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Extraordinary Women Quiz: 20 Questions on Women Who Changed History
The Bing homepage marks International Women's Day and Women's History Month every March, and many of its quiz questions are about the women behind famous discoveries, books and records. This quiz has 20 questions on scientists, political leaders, writers, artists, athletes and activists, each with a short explanation.
Some answers are household names, and others are women whose work was overlooked for decades. The explanations say why each one matters.
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Pick A, B or C for each question. The right answer turns green and a short fact explains it.
All 20 questions and answers
Every question with its answer and explanation. Open “Show answer” after you guess.
1 Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize?
- A Barbara McClintock
- B Marie Curie
- C Rosalind Franklin
Show answer
✓ Answer: B. Marie Curie
Did you know? Marie Curie shared the 1903 Physics prize and won the 1911 Chemistry prize alone. She is still the only person to win Nobels in two different sciences.
2 Which two elements did Marie and Pierre Curie discover in 1898?
- A Uranium and thorium
- B Radium and polonium
- C Helium and neon
Show answer
✓ Answer: B. Radium and polonium
Did you know? Polonium was named after Marie's native Poland.
3 Who refused to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955?
- A Rosa Parks
- B Sojourner Truth
- C Harriet Tubman
Show answer
✓ Answer: A. Rosa Parks
Did you know? Her arrest started the Montgomery bus boycott, which lasted more than a year.
4 Who became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate, aged 17?
- A Malala Yousafzai
- B Benazir Bhutto
- C Greta Thunberg
Show answer
✓ Answer: A. Malala Yousafzai
Did you know? Malala shared the 2014 prize for her campaign for girls' education.
5 Who was the first woman to serve on the US Supreme Court?
- A Sonia Sotomayor
- B Ruth Bader Ginsburg
- C Sandra Day O'Connor
Show answer
✓ Answer: C. Sandra Day O'Connor
Did you know? O'Connor was appointed by President Reagan in 1981 and served until 2006.
6 Who is often called the first computer programmer?
- A Grace Hopper
- B Margaret Hamilton
- C Ada Lovelace
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✓ Answer: C. Ada Lovelace
Did you know? In the 1840s Lovelace wrote an algorithm for Charles Babbage's proposed Analytical Engine.
7 Who was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic?
- A Amelia Earhart
- B Bessie Coleman
- C Jacqueline Cochran
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✓ Answer: A. Amelia Earhart
Did you know? Earhart flew from Newfoundland to Northern Ireland in 1932.
8 Who wrote the memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings?
- A Alice Walker
- B Toni Morrison
- C Maya Angelou
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✓ Answer: C. Maya Angelou
Did you know? Published in 1969, it was the first of Angelou's seven autobiographies.
9 Which scientist studied wild chimpanzees at Gombe in Tanzania?
- A Jane Goodall
- B Biruté Galdikas
- C Dian Fossey
Show answer
✓ Answer: A. Jane Goodall
Did you know? Goodall began her research in 1960 and discovered that chimpanzees make and use tools.
10 Who was the first woman to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom?
- A Theresa May
- B Margaret Thatcher
- C Liz Truss
Show answer
✓ Answer: B. Margaret Thatcher
Did you know? Thatcher led the government from 1979 to 1990.
11 Which NASA mathematician checked the orbital calculations for John Glenn's 1962 flight?
- A Mary Jackson
- B Dorothy Vaughan
- C Katherine Johnson
Show answer
✓ Answer: C. Katherine Johnson
Did you know? Glenn reportedly asked for her to verify the computer's numbers before he would fly.
12 Who wrote Pride and Prejudice?
- A Charlotte Brontë
- B Mary Shelley
- C Jane Austen
Show answer
✓ Answer: C. Jane Austen
Did you know? It was published in 1813, first credited only to 'the author of Sense and Sensibility'.
13 Serena Williams won how many Grand Slam singles titles?
- A 23
- B 28
- C 18
Show answer
✓ Answer: A. 23
Did you know? Her 23 titles are the most by any woman in the Open era, which began in 1968.
14 Who founded the American Red Cross in 1881?
- A Clara Barton
- B Florence Nightingale
- C Dorothea Dix
Show answer
✓ Answer: A. Clara Barton
Did you know? Barton had nursed soldiers during the Civil War, earning the nickname 'Angel of the Battlefield'.
15 Which physicist helped explain nuclear fission in 1938–39 but was left out of the Nobel Prize for it?
- A Chien-Shiung Wu
- B Lise Meitner
- C Irène Joliot-Curie
Show answer
✓ Answer: B. Lise Meitner
Did you know? The 1944 Chemistry prize went to her colleague Otto Hahn alone. Element 109, meitnerium, is named after her.
16 Who led dozens of enslaved people to freedom on the Underground Railroad?
- A Sojourner Truth
- B Ida B. Wells
- C Harriet Tubman
Show answer
✓ Answer: C. Harriet Tubman
Did you know? Tubman escaped slavery in 1849 and returned to the South about 13 times.
17 Who was the first African American woman to earn an international pilot's license, in 1921?
- A Harriet Quimby
- B Amelia Earhart
- C Bessie Coleman
Show answer
✓ Answer: C. Bessie Coleman
Did you know? US flight schools would not accept her, so Coleman learned to fly in France.
18 Who created the first compiler for a computer programming language?
- A Ada Lovelace
- B Grace Hopper
- C Hedy Lamarr
Show answer
✓ Answer: B. Grace Hopper
Did you know? Hopper's A-0 system of 1952 led to COBOL, one of the first widely used programming languages.
19 Which gymnast won 18 Olympic medals, a record for a woman?
- A Larisa Latynina
- B Simone Biles
- C Nadia Comăneci
Show answer
✓ Answer: A. Larisa Latynina
Did you know? Latynina competed for the Soviet Union from 1956 to 1964.
20 Whose X-ray images were key to discovering the structure of DNA?
- A Rosalind Franklin
- B Dorothy Hodgkin
- C Barbara McClintock
Show answer
✓ Answer: A. Rosalind Franklin
Did you know? Her 'Photo 51' showed the helix shape. Watson, Crick and Wilkins shared the 1962 Nobel after her death.
Women behind famous firsts
Several questions are about firsts: the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, the first woman on the US Supreme Court. Firsts are popular with quiz writers because they have a single clear answer, and they also show how recently many barriers fell. Sandra Day O'Connor joined the Supreme Court in 1981, and Margaret Thatcher became the UK's first woman prime minister only two years earlier.
Other questions are about recognition that came late. Rosalind Franklin's X-ray images were essential to the discovery of DNA's structure, but she died in 1958 and received little credit at the time. Katherine Johnson's calculations for NASA became widely known only after the 2016 film Hidden Figures.
More history quizzes
Keep going with the History Quiz, the Science Quiz or the Art Quiz, which includes Frida Kahlo.
Extraordinary Women Quiz FAQ
Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize?
Marie Curie, who shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics. She won a second Nobel, in Chemistry, in 1911.
Is this quiz good for Women's History Month?
Yes. It is free, needs no sign-up and works on phones, so it suits classes and groups. Every answer has a short explanation.
Is this the official Bing quiz?
No. BingQuiz.net is independent and not affiliated with Microsoft. For the official daily quiz, see today's Bing Homepage Quiz answers.