Women Who Changed the World
This famous women quiz celebrates scientists, explorers, athletes, inventors and campaigners who changed the world, from India and beyond. Each of the 15 answers comes with the story behind it.
15 questionsMedium~3 minNo timer
Updated:
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About this Famous Women quiz
This famous women quiz brings together women whose work changed science, sport, medicine, politics and everyday life. You will meet a scientist who drove to a war front herself, a girl who wrote about her school under the Taliban, a film star with a patent, a chemist whose fibre stops bullets, and Indian pioneers from the first doctors to the first fighter pilots.
It works well for Women's Day assemblies, classroom discussions, office trivia sessions and family quiz nights. The questions mix Indian and world stories, and each one leaves you a few clues to reason with, so you can often work out an answer even if the name has slipped your mind.
Every answer comes with a short note on what happened next. Many of these women had to fight for the chance to study, compete or simply be heard, and their stories are worth more than a single quiz answer. Read the notes, share the ones that surprise you, and try again to beat your score.
Famous Women questions with answers
Show answers
In the First World War, the woman in this photo fitted out vans that soldiers nicknamed 'petites Curies', and drove some to the front herself. What did they carry?
Photo: Nobel foundation, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons - X-ray machines
- Blood for transfusions
- Radio sets
- Water filters
Answer: X-ray machines. Marie Curie's mobile X-ray units let surgeons near the front find bullets and broken bones. Her teenage daughter Irène worked alongside her.
In 1984, a day before her 30th birthday, this woman became the first Indian woman atop Everest. Who is she?
Photo: Medhavigandhi, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons - Arunima Sinha
- Premlata Agarwal
- Bachendri Pal
- Santosh Yadav
Answer: Bachendri Pal. Bachendri Pal reached the summit on 23 May 1984.
Her call sign was 'Chaika', seagull. In 1963 she became the first woman in space. Who is she?
Photo: This file comes from the website of the President of the Russian Federation and, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons - Kalpana Chawla
- Valentina Tereshkova
- Sally Ride
- Svetlana Savitskaya
Answer: Valentina Tereshkova. Valentina Tereshkova orbited Earth 48 times aboard Vostok 6.
Her night rounds in the Crimean War hospitals made her 'The Lady with the Lamp'. Who is she?
Photo: Henry Hering (1814-1893), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons - Mary Seacole
- Edith Cavell
- Florence Nightingale
- Clara Barton
Answer: Florence Nightingale. Florence Nightingale. Her birthday, 12 May, is International Nurses Day.
In 2009, aged 11, the girl in this photo wrote an online diary about schooling under the Taliban in Swat, using the pen name Gul Makai. Which website carried it?
Photo: flowcomm, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons - Al Jazeera
- CNN
- Voice of America
- BBC Urdu
Answer: BBC Urdu. Malala Yousafzai's BBC Urdu diary made her known. In 2014, aged 17, she shared the Nobel Peace Prize, the youngest laureate at that time.
In 1980 the US Defense Department named a programming language after the woman in this portrait, whose notes on Babbage's engine are famous. What is it called?
Photo: Alfred Edward Chalon, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons - Pascal
- Ada
- Lisp
- Fortran
Answer: Ada. Ada, after Ada Lovelace. Its standard was numbered MIL-STD-1815, her year of birth.
Anandibai Joshi, pictured, was one of India's first women doctors. In which country did she earn her degree?
Photo: AnonymousUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons - Japan
- Germany
- The United States
- Britain
Answer: The United States. She graduated from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1886.
Nicknamed 'Magnificent Mary', this boxer from Manipur won a record six world titles and an Olympic bronze at London 2012. Who is she?
- Mary Kom
- Nikhat Zareen
- Lovlina Borgohain
- Sarita Devi
Answer: Mary Kom. M. C. Mary Kom won her sixth world gold in 2018. India's first Olympic medal by a woman came earlier, from weightlifter Karnam Malleswari in 2000.
When Mother Teresa, pictured, received the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize, she asked the organisers to cancel something so the money could feed the poor. What?
Photo: Kingkongphoto & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel Maryland, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons - Her Nobel lecture
- The award ceremony
- Her hotel stay
- The celebration banquet
Answer: The celebration banquet. The traditional laureates' banquet was dropped at her request, and the money went to the poor of Kolkata.
'Khoob ladi mardani, woh toh ___ wali rani thi.' This warrior queen is the heroine of the poem. Fill in the kingdom.
Photo: AnonymousUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons - Mysore
- Awadh
- Jhansi
- Gwalior
Answer: Jhansi. Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi, from Subhadra Kumari Chauhan's poem on the 1857 revolt.
Grace Hopper loved telling how her Harvard team found a moth jammed in the Mark II computer in 1947. They taped it into the logbook as the 'first actual case' of what?
- Bug being found
- Virus spreading
- System crash
- Power glitch
Answer: Bug being found. Engineers already called faults 'bugs', which is why the real insect was a joke worth logging. The page is now at the Smithsonian.
A 1940s Hollywood film star co-patented a way to guide torpedoes by hopping between radio frequencies, an early step towards Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Who was she?
- Greta Garbo
- Hedy Lamarr
- Rita Hayworth
- Vivien Leigh
Answer: Hedy Lamarr. Hedy Lamarr patented it in 1942 with the composer George Antheil. She was inducted into the US National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.
In 1965 a DuPont chemist refused to throw away a thin, cloudy solution her colleagues doubted. Spun into fibre, it ended up in bulletproof vests. What is it?
- Nylon
- Teflon
- Lycra
- Kevlar
Answer: Kevlar. Stephanie Kwolek's fibre is about five times stronger than steel, weight for weight. DuPont launched it as Kevlar in 1971.
In December 1955 a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama, refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. Her arrest sparked a 381-day boycott. Who was she?
- Harriet Tubman
- Rosa Parks
- Maya Angelou
- Coretta Scott King
Answer: Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks. The boycott, led by a young Martin Luther King Jr., ended after the US Supreme Court struck down bus segregation in 1956.
In 2018 she became the first Indian woman to fly a fighter jet solo, taking a MiG-21 Bison up from Jamnagar. Who is she?
- Avani Chaturvedi
- Bhawana Kanth
- Mohana Singh
- Gunjan Saxena
Answer: Avani Chaturvedi. Avani Chaturvedi. She, Bhawana Kanth and Mohana Singh were the Indian Air Force's first three women fighter pilots, commissioned in 2016.
Frequently asked questions
Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize?
Marie Curie, who shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel. She won a second Nobel, in Chemistry, in 1911.
When is International Women's Day?
International Women's Day falls on 8 March every year. The United Nations formally recognised the day in 1977.
Can I use this quiz for a Women's Day event at school or work?
Yes. It suits teens and adults, takes a few minutes to play, and the explanation under each answer gives a host something to talk about between questions.