Women Heads of Government Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bangladesh

Sheikh Hasina Wazed was the eldest child of Bangladesh's founder and first President, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. She was also the widow of nuclear scientist M. A. Wazed Miah. She was Bangladesh's Prime Minister from 1996 to 2001 and between 2001 and 2006 served as Leader of the Opposition, during which time she was the target of an assassination attempt (2004).

She served her second term as Prime Minister from 2009 to 2014 and then went on to win the election of 2014 and began her third term in 2015.

Answer: New Zealand

After rising through New Zealand's government, including roles as Minister of Health, Deputy Prime Minister, and Leader of the Opposition, Helen Clark won the position of Prime Minister in 1999, going on to serve three terms. In 2009, she became Administer of the United Nations Development Programme.

Answer: Sri Lanka

Sirimavo Bandaranaike served as Sri Lanka's Prime Minister for three terms: 1960-65, 1970-77, and 1994-2000. She also served as Opposition Leader from 1965 to 1970 and from 1989 to 1994. She is the widow of S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, who served as Prime Minister of Ceylon from 1956 to 1959. He was assassinated in 1959.

Sirimavo's full name is Sirima Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike (the "vo" signifies respect). Her daughter is Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, who served as President of Sri Lanka from 1994 to 2005. Sirimavo passed away in 2000.

Answer: Pakistan

Very similar to Sheikh Hasina, Benazir Bhutto was the child of a former Prime Minister, served multiple terms as Prime Minister herself, and also served as Opposition Leader. Or, actually, it's the other way round, since Bhutto was the first woman to be democratically elected as leader of a Muslim state.

The daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (Pakistani President 1971-73 and PM 1973-77), Benazir Bhutto served as Prime Minister from 1988 to 1990 and from 1993 to 96.

Answer: Norway

Mrs. Brundtland served as Norway's Prime Minister for a little over eight months in 1981, as well as from 1986 to 1989 and from 1990 to 1996. From 1998 to 2003 she was Director-General of the World Health Organization.

Answer: Israel

Born Golda Mabovitz in 1898 in the Ukraine, Golda Meir moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with her father Moshe in 1903. She married Morris Myerson in 1917 and the couple moved to Palestine in 1921. In 1948 she was among 24 signatories to the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel.

In 1969 she became Israel's Prime Minister, serving until 1974, when she resigned following the Yom Kippur War. Only two nations, Sri Lanka and India, had elected female prime ministers before Israel elected Meir.

She passed away in 1978.

Answer: Germany

A former research scientist, Merkel was elected Chancellor of Germany in 2005. In 2015 "Time" magazine named her their "Person of the Year" and "Forbes" called her "the most powerful woman in the world". Born in Hamburg in 1954, Angela moved with her family from the Federal Republic of Germany (BRD, or West Germany) to the German Democratic Republic (DDR, or East Germany) that same year.

Answer: Myanmar

Aung San Suu Kyi was born in Burma in 1945 but lived abroad, earning a BA from Oxford in 1967 and marrying Michael Aris in 1972. In 1988 she returned to Myanmar to care for her dying mother, becoming an activist for human rights. In 1989 she was placed under house arrest by the military junta ruling the country.

After years of house arrest punctuated by periods of personal freedom, including winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, Suu Kyi won a seat in parliament. In 2016, her adviser, Htin Kyaw, was elected Myanmar's president, and the post of state counsellor, a position above the presidency that allows her to direct national affairs, was awarded to Suu Kyi in April of 2016.

Answer: Poland

Szydlo became Poland's Prime Minister in November of 2015. She was Poland's third female to hold that position, following the terms of Hanna Suchocka from 1992 to 1993, and Ewa Kopacz, who served in 2014 and 2015.

Answer: India

Daughter and only child of Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister and one of India's founding fathers, Indira Gandhi became India's first female PM in 1966. Her first term ended in 1977, ruling by decree over the last three years of that term. In 1980 she regained the PM position, serving until her assassination at the hands of two of her bodyguards in 1984.