Quotes from Legendary Women Trivia Quiz

Answer: Joy Adamson

Joy Adamson was born in Austria-Hungary in 1910. Most of us would know her for her book, and subsequent award winning film "Born Free", on rearing the lioness cub, Elsa, in Africa, before finally releasing that much loved pet back into the wild. When she was young Joy, who was awarded the Austrian Cross for Science and Art, had the choice of going into a career in the medical field, or that of a concert pianist. Instead, she spent most of her adult life in Africa working in the conservation arena. She married three times. Joy wrote a total of twelve books about life in Africa, from which six films were made. She also produced 500 paintings of many African plants which had never been photographed or recorded before.

Perhaps, somewhat comically, after Elsa eventually died, Joy and her third husband husband, George, went their separate ways, but remained good friends always and met up whenever they could. That isn't the comical part, but the reason they split is. He wanted to work with lions, while Joy wanted to work with cheetahs. Both Joy and George were murdered, Joy in 1980 by a disgrunted employee who tried to make it look like she'd been attacked by lions, while George was murdered nine years later by poachers.

Answer: Ann Bancroft

Born in 1955, American author, teacher and explorer Ann Bancroft (NOT to be confused with the actress Anne Bancroft) is a most impressive woman. As a child she overcame a severe learning disability which made her early school years a horror, but her perseverances saw her eventually graduate from high school.

She dabbled in teaching gym and wilderness skills in the early part of her career, but gave up that work to take part in an expedition to the North Pole in 1986. Her life since then has been one of exploration of the Arctic and Antarctic regions of the world. Ann became the first woman in the world to reach the North Pole on foot, she was the first woman to cross both polar ice caps to reach the Poles, the first woman to ski across Greenland, she headed an all female expedition to the South Pole in 1993, and with another woman, became the first two women to ski across Antarctica in 2001.

In 1995, Ann was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame for her achievements.

Answer: Photography

Julia Cameron lived from 1815 until 1879. She was a famous early photographer of well known people from that period of history. In her 48th year, her daughter gave her a present of a camera, and for the rest of her life, photography was her obsession. She became an expert at light and shade and capturing the inherent beauty of her subjects, and unlike many of her contemporaries, she was businesslike enough to copyright all her works. This has allowed her photographs to survive almost intact today, and they are an absolutely invaluable record of the times in which she lived, and of the great figures who made history from that period.

Just a few of those treasured photographs include images of Charles Darwin, a stunning photograph of the most famous actress of the time, Ellen Terry, Alice Liddell (who inspired Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland") and the poets Robert Browning and Alfred Lord Tennyson. I was lucky enough once at university to hear a recording of Tennyson's voice on one of those old cylinder rolls. It was very moving to hear that voice from so long ago in the past. Imagine if we had more such treasures, how wonderful that would be? Julia Cameron captured those living images.

Answer: Mary Daly

Mary Daly also said "It is the creative potential itself in human beings that is the image of God". Born in 1928, Mary died in 2010, after a lifetime of radical feminist activism. She was much more than that, however. She was a philosopher, academic and theologian with a deep abiding belief in God, but with her views angled from a different perspective. She taught at a Jesuit-run institution for over thirty years, only relinquishing her position there because she refused to allow male students into a class designed for advanced studies in women's issues. Though she was prepared to allow males in the introductory levels, her principles refused to let her allow them access to the advanced classes where, she stated, their presence inhibited discussion.

During the course of her career, she earned three doctorates, one in philosophy, one in theology and one in religion. She was also under threat of dismissal for a great deal of that career because of her stance on various issues. Some of Mary's more outrageous statements included her belief that "women ought to govern men" and that "If life is to survive on this planet, there must be a decontamination of the Earth. I think this will be accompanied by an evolutionary process that will result in a drastic reduction of the population of males". Her books of which she wrote eight, include titles such as "The Church and the Second Sex" (1968), "Beyond God the father: Toward a Philosophy of Women's Liberation" (1973) and "Amazon Grace: Re-calling the Courage to Sin Big" (2006). Oh dear, again. Her famous articles included one called "A Call for the Castration of Sexist Religion" (1972). The wonder is that she continued to teach in a Jesuit-run institution. One day perhaps the world and its belief structures will have advanced far enough to acknowledge her contribution to that progress - in equality at least, but not in the decimation of the male population.

