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Quiz: Do you and your kids know this Women’s History Month trivia?

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Women's History Trivia! How Much Do You and Your Kids Know about Women's History?
Aleksej Sarifulin / Getty Images

March is Women’s History Month, and International Women’s Day is celebrated on March 8, 2024 (and annually on the same date). Try this Women’s History Month trivia quiz alongside your kids to test your knowledge about some of the most influential women in history, and see what further research it leads to!

While every day is a great day for families to talk about strong women in history, Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day serve as a special reminder to uplift famous women in American history as well as internationally, and to be inspired by the progress made in gender equality throughout the centuries.

Girls, boys, and kids (and parents!) of any gender can gain so much perspective, knowledge, confidence, and gratitude by learning about some of the amazing women in history who paved the way — not just for females but for all of us, in every realm of life from science and technology to politics and culture.

Bonus: To add to your women’s history trivia knowledge, use some of our suggested scripts to answer curious kids’ questions about how women got the right to vote, why there is no men’s history month, more change-making Black women in history such as Ruby Bridges and Harriet Tubman, and other influential Latina women including Sonia Sotomayor.

Women’s History Month Quiz for Families

Women's history month quiz
1. What is Ada Lovelace famous for?

Answer: B) Ada Lovelace was an English mathematician who became the world’s first computer programmer when she wrote the first algorithm for a machine in the 1800s. She worked with Charles Babbage, known as the “father of the computer,” and published an article explaining how codes could be created for his computing machines. She also came up with the concept of “looping,” or repeating instructions in code. The second Tuesday of October each year is now known as Ada Lovelace Day to celebrate the achievements of women in STEM.

2. After the 19th Amendment became part of the Constitution, were all women in the U.S. able to vote?

Answer: C) Even after the 19th Amendment became part of the Constitution in 1920, many Native American and Black people (including women) were still unable to vote in some states because of racial discrimination at local election offices and unfair laws such as poll taxes and difficult English reading tests. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was designed to finally secure voting rights for racial and language minorities.

3. Which of these famous women in American sports history was the first to win three Olympic gold medals in track and field, after a childhood doctor thought she would never be able to walk again?

Answer: A) Wilma Rudolph became known as “the fastest woman in the world” after winning three gold medals in the 1960 summer Olympics. Rudolph was born prematurely and had many illnesses as a young child, including scarlet fever, double pneumonia, and polio. The polio caused paralysis and as a result she wore a metal leg brace for several years. Her doctor didn’t believe she would ever be able to walk without it. However, with frequent care and encouragement from her parents and siblings, she gradually increased movement in the leg and was running and playing sports by the age of 11. She kept it up, and at age 16, she qualified for the Olympics!

4. At what age did Malala Yousafzai become the youngest person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?

Answer: B) At 17 years old in 2014, Malala Yousafzai become the youngest person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Born in 1997 in Pakistan, she always loved school. When she was around 10 years old, the Taliban violently took over the area of Pakistan where she lived. Taliban control meant that girls were not allowed to attend school anymore, and hundreds of schools were destroyed. But she spoke out for girls’ right to an education, and began writing for international media at age 11. She continued her activism despite the danger, and at age 15 she was shot and seriously wounded by the Taliban, and was brought to the UK where she recovered. When she was 16, she spoke at the United Nations and published her first book.

5. Who was the first woman in the world to be elected president of a country?

Answer: A) In 1980, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir became the first woman in the world to be elected president of a country, as well as Iceland’s first female head of state. Finnbogadóttir had a background in theater and educational television, and as president she led Iceland to focus on the importance of retaining and celebrating its unique language and culture. She ended up being reelected three times and leading her country for a total of 16 years!

6. Which of these important women in history appears on a coin as part of the American Women Quarters Program?
Answer: A) Anna May Wong, who lived from 1905 until 1961, was the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood. Her image first appeared on the U.S. quarter in 2022, and so did these other influential women in history: Maya Angelou, Dr. Sally Ride, Wilma Mankiller, and Nina Otero-Warren.
7. How many Nobel Prizes did Marie Curie win for her work in science?

Answer: B) Marie Curie was a Polish-French scientist who first won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 alongside her husband Pierre Curie for their advancements in the field of radiation. A few years after Pierre’s death, Marie was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911 for the discovery of two radioactive elements, radium and polonium, and for figuring out how to produce radium on its own. Her work was crucial to the radiation we use today in science and medicine, where it is used to treat cancer. Her daughter Irene Joliot-Curie also went on to win a Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

8. American women weren’t typically able to get a credit card in their own name until a law changed that — in what year?

Answer: C) The Equal Credit Opportunity Act became law in 1974. Credit cards had been in mainstream use since 1958, but for those first 16 years women usually had to get a man to co-sign in order to open a credit card account. Even if women made more money than a man in their family, and were able to pay on their own, the banks didn’t see women as financially independent. But the Equal Credit Opportunity Act changed that, making it illegal for banks to discriminate against applicants based on their gender, religion, race, and national origin.

9. How many self-portraits did Frida Kahlo produce in her lifetime?

Answer: C) Frida Kahlo, a Mexican painter who lived from 1907 to 1955, produced 143 paintings, and 55 of them are self-portraits. Kahlo was in a major bus accident that left her seriously injured, and during the isolating period of her long recovery she painted many self-portraits that expressed her pain.

10. Which of these women worked for NASA but was NOT featured in the movie Hidden Figures?

Answer: C) Christine Darden was an aeronautical engineer at NASA. She appeared in the book Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly, but did not make it to the storyline in the well-known movie version because she worked at NASA several years after the 1961-1962 plot featuring the three heroines, Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson. “I was portrayed in the book as standing on their shoulders, and that’s true,” she said. “The fact that they did good work meant that NASA continued to hire, and they hired me.”

Joanna Eng is a staff writer and digital content specialist at ParentsTogether. She lives with her wife and two kids in New York, where she loves to hike, try new foods, and check out way too many books from the library.

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