The Quest for Equality: Women's Rights Movement Quiz

Estimated Completion Time
4 min
The Quest for Equality: Women's Rights Movement Quiz
Image: Paul Thompson/Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

About This Quiz

How much do you know about the remarkable people that fought discrimination against women and advocated the political, economic and social equality of women and men? Take our quiz to pay homage to the great suffragists of the women's rights movement!
When did women in the United States win the right to vote in national elections?
1919
1920
1921
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Women were not allowed to vote in national elections in the United States until 1920.

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Where was the first women's rights convention held?
Trinity Church in New York City
Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York
First Presbyterian Church of Niagara Falls in Niagara Falls, New York
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The First Women's Rights Convention was held at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York, on July 19 and 20, 1848.

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Who were the principal organizers of the Seneca Falls Convention?
Elizabeth Cody Stanton and Lucretia Mott
Susan B. Anthony and Carrie Chapman Catt
Alice Paul and Susan B. Anthony
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The principal organizers of the Seneca Falls Convention were Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a mother of four from upstate New York, and the Quaker abolitionist Lucretia Mott.

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What two women created the National Woman Suffrage Association?
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony
Susan B. Anthony and Carrie Chapman Catt
Elizabeth Cody Stanton and Lucretia Mott
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Elizabeth Stanton and Susan B. Anthony created the National Woman Suffrage Association, which directed its efforts toward changing federal law and opposing the 15th Amendment because it excluded women.

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Which suffragette formed the American Woman Suffrage Association?
Lucy Stone
Carrie Chapman Catt
Alice Paul
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Lucy Stone, a Massachusetts anti-slavery advocate and a prominent lobbyist for women's rights, formed the American Woman Suffrage Association.

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In 1890 the American Woman Suffrage Association and National Woman Suffrage Association joined to form what group?
National American Woman Suffrage Association
United Women's Suffrage Association
National American Women's Suffrage Association
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The two groups merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

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Who became the first president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association?
Susan B. Anthony
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Carrie Chapman Catt
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Elizabeth Cady Stanton became the president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1890.

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Which suffragette severed all ties to the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1916 and formed the National Woman's Party?
Alice Paul
Carrie Chapman Catt
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Alice Paul formed the National Woman's Party and adopted the more militant tactics of its English counterparts, picketing and conducting mass rallies and marches to raise public awareness and support.

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True or false: During World War I the majority of women continued to fight for the right to vote.
true
false
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

During World War I most suffragettes stopped the women's rights campaign to support the war effort.

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What was the "most radical demand" made at the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848?
getting the right to vote
education for all women
separate legal status from their fathers or husbands
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Demanding the right to vote for all women was considered totally radical at the 1848 convention.

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What was the first state to grant women voting rights?
Philadelphia
South Dakota
Wyoming
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The first state to grant women complete voting rights was Wyoming in 1869.

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Which state east of the Mississippi River was the first to give women the right to vote in presidential elections?
Illinois
Virginia
New York
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

In 1913 Illinois finally allowed women the right to vote. Most states east of the Mississippi didn't give women the right to vote until the federal constitutional amendment.

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True or false: Montana's Jeannette Rankin was the first woman to serve in the U.S. Congress.
true
false
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Rankin was sworn into the 65th Congress on April 2, 1917, two years after Montana gave women the right to vote.

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True or false: The House of Representatives passed a voting rights amendment on January 10, 1918.
true
false
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The House of Representatives initially passed a voting rights amendment on January 10, 1918, but the Senate did not follow suit before the end of the 65th Congress.

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Who was the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate?
Shirley Chisholm
Hattie Caraway
Rebecca Latimer Felton
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Hattie Caraway was elected to the Senate in January 1932. Rebecca Latimer Felton was the first woman to serve in the Senate, but she was appointed and not elected.

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What were the suffrage campaign colors?
white, purple and gold
red, white and blue
white, blue and orange
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The suffragettes used white, purple and gold as symbols of their campaign.

