No Holds Barred Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mona Van Duyn

Mona Van Duyn was appointed United States Poet Laureate in 1992. She was a prolific poet winning numerous prizes including the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Interestingly, the following 25 years after Van Duyn served as U.S. Poet Laureate another four women also achieved this honorable position.

Answer: Bertha von Suttner

Born in Prague in 1843 Bertha Von Suttner was the second woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first to be award the Peace Prize in 1905 for her efforts in pacifism. She took up writing at a young age and concentrated on war and peace issues, writing her seminal piece "Down With Weapons" in 1889.

This was translated into 12 languages. She also took part in the first Hague Convention (aimed at developing formal statements of the laws of war and negotiating peace treaties) in 1899.

Answer: Harriet Quimby

Born in 1875, Harriet Quimby died at the tender age of 37 in 1912 but, in that brief time she was a significant influence on women and their role in aviation. She became the first female in the United States to obtain a pilot's license and then, on April 16, 1912, she took off from Dover in England and, 59 minutes later landed in Calais, France to make her the first woman to fly across the English Channel. Sadly, her feat did not gain the media attention that it should have because, the day before, a story broke out about some ship, called the Titanic, that sank. Sadly, for Harriet, she would pass away less than three months later.

Answer: Selma Lagerlöf

Selma Lagerlöf was a Swedish author who commenced her career as a teacher and published her first novel, the "Gösta Berling's Saga" (1891), when she was 33 years old. Even then it came about by her entering the first chapter into a competition that was run by the magazine "Idun".

This led to a publishing contract for the whole book, which led to a positive review from notable critic George Brandes and, from that point her career took off.

Answer: Lucy Hobbs Taylor

After teaching for 10 years, Lucy Hobbs Taylor decided to pursue a career in dentistry. She was refused entry to a number of medical schools because of her gender, so she ended up doing an apprenticeship with a recent graduate of the Ohio College of Dentistry in Cincinnati, Dr Samuel Wardle.

She was accepted into the Iowa State of Dental Society as a member in 1866 and was a delegate to the American Dental Association Convention in Chicago. The Lucy Hobbs Taylor prize is awarded annually by the American Association of Women Dentists.

Answer: Regina Jonas

Regina Jones was born in 1902 in a poor Jewish neighborhood in Berlin, Germany. She lost her father, and her first teacher, when she was 11 years old. She developed a passion for both the Bible and Jewish history from an early age and stories are recorded of her having designs on being a rabbi in her early years in high school.

She would matriculate at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, a liberal school that allowed women entry. Despite this Regina was the only one of her peers that worked toward being a rabbi.

Her final thesis dealt with the theory of women being ordained as rabbis and it became an important paper in the equality of selection of rabbis. Despite a series of setbacks, she achieved her ordination in 1935, thus paving the way for others.

She would be killed in Auschwitz in October 1944.

Answer: Aretha Franklin

Nicknamed "The Queen of Soul", Aretha Franklin was an active and popular singer from the 1960s to the 2010s. Some of her hit songs include "Respect", "Chain of Fools" and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman". In addition to her acclaim as a musician she was also well-known for her civil rights activism.

Answer: Junko Tabei

Although she was only 5 feet tall and 92 pounds, Junko Tabei was an expert mountain climber and she led a group of 15 women to the summit of Mount Everest in 1975. Tabei was also the first woman to reach the highest peak on every continent completing the feat in 1992. Before her death in 2016 Tabei worked diligently to reduce environmental degradation caused by mountain climbers.

Answer: Sirimavo Bandaranaike

Born in Sri Lanka in 1916, Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the Prime Minister of her country in 1960 and would serve three non-consecutive terms totaling 18 years in power. During her first term Bandaranaike pushed for reforms by nationalizing industries like banking and education.

Her final term ended in 2000 after she resigned due to health concerns and she passed away just two months after leaving office.

Answer: Kathryn Bigelow

The Academy of Motion Pictures has a long and colorful history but women, as directors, have struggled for their recognition. When Kathryn Bigelow achieved her win in 2010 for her work on "The Hurt Locker" there had only been three women nominated for the honor before her - Lina Wertmuller (1977), Jane Campion (1994) and Sofia Coppola (2004).

Born in 1951 Bigelow directed her first feature in 1981 "The Loveless" and, by the time she'd directed "Near Dark" in 1987 she'd developed her fascination with manipulating movie conventions and genres.

Her other notable works include "Zero Dark Thirty" (2012), "Strange Days" (1995) and "Point Break" (1991).