Half the sky

Nalaka Gunawardene and Vindana Ariyawansa

There is a well known Chinese proverb, which was favoured by Mao Zedong, “Women hold up half the sky.” Despite this, women have had to fight for their rightful place in society for much of history – and the struggle for gender equality still continues in the 21st Century.

International Women’s Day (IWD), which falls today, symbolizes this long-running quest. This year marks the centenary of the worldwide observance that started in Europe. Our quiz today starts off with a few questions on women’s rights and gender equality and then roams the knowledge universe exploring other topical matters.

1. Having been proposed a year earlier at the International Conference of Socialist Women in Copenhagen, it was in 1911 that IWD was observed the first time in four European countries - Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. That year, more than one million women (and men) attended IWD rallies campaigning for women’s rights to work, vote, to be trained, to hold public office and to end all gender-based discrimination. However, during the first few years, IWD was marked on another date in March. Which date?

2. International Women’s Day was not always observed on March 8. In which year did the observance move to its current date of March 8?

3. Today adult women have the right to vote and to run for elected office in most countries, but it was not always so. Women’s suffrage, as the movement to win this right was called, originated in France during the 18th Century and sought these rights for all adult women without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or marital status. Which country in 1893 became the first self-governing nation to extend the right to vote to all adult women?

4. Women’s suffrage (right to vote and seek election) is explicitly recognised as a right under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. The Convention was the culmination of more than thirty years of work by the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, a body established in 1946 to monitor the situation of women and to promote women’s rights. In which year was CEDAW adopted?

5. On February 24, 2011, the United Nations celebrated the launch of UN Women, its newest organization, with an evening including luminaries from the worlds of politics, entertainment, business, media, music and film in the UN General Assembly Hall in New York. UN Women combines four previous UN bodies and represents the United Nations’ most ambitious effort ever to accelerate actions to achieve gender equality. What is the full name of this latest UN organization?

6. UN Women was established on in July 2010 by the United Nations General Assembly ‘to lead, support and coordinate the work on gender equality and the empowerment of women at global, regional and country levels’. Who is the first Executive Director of UN Women, holding the rank of Under-Secretary-General? Clue: most recently she served as the President of Chile, 2006 to 2010.

7. The youngest cricketer to represent Sri Lanka in One Day Internationals (ODI) played his first ODI match against New Zealand in Nottingham, England, during the Prudential World Cup of 1979. He was 17 years and 237 days old when he made his ODI debut. Who was he?

8. King’s Speech is a British historical film made in 2010 that attracted a total of 12 Oscar nominations and won 4 including the best actor, best picture and best director. It is based on the true story of a certain British King’s stuttering problem and how he overcame it with the help of a speech therapist. Name this 20th Century king who was the father of current British queen Elizabeth II.

9. The International Olympic Committee, known by its initials IOC, is the global governing body that organizes the modern summer and winter Olympic Games. It was set up by Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics, in 1894 and today brings together 205 National Olympic Committees. In which European city does the IOC have its global headquarters?

10. This pigment is the primary determinant of skin colour in humans, and also plays a key role in deciding the colour of our hair and eyes. It helps protect the eyes from the sun’s harmful ultra-violet rays. What is the name of this pigment?

11. Who is she? Born in 1935 in Sri Lanka, educated at the University of Ceylon and Cambridge University in English Literature, she has been a university professor, literary critic, editor, biographer, bibliographer, novelist, essayist, short story writer and poet.

She has written acclaimed works of fiction including the novels A Change of Skies (1990), The Pleasures of Conquest (1995) and The Sweet and Simple Kind (2006), and a collection of short stories titled Masterpiece (2002). She is a professor emeritus of the Macquarie University in Melbourne, Australia.

12. Sri Lanka’s main highways are designated under A category by number. For example, A1 stretches from Colombo to Kandy. The A9 highway was very much in the news during the conflict. What are the starting and ending cities of the A9 highway, which is 321km (199 miles) long?

13. The postal service in Sri Lanka can be traced back to 1798 when the Dutch coastal administration started five post offices in areas controlled by them. Colonial Ceylon under the British was the first in Asia to introduce a mail coach service, in 1832. Which two cities were linked by this service?

14. India’s fourteenth Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, is acclaimed worldwide as a thinker and a scholar. He earned a first class honours degree from Cambridge University in 1957, and then a D Phil from Oxford University in 1962 in which area of study?

15. Bangalore, also known as Bengaluru, is the third most populous city in India, now famous for its information technology capabilities. It has an estimated population of 5.5 million people. In which Indian state is Bangalore the capital?

Answers will be published next week

Last week’s answers

1. John Wayne
2. Andrew Garfield
3. Aron Ralston
4. Up
5. Batman
6. The northern terminus is Port Said; southern termi nus is Port Tawfik, in the city of Suez.
7. Constantinople Convention of the Suez Canal
8. California
9. ‘Where’s the Rest of Me?’
10. Rio de Janeiro
11. Reader’s Digest
12. Professor Tadashi Noguchi
13. Anpanman
14. ‘Maruti’ is a Sanskrit word referring to Hanuman, said to be a son of Marut, the Hindu God of wind.
16. Bern (also spelt as ‘Berne’)