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Why were some suffragists jailed?
for unladylike behavior
for picketing the White House
for striking without proper license
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Picketers led by Alice Paul were arrested at the White House on a trumped-up charge of obstructing traffic, and they were jailed when they refused to pay the imposed fines. Despite the danger of bodily harm and imprisonment, the suffragists continued their demonstrations.

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What prison were Alice Paul and the other arrested suffragettes sent to?
Glenn Dale Hospital in Washington
Bedford Hills in New York
Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The arrested suffragists were sent to Occoquan Workhouse, a prison in Virginia. Paul and the other women followed the English suffragette model and demanded to be treated as political prisoners and staged hunger strikes. They were beaten, pushed and thrown into cold, unsanitary, rat-infested cells.

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What is the name of the newspaper Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton began publishing in 1868?
Women's Rights Weekly
The Revolution
Suffrage Newspaper
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton created The Revolution, the women's rights weekly newspaper published between Jan. 8, 1868 and Feb. 17, 1872.

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True or false: In 1873 Susan B. Anthony went on trial for voting.
true
false
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

In the presidential election of 1872, Susan B. Anthony and 14 other women registered to vote in Rochester, New York, then went to the polling place to vote on November 5. All 15 were arrested, along with the registrars.

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How many women at Seneca Falls in 1848 were alive and eligible to cast a vote after passage of the 1920 suffrage amendment?
one
10
20
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Charlotte Woodward was the only woman who attended the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention who was alive in 1920 and eligible to vote. She was too sick to vote, however.

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True or false: California Senator Aaron A. Sargent was a supporter of the women's suffrage movement.
true
false
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Senator Aaron Sargent introduced a joint resolution proposing an amendment that would enfranchise women on Jan. 10, 1878. He was also good friends with both Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

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What free black man attended the first women's rights conference in 1848 and supported women's suffrage?
Frederick Douglass
Dred Scott
George Washington Carver
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

One of the strongest voices for abolitionism, Frederick Douglass worked for woman's suffrage throughout his life and even gave a speech at a women's rights conference on the day he died in 1895.

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True or false: Massachusetts native Parker Pillsbury was an American minister and advocate for abolition and women's rights.
true
false
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Pillsbury helped draft the constitution of the feminist American Equal Rights Association in 1865, served as vice president of the New Hampshire Woman Suffrage Association, and was co-editor of the newspaper The Revolution in 1868.

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What amendment actually allowed women in the United States to vote?
15th
19th
20th
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Passed by Congress on June 4, 1919, and ratified on Aug. 18, 1920, the 19th amendment guarantees all American women the right to vote.

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Who wrote the Equal Rights Amendment?
Alice Paul
Susan B. Anthony
Charlotte Woodward
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The Equal Rights Amendment was written in 1923 by Alice Paul, leader and founder of the National Woman's Party. 

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What is the main premise of the Equal Rights Amendment?
Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.
Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States on account of race or sex.
Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by any state or private institution on account of sex.
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The main premise of the ERA states, "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."

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True or false: The ERA was introduced into every session of Congress between 1923 and 1972, when it was passed and sent to the states for ratification.
true
false
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The seven-year time limit in the ERA's proposing clause was extended by Congress to June 30, 1982, but at the deadline, the ERA had been ratified by 35 states, leaving it three states short of the 38 required for ratification.

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In 2015 what Oscar-winning actress called on Congress to bring back the Equal Rights Amendment in an effort to ratify it?
Meryl Streep
Glenn Close
Sally Field
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Meryl Streep, who starred as British suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst in the film "Suffragette," sent all 535 members of Congress a letter urging them to bring back the Equal Rights Amendment in order to finally ratify it into the Constitution.

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True or false: In 1943 the ERA was rewritten and dubbed the Alice Paul Amendment.
true
false
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The original amendment read, "Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the united states and every place subject to its jurisdiction."

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You Got:
/30
Paul Thompson/Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images