly Modern Millie as a producer.

J.K. Rowling is the first female billionaire author, yet her initial book was rejected how many times?

12 times

70 times

0 times

13 times

12 times
Harry Potter and his magical school of witchcraft and wizardry would not exist in the world if J.K. Rowling had given up on her blockbuster book series…and she would not be a billionaire (although, due to her philanthropy, she has dropped down to millionaire status again).

What was jazz icon Billie Holiday’s nickname?

Queen of Rhythm and Blues

Lady Holiday

Lady Day

Mama Blues

Lady Day
Billie Holiday received the moniker “Lady Day” from saxophonist Lester Young, whom she referred to as “Prez.” The pair traveled together in the 1930s and were “creative soulmates,” working on numerous projects.

Angela Merkel, Europe’s longest-serving elected female leader, is known as “Mutti,” which means what?

Mommy

My Queen

Great Leader

Doctor

Mommy
Angela Merkel, Germany’s first female chancellor, has been affectionately termed “Mutti,” which means “mother.” Mutti is a successful lady with degrees in physics and quantum chemistry.

At an NYC Town Hall meeting, feminist Germaine Greer argued which male writer in her book The Female Eunuch?

J.D. Salinger

Philip Roth

Norman Mailer

Kurt Vontrager

Norman Mailer
Greer claims that history castrates women, rendering them passive in their own sexuality, in her book The Female Eunuch. She argued Norman Mailer about women’s freedom in 1971, which was documented in the film Town Bloody Hall.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a women’s rights activist, launched the American women’s suffrage campaign and was the first woman to seek what office?

Congress

Senator

Vice President

Governor

Congress
Stanton campaigned for national office despite not being able to vote (as a woman) because there was no legislation prohibiting her from doing so. She ran for Congress for the first time, seeking for a seat in New York. She received 24 votes, not enough to win, but enough to create history.

Brigitte Bardot was an actress and campaigner who appeared in films such as And God Created Woman. What moniker was developed specifically for her?

Femme fatale

Sex Bomb

Sex kitten

Hot librarian

Sex kitten
In 1958, the moniker “sex kitten” was coined for Bardot. In her early career, the French actress capitalized on her sensuality and went on to perform in films like Contempt and Viva Maria!

What young environmental activist gave a furious statement at the United Nations in 2019 while on strike for climate change?

Greta Thunberg

Emma Watson

Erin Brockovich

Sam Smith

Greta Thunberg
Greta Thunberg became the voice of her age when she began a global strike outside the Swedish parliament to protest climate change. “The eyes of all future generations are upon you,” she warned at the United Nations, “and if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you…The world is waking up and change is coming, whether you like it or not.”

How old was Anne Frank when she wrote her diaries?

30-31

14-15

10-11

24-25

14-15
During WWII, Anne Frank was just 13 years old when she was concealed in an annex in Amsterdam. She celebrated her 14th and 15th birthdays there, and despite the fact that the group seldom went outside, she was nevertheless given gifts, including mythology books and a poem written by her father.

What is the name of the Greek poet from the island of Lesbos who was dubbed “the female Homer” despite the fact that very little of her poetry has survived?

Anna Franko

Sarojini Naiduhita

Sappho

Mirabai

Sappho
Despite the fact that most of Sappho’s work has been lost to the passage of time, succeeding poets have referred to her as “the female Homer,” and Plato referred to her as “the tenth Muse.”

What was the nickname of this “fastest woman alive”? She won three gold medals in the Olympics.

Flo Jo

Fast Feet

Flying Mistress

The Flash

Flo Jo
Florence Joyner was dubbed “FloJo” during her reign as the fastest woman alive after winning three gold medals at the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics. She died of a seizure at the age of 38, and her 100 and 200 meter records remain unbroken to this day.

At what club did Gloria Steinem went undercover for when she was working for Esquire and Vogue?

The Chocolate Factory

Playboy Club

The Roxy

Area 51

Playboy Club
Despite having high-ranking positions at these publications, Steinem’s renowned “Bunny” exposé was published in Show magazine. The reporter went undercover to a Playboy Club in Midtown Manhattan, where she authored a two-part series on the club’s widespread sexual harassment and inadequate pay. The essay aided in improving the working environment for women.

J.K. Rowling

Beatrix Potter

Judy Blume

Beverly Cleary

Beatrix Potter
Beatrix Potter had numerous rabbits as pets, one of them was named Peter Piper. Potter would walk Peter on a leash and create pictures of him, and he wasn’t the only pet that appeared in her novels. Benjamin Bouncer, her first bunny, was the model for Benjamin Bunny.

Julie Andrews directed the theatrical version of this hit after being passed over for the film part of Eliza Doolittle (which went to Audrey Hepburn).

My Fair Lady

Roman Holiday

Funny You

Breakfast at Tiffany’s

My Fair Lady
Despite the fact that Andrews portrayed Doolittle in the Broadway production of My Fair Lady, film executives preferred Hepburn for the part. Andrews became famous the same year with Mary Poppins, for which she won an Oscar. She later directed My Fair Lady at the Sydney Opera House for the musical’s 60th anniversary.

Shakira, a Colombian artist known for songs like “Waka Waka,” is also a Goodwill Ambassador for what organization?

Illuminati

United Nations

UNICEF

World Wildlife Fund

UNICEF
Shakira has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2003 and is no stranger to charity work. She also established the Barefoot Foundation (Fundación Pies Descalzos), which helps disadvantaged Colombian youngsters.

Which two female Supreme Court Justices served at the same time, with just four women out of 114 Supreme Court Justices?

Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O’Connor

Sonia Blade and Judith Connor

Sarah Day O’Connor and Sonia Montemayor

Judge Judy and Judgy Marilyn Milian

Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O’Connor
Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O’Connor, both female justices, were the first women to serve on the Supreme Court bench, and their judicial robes reflected this.

Michele Obama, the first African-American First Lady, earned a magna cum laude degree from Princeton in what?

Criminology

Nuclear Physics

Public Administration

Sociology

Fail. Do you really know famous women in history?

Nice. Care to try again?

Congratulations! You know a lot about women in history.

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