Feminism 'Round the World Trivia Quiz

Answer: Charles Fourier

In his 1837 work "Théorie des quatre mouvements et des destinées générales", Charles Fourier used the term "feminism." After calculating that there were 810 types of people, Fourier conceived of an ideal society in which there would be 1,620 people per social unit and 6 million of these units.

He was an early supporter of women's rights - never marrying due to ideological opposition - and of gay rights.

Answer: Soviet Union

Under Lenin, the Soviet Union ensured a woman's right to bodily autonomy, although not necessarily for the right reasons. The Bolsheviks saw abortion as a temporary solution to the problem that families may not be able to take care of additional children due to various conflicts that had destabilized the country. Stalin criminalized abortion, and it remained criminalized until his death.

Today, a number of modern countries inherit legalized abortion from the Soviet Union. In modern Russia, abortion is not decriminalized - instead, legalized abortion is only available to most women up to 12 weeks, by which point not all will be aware that they are pregnant.

Answer: Property-owning and over 30

Parliament were concerned in 1918 that women would "outnumber" men in the voting pool, and so also enfranchised men who did not own property - a regressive reason for a progressive change. A 1928 law finally granted suffrage to all women over 21, while the voting age was eventually reduced to 18.

However, voting rights are still not available to 16- and 17-year-olds, to imprisoned people, most foreign residents and expats of over 15 years.

Answer: Foot binding

The practice was opposed by Christian missionaries and Chinese activists. The movement to abolish it focused on pragmatic reasons such as health and labor efficiency, rather than feminist or religious reasons, to achieve widespread popularity.

Female genital mutilation and breast ironing have - thankfully - never been part of Chinese culture, but remain modern issues in other countries. Honor killing did take place in the Qing dynasty (1644-1912), but was no longer prevalent by 1949.

Answer: Evita

Eva, nicknamed Evita, served as First Lady for six years, supporting her husband Juan Domingo Perón. She was considered for the Vice Presidential role, and immensely popular among working-class women, but did not wish to run. The other options are all musicals involving Andrew Lloyd Webber or Tim Rice, who co-wrote Evita.

Answer: bell hooks

hooks takes her name from her great-grandmother, and uses lowercase both to differentiate herself from her namesake, and to de-emphasize the role of herself as an author, so that her writing can speak for itself. In "Ain't I a Woman?" (named for a Sojourner Truth speech), for instance, she explores the oppression of Black women slaves in America and how the early feminist movement was largely exclusionary of non-white and working class women.

Other books of hers explore lighter and more diverse topics, such as "All About Love," an analysis of love and romantic relationships.

Answer: Indira Gandhi

Indira Gandhi was Prime Minister for a number of years before her assassination in 1984, and the third person to hold the role. She assumed the position when winning a leadership election of the Indian National Congress and continued in the role after an election the following year.

In China, Soong Ching-ling soon followed in 1968 as an appointed woman head of state of a highly populous country. Benazir Bhutto was elected Prime Minister of Pakistan in 1988, a country in which Malala Yousafzai was later shot as a child for fighting for girls to attend school.

Answer: 1993

Unfortunately, as in many countries, ignorance around marital rape is prevalent, with almost half of South African respondents failing to recognize that being raped by a spouse is possible in 2010.
(https://web.archive.org/web/20160304191608/http://www.alnap.org/pool/files/13452-begin-war-at-home.pdf)

Answer: Rwanda

A 2003 constitutional change mandated that Rwandan parliaments consist of at least 30% women - higher than the proportion of women in the U.S. Congress in 2018 (24%). In 2008, they surpassed 50% for the first time, and in 2018 even had over 60% women representatives. Six other countries stood at roughly gender-balanced representation in 2018, with between 45% and 55% women: Cuba, Bolivia, Mexico, Grenada, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. (https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/02/chart-of-the-day-these-countries-have-the-most-women-in-parliament/)
The other possible options are not in eastern Africa.

Answer: No constitutional right to free speech

A lawsuit launched by Geoffrey Rush against "The Daily Telegraph" for publishing a sexual misconduct accusation against him had a chilling effect in Australia, which has unusually strict laws on defamation and no constitutional right to freedom of speech.
(https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/16/opinion/metoo-defamation-geoffrey-rush-yael-stone.html)

Around 3% of rape cases reported to police result in a conviction in Australia, compared to 8% in the USA. However, the majority of rape cases are not reported to police. Rates of reported sexual violence has increased, though it is difficult to determine if violence or rate of reporting is the changing factor.