Answer: Angela Davis

Angela Davis also said "Had it not been for slavery, the death penalty would have likely been abolished in America. Slavery became a haven for the death penalty", the meaning of which is a little hard to decipher. Angela Davis was born in 1944. She was a leader in the Communist Party in the United States; and had close ties with the Black Panther Party as well; believed that all prisons should be abolished; taught, and was a professor of, the History of Consciousness discipline at the University of California; also taught Feminist Studies, and was suspected of being involved in the murder of a well known judge, after which she fled. By 1970, she was only the third woman to be included on the FBI's list of its ten most wanted fugitives. Her political activism knew no bounds, nor what she was prepared to do achieve her goals.

After her release from prison, Angela Davis visited Cuba. That is not surprising, given her political leanings. She was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize by the Soviet Union in 1979 for her efforts in the civil rights arena in the USA. Continuing to urge radicals to amass and get behind her various causes in the US, she ran twice for election in that country in the 1980s, under the banner of the Communist Party. She spoke out against the Vietnam war, racism, sexism, "Yankee imperialism", prisons, attacked the war on terrorism, blamed Hurricane Katrina's aftermath on imperialism and threw in racism and capitalism for good measure - and supported gay rights. Legendary Angela Davis certainly is, but that depends on perspective. It seems a shame that her quest for equality wasn't pursued by less aggressive methods.

Answer: Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart (1897-1937) was an aviation pioneer who ultimately sacrificed her life - or so it's believed - at the craft she loved. Most of us know the story behind this fine woman's disappearance over the Pacific, and the rumours that usually come associated with the unexplained deaths of the rich or famous. Perhaps less know that Amelia received a Distinguished Flying Cross for her achievements, broke many records, set up an organisation for female pilots, and wrote quite a number of successful books as well. Her achievements in the field of aviation include: the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, the women's altitude record, various speed records, first woman to fly an autogyro, and the first woman to fly non-stop from coast to coast across the US.

Even as a young girl, with an alcoholic father, Amelia was driven, to achieve in fields that had hitherto been dominated by successful men. It was in aviation that she eventually decided to make her mark. This came about when she was visiting an air show given by a World War I ace, and was dive-bombed by the small plane the pilot was flying. Amelia said of this in later life that "I believe that little red aeroplane said something to me as it swished by". Following a ride in a plane herself, at the age of 23, Amelia knew that she simply had to fly. Six months after taking lessons, she bought her own plane, a small yellow one she nicknamed "The Canary". In this she broke the first of many records. Her second plane she called the "Yellow Peril". Amelia disappeared somewhere over the Pacific, on July 2, 1937, during her attempt to be the first female pilot to fly around the world. Countless theories have swirled around that disappearance ever since.

Answer: Oceanography

Sylvia Earle is a famous oceanographer, aquanaut, lecturer and author. Born in 1935, her achievements have been holding the position of "explorer-in-residence" for the National Geographic, heading the science department at the US Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, chairperson for various organisations with a focus on deep sea exploration, founding three companies on ocean research, and author of eleven books on her work. Her continuing efforts on behalf of the future of our world have seen her awarded "First Hero of the Planet" by Time Magazine. Her colleagues however have comically awarded her with nicknames such as "Her Deepness" and the "Sturgeon General".

