March is National Women’s History Month

Women Who Made “Herstory”

The history of women, and their contributions to history, are largely ignored. As children, we learned about Madame Curie, Florence Nightingale and Harriet Tubman but the contributions of many others were omitted from textbooks.

The National Women’s History Project (NWHP), dedicated to recognizing the accomplishments of women throughout history, marks its thirtieth anniversary this month. Their mission for 2010 is to write women back into the history books.

Take our quiz and test your knowledge of women in history  …

1. Who was the first woman to run for President of the United States (1872)?

2. Who opened up social work as a profession for women, and also won the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize for her anti-war organizing work?

3. Who was the first woman Poet Laureate of the United States?

4. Who was the first First Lady to have developed her own political and media identity?

5. What journalist traveled around the world in 72 days in 1890?

6. What woman was turned down by 29 medical schools before being accepted as a student, graduated at the head of her class, and became the first licensed woman doctor in the U.S.?

7. When was the Equal Rights Amendment first introduced into Congress?

8. Which woman was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for holding religious discussion meetings in her home?

9. Who drove a stagecoach across the roughest part of the West without anyone knowing until she died that she was a woman?

10. Who was the Shoshone Indian woman who served as guide and interpreter on the Lewis and Clark expedition?

11. About 20,000 women shirtwaist workers staged a strike for better working conditions.  Their action was called the “Uprising of the 20,000.”  When and where did this strike occur?

12. What woman was invited to teach nuclear physics at Princeton University, even though no female students were allowed to study there?

13. When did Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 go into effect, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex in federally funded school programs and activities?

14. Who was Chair of the Board and publisher of The Washington Post and Newsweek magazine, and also oversaw six broadcasting stations?

15. When did officials of Little League Baseball announce that they would “defer to the changing social climate” and let girls play on their teams?

16. Which President issued the first Presidential Proclamation declaring March as the first National Women’s History Week?

17. What does the President do each year in celebration of National Women’s History Month?

18. Who wrote the first version of the Equal Rights Amendment, in 1923?

19. What former slave was a powerful speaker for the rights of women and Black people?

20. What leading suffragist was arrested and convicted of attempting to vote in the 1872 election?

Answers:

1. Victoria Woodhull (1838-1927)
2. Jane Addams (1860-1935)
3. Rita Dove  (b. 1952)
4. Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)
5. Nellie Bly (1867-1922), real name Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman
6. Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910)
7. 1923
8. Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643)
9. Charlie Parkhurst
10. Sacajawea (c. 1786-1812)
11. 1909, New York City
12. Chien-Shiung Wu (1912-1997)
13. 1976
14. Katherine Graham (b. 1917-2001)
15. 1974
16. President Carter
17. The President issues a National Women’s History Proclamation every March
18.Alice Paul (1885-1977)
19. Sojourner Truth (C. 1797-1883)
20. Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906)

Thanks to the National Women’s History Project for providing this information. To learn more, please visit their site at http://www.nwhp.org.