Women of Courage and Creativity Quiz

Answer: A Raisin in the Sun

The play's name comes from the poem "Harlem" (also known as "A Dream Deferred") by Langston Hughes. Not only was it the first Broadway play written by a black woman, it was the first to be directed by a black person, Lloyd Richards. The original Broadway players, which included Sidney Poitier, later were cast in the movie of the same name.

Answer: Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria

According to multiple sources, she not only flew the mission, she led it. At the time of the sortie, she was also the only female fighter pilot in the UAE. She had to wait several years to become qualified for the role, because when she entered her country's army, women were not yet permitted to be fighter pilots.

Answer: Baltimore, MD

Brought up in New York with musicians for parents, Marin Alsop attended Yale University and earned a Masters' degree from Juilliard. A violinist as well as a conductor, Alsop was appointed to the post of music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 2007.

She had previously conducted the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. She has numerous "firsts" to her credit, and has served as guest conductor to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Answer: The New York Mets

Ms. Payson and her husband were avid baseball fans, and were opposed to the move of the New York Giants to San Francisco in 1957. When that move occurred, she formed a group that was awarded an expansion team, the New York Mets. Ms. Payson served as the President of the Mets organization from 1968 until 1975, the year she passed away.

Answer: Helen Hayes and Rita Moreno

In 1977, Helen Hayes won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Recording ("Great American Documents"), completing her EGOT, which included an Oscar for Best Actress in "The Sin of Madelon Claudet" in 1932; a Tony for Best Actress in a Play in "Happy Birthday" in 1947; and an Emmy for her role in an episode of "Schlitz Playhouse of Stars" in 1953.
Also in 1977, Rita Moreno won an Emmy for her work in "The Muppet Show", completing her EGOT, which included an Oscar for "West Side Story" in 1961; a Grammy for Best Recording for Children in "The Electric Company" in 1972); and a Tony for "The Ritz" in 1975.
Other women who were among the earliest winners of EGOTs included Audrey Hepburn and Whoopie Goldberg. Liza Minnelli and Barbra Streisand are sometimes also included in this group, although at least one of the awards won by each of them was non-competitive or honorary.

Answer: Natalie Brown

Natalie was four years younger than Louise and was the 40th person to be conceived in vitro. Her child, conceived naturally, was a healthy girl, Casey, born in 1999.

Answer: Moni Mulepati

Moni Mulepati married her sweetheart, Pem Dorjee Sherpa, at the summit of Mount Everest on May 30, 2005. It was the first summit wedding on the mountain. Her husband was a Sherpa who had climbed the mountain once before. They told no one of their wedding plans beforehand, because they were unsure if they would actually make it to the summit.

While both Moni and Pem are Nepalese, and their marriage was also noteworthy because they were of different castes. Junko Tabei of Japan was the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Melissa Arnot is an American professional mountaineer who has summited Everest a number of times. Malavath Poorna of India became the youngest person to reach the summit, on May 25, 2014, at the age of thirteen.

Answer: Wyoming

Wyoming may seem an improbable place for suffrage to flourish, but flourish it did. The Territorial Legislature passed the measure granting women the right to vote in all elections, and when statehood was at issue in 1890, Wyoming voted overwhelmingly to maintain women's voting rights in the state's constitution. (When women received voting rights in Wyoming, Susan B. Anthony, the famed suffragist in Massachusetts, urged all women to move there!) At the time, the Congress of the United States was opposed to women's suffrage and sent word to Wyoming that statehood might not be granted if women's voting rights were included in its constitution. Wyoming, in turn, informed the Congress via telegram that Wyoming would not join the Union for "100 years" if those rights were abolished. Washington caved, and on July 10, 1890, Benjamin Harrison signed the bill granting Wyoming statehood, with the nickname "Equality State". Wyoming's tradition of inclusion of women in government continued when it became the first state to elect a female governor, Nellie Ross, in 1924.

Answer: Katherine Bigelow

Ms. Bigelow won for her 2009 film "The Hurt Locker", which also won the BAFTA Award for Best Direction, the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Director, and the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing-and in all those categories as well, Katherine Bigelow was the first woman to win.

Answer: Julia Ward Howe

In 1861, during America's Civil War, Ms. Howe visited troops in the field and sang with them the abolitionist folk song "John Brown's Body". She thought the tune could be set to different words (by some accounts a friend challenged her to improve on the lyrics) , and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" was the result.

It was published in the Atlantic Monthly Magazine in 1862. Following the Civil War, Ms. Howe was active for decades in the suffrage movement, and continued writing and publishing works on a variety of topics.

She became the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1908, at the age of 88.