Sylvia has also led more than one hundred journeys and spent more than 7,000 hours deep under the oceans during her career, broken many depth records, and is an expert on maritime oil spills and how to deal with them. She has had almost 200 important articles published worldwide on issues to do with marine science, participated in numerous television and radio interviews relating to these important issues, and lectured in 70 different countries throughout the world. This wonderful proactive mermaid of the deep just doesn't stop. Her entire life has been geared, and is geared, to saving our oceans, and our planet. She is a true champion who has well and truly earned the title of Legend.

Answer: Crystal Eastman

Crystal Eastman lived from 1881 until 1928. She packed a lot into that short lifetime, and was a lawyer, writer, antimilitarist, socialist and a very determined feminist who fought hard for women to be given the right to vote. Along with this, she was also co-editor of a radical, political magazine and found time to act as one of the co-founders of the Women's International League for Freedom. In addition to all this, she was a wife (twice) and mother to two children.

She grew up in a family where women tended to be right out there. Her mother was one of the first ordained female ministers in America. That was in the 1880s, so one imagines that caused rather a ripple or two among the scandalised gents of the time. Crystal not only completed high school, but graduated from university with her Master's in sociology as well. Her working life consisted of fighting hard for the underdog in every way. This included working as a lawyer in the arena of industrial relations and pushing for safer working environments. On another level, her outrageous views on free love quickly saw those in authority at the top levels of society referring to her as "the most dangerous woman in America". This sounds comical when judged by today's perspective, but was an exceptionally shocking thing to promote at that time. For the rest of her short life, Crystal pushed women's issues to the forefront of society's conscience, and also worked hard at promoting peace, freedom and anti-war issues. By 1919, she was blacklisted in New York and basically accused of being a communist. After her death, history basically forgot all she had done, in spite of her outstanding achievements, but in 2000 her worth was finally acknowledged, when Crystal Eastman was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

Answer: Jane Austen

My favourite author, Jane Austen (1775-1817), was an English novelist whose works today are more popular than they've ever been. Her novels of romantic fiction, set among the rural gentry of the times, are not startling works of social protest, she doesn't push any pet cause, and she doesn't distress us beyond all measure at the horrifying life in the slums of England. Instead, she just allows her readers to escape and enjoy life in the parlours of the upper reaches of a genteel society, where the main topics of the day are manners and marriage. Yet, somehow, with all that surface skimming of life in those genteel English drawing rooms, Jane's characters are alive, breathing laughing, crying, wonderful creations of human frailties and moral fibre.

Hers was the pen that gave us that most excellent 1813 work "Pride and Prejudice", a novel that has been made and remade into an astonishing number of films, plays, and television series ever since. By 2013, this work had sold over 20 million copies worldwide. It is considered to be one of the most popular works of English literature ever written. Jane Austen allowed us to be happy without our social or moral conscience disturbing our peace of mind. That is an extraordinary gift.

Answer: Charlotte Bronte

Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855) grew up with her sisters, a brother, her maternal aunt and her father in a solitary environment at the parsonage at Haworth, West Yorkshire, in England, surrounded by the moors, with sparse social contact, and the ever looming threat of tuberculosis. This disease would kill two of the girls when they were small. Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell, lived to adulthood, but one by one, Charlotte witnessed their early deaths.

All three of the surviving girls became noted authors, a fact has led us to overlook how very unusual this really is. Their novels reflect to a large degree their lonely lives. They wrote of that they knew. Charlotte's novel "Jane Eyre" (1847), from which the above quote is taken, is semi-autobiographical in that regard. Taken on its own merits as a brilliant work of literature, the novel, apart from its obvious love story, is a searing social critique, and one that strikes a resounding blow for feminism. Jane, like Charlotte, is independent at a time when women largely depended on male members of their family for their survival, she is intelligent, well read, and outspoken when women of that era were supposed to murmur mild platitudes and do embroidery, and she has not only a strong moral conscience, but a ringing social conscience as well. Charlotte comes alive for us in this great work, and this great work allowed Charlotte herself to live.