Hard Working Woman Trivia Quiz

Answer: Victoria

Queen Victoria gave birth to nine children, four sons and five daughters. Her reign of 63 years and seven months has been surpassed by Queen Elizabeth II.

Elizabeth I, queen from 1558 to 1603 and sometimes known as the Virgin Queen, had no children. Her namesake, Queen Elizabeth II had four children. Queen Anne, who reigned from 1702 to 1714, was not survived by any of her children despite having at least 17 pregnancies. Twelve of her children were stillborn, four died before the age of two and her son Prince William died aged 11.

Answer: Mary Anne Evans

Ms Evans decided to write under a male pen name for a variety of reasons including not wanting to write light romances typical of other published female authors, having her writing kept separate from her work as an editor and critic, and avoiding undue scrutiny of her private life.

All those listed have used male pen names at one time or another. Joanne Rowling, better known as JK Rowling, has also written as Robert Galbraith. All the Brontë sisters used male pen names, namely Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell for Charlotte, Emily and Anne respectively. AM Barnard was Louisa May Alcott's chosen pen name.

Answer: Writer

Played by Catherine Keener in the film, Nelle is best known by her pen name Harper Lee and for her 1960 novel "To Kill a Mockingbird". Harper was her middle name. The book started off in 1957 as "Go Set a Watchman" and underwent a two-year editing and re-writing process before achieving its final form.

Lee did work at one time as an airline reservation agent, her father practised law (amongst other things) and her mother was a homemaker.

"To Kill a Mockingbird" looked like it would be Lee's only book until the manuscript for "Go Set a Watchman" was re-discovered and a book published in 2015 as a sequel to the 1960 novel.

Answer: Sirimavo Bandaranaike

Sirimavo Bandaranaike was elected Prime Minister of Sri Lanka in 1960. She was in fact elected three times, serving from 1960-65, 1970-77 and 1994-2000, retiring two months prior to her death.

All the others were the first female Prime Ministers in their respective countries - Indira Gandhi in India from 1966 to 1977 and from 1980 until assassinated in 1984, Golda Meir was Israeli Prime Minister from 1969 to 1974, and Margaret Thatcher served three terms as Prime Minster of the UK from 1979 to 1990.

Answer: Danica Patrick

Winning the Indy Japan 300 in 2008 gave Danica Patrick this record, making her the most successful female racer in American open-wheel racing. After IndyCar racing, she moved to stock car racing before retiring in 2018.

Sisters Courtney Force (retired 2019) and Ashley Force Hood (retired 2010) were both drag racers for their father's team. After they retired it left their sister Brittany as the last remaining drag racing daughter. Shirley Muldowney was also a drag racer, making her name during the 1970s and early 1980s.

Answer: Jerrie Mock

This was achieved in 1964 in a Cessna 180 single-engined aircraft and took just under thirty days. In doing so, she broke seven records.

Joan Merriam Smith set off two days earlier to do the same thing but arrived back after Mock. She chose to follow the flight path planned by Amelia Earhart in Earhart's unsuccessful 1937 attempt, starting on the same date 27 years later. It ended up being a bit of a race between Smith and Mock, although it was not planned that way. When she learned of Smith's plans, Mock brought her departure date forward by two weeks.

Katherine Wright was sister to the Wright brothers who achieved the first machine-powered flight in 1903. Although heavily involved in making their success, she did not fly until 1909.

Answer: Julia Child

"The French Chef" was one of the first cooking shows on American TV. American chef Julia Child created and starred in it. French cuisine was her life-long passion.

French chef Dominique Crenn is possibly best known for her award-winning Atelier Crenn restaurant in San Francisco. Hélène Darroze, also French, is more cosmopolitan with three restaurants in London, Moscow and Paris. American chef and author Gabrielle Hamilton has said that her way of cooking was heavily influenced by her French mother.

Answer: Hattie McDaniel

It was Hattie McDaniel in her role as the house servant Mammy, in the process becoming the first black American to win an Oscar. She appeared in over 300 films and was also a singer-song writer and comedian. She was also the first black American woman to sing on US radio.

Olivia de Havilland was nominated for Best Supporting Actress and Barbara O'Neil, who also appeared in the film, had to wait until "All This, and Heaven Too" (1940) for her Best Supporting Actress nomination. Vivien Leigh got the Best Actress award for her role.

Answer: Frida Kahlo

Set for medical school, a traffic accident instead led to her taking up her childhood hobby of painting. An interest in politics led to a stormy marriage and the gradual development of her art. Poor health over the years combined with multiple operations led to an early death at the age of 47. Her works have gained increasing recognition since her death.

All the others listed are Mexican-born artists. Izquierdo was a contempory of Kahlo and is credited with opening the way for female artists in Mexico. Reyes was the first female Mexican muralist. Cueto was a puppet designer as well as a painter.

Answer: Hidden Figures

"Hidden Figures" is based on the 2016 non-fiction book of the same name about three black American women who overcame discrimination as women and African Americans in their role as human computers at NASA during the 1960s.

"Agora" is a 2009 historical drama about Hypatia, a 4th century female Egyptian astronomer, mathematician and philospher. She is the first female mathematician for which there is a reasonable written record. "Contact" (1997) is based on Carl Sagan's 1985 novel of the same name with Jodie Foster playing the protagonist. In "The Imitation Game", a 2014 historical drama based on a biography of mathematician Alan Turing, crypto-analyst Joan Clarke (played by Keira Knightley) had a key role in decoding Enigma Code messages.