Sarah Morgan Smith: An International Women’s Day quiz

Today is International Women’s Day, which celebrates women’s achievements.

With a woman vice president, a woman speaker of the House of Representatives, 141 other women serving in theHouse and Senate, nine women governors, and several dozen women leading Fortune 500 companies, the prominent role women play in U.S. society may seem evident today. But it wasn’t always so.

The quiz below, from the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University, provides an opportunity for you to test your knowledge of women’s achievements in the United States.

1. In 1848, suffragists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the first woman’s rights convention in American history, which was held in Seneca Falls, N.Y. The statement of Sentiments and Grievances, published at the end of the convention, used language from what historical document?
2. U.S. Constitution
3. Declaration of Independence
4. Emancipation Proclamation
5. The Federalist Papers

2. Who was the first woman to testify on women’s right to vote before a congressional committee, arguing that the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution already gave them the right?
3. Victoria Woodhull
4. Tennessee Claflin
5. Sojourner Truth
6. Catherine Beecher

3. Who is considered to be the first woman newspaper publisher and what was the name of the paper?
4. Katharine Graham and The Washington Post
5. Mary Katherine Goddard and the Providence Gazette
6. Anna Zenger and the New York Weekly Journal
7. Elizabeth Timothy and the South Carolina Gazette

4. Clara Shortridge Foltz is credited with which of these achievements?
5. Creating California’s parole system
6. Ensuring women the right to practice law in California
7. Pioneering the idea of a public defender
8. All of the above

5. Who was the first female U.S. senator and what state did she represent?
6. Rebecca Felton of Georgia
7. Hattie Caraway of Arkansas
8. Rose Long of Louisiana 
9. Dixie Graves of Alabama

6. Who is the first female CEO of a Fortune 500 company?
7. Marion West at Golden West Financial Corp.
8. Linda Wachner at Warnaco Group Inc.
9. Katharine Graham at The Washington Post Co.
10. Jill Barad at Mattel

7. Dorothea Dix played an instrumental role in what area?
8. Advocating for prison reform
9. Creating hospitals for the mentally ill
10. Recruiting nurses for the Union Army in the Civil War
11. All of the above

8. Laura Cornelius Kellogg was instrumental in doing what?
9. Discovering chemotherapy
10. Preserving Native American rights and sovereignty
11. Integrating public schools
12. Spying during the American revolution

9. Which of the following women was instrumental in founding the Red Cross? 
10. Elizabeth Blackwell
11. Florence Nightingale
12. Clara Barton
13. Margaret Zanger

10. Which first lady served as the first chair of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights?
11. Florence Kling Harding
12. Grace Goodhue Coolidge
13. Eleanor Roosevelt
14. Bess Wallace Truman

Answers: 1-B, 2-A, 3-D, 4-D, 5-A, 6-C, 7-D, 8-B, 9-C, 10-C

Sarah Morgan Smith is director of faculty at the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University and editor of Ashbrook’s compendium “Gender and Equality: Core Documents.”