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In this quiz on female leaders, an impressive number of readers – both men and women – proved well versed in modern history, but somewhat less proficient in mathematics. Many messed up on dates. Those who came up with Lucy Burns as the suffragette of clue No. 2 weren’t far off – the American-born Burns was a close colleague of Emmeline Pankhurst. But she was decades younger. Had Burns indeed been jailed for “the cause” at age 54 (in 1933), it would have been most odd: the 19th Amendment had given American women the vote 13 years earlier. Other contestants were misled by the quote “A woman is like a tea bag...” – sometimes attributed to Nancy Reagan. Ah, but young Anne Francis Robbins, a.k.a. Nancy Davis, was an aspiring Hollywood starlet at the time U.N. delegate Eleanor Roosevelt was helping to draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).
From the 28 correct entries, we chose these winners randomly: Yung-chang Chi ’92, Mike Huntley, Terry McQuilkin ’77, MM ’79, Matt Swensson and John S. Jensen ’75. Mr. Jensen kindly volunteered a few more notable leading ladies for our edification: don’t overlook Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, former president of Iceland; and Helen Clark and Jennifer Shipley, New Zealand’s current and past prime ministers! Astute Last Worders, your Borders gift certificates are in the mail.
The correct answers to “Worldly Women” are listed below. If you’re burned out on politics, unleash your propensity for pop culture on our “Oh, Tommy!” quiz.
1. Eleanor Roosevelt – USA
2. Emmeline Pankhurst – United Kingdom
3. Tansu Ciller – Turkey
4. Margaret Thatcher – United Kingdom
5. Golda Meir – Israel
6. Gro Harlem Brundtland – Norway
7. Mary Robinson – Ireland
(extra credit: Mary McAleese)
8. Sadako Ogata – Japan
9. Indira Gandhi – India
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