WOMEN WHO CHANGED THE WORLD

Guess Who Basic Game

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Women: Guess Who Game is a printable educational Women: Guess Who Game features:
game that features inspiring women who have changed • twenty amazing women, such as Marie Curie, Frida
the world. They are scientists, explorers, artists, activists, Kahlo, Rosa Parks, Florence Nightingale, Amelia
and more. They come from different social classes and Earhart, Harriet Tubman, Nancy Wake, and many more
from different parts of the world. What unites them here
• forty double-sided character cards, each featuring a full
is that each of them did something extraordinary—and
-height illustration of a mighty woman along with some
they worked hard to get there.
of her notable accomplishments
This game was made:
• twenty biography cards, each featuring an illustration,
• to inspire girls and boys of today—you can be anything a quotation, and a short biography, and a timeline of
if you try the most important events and accomplishments
• to tell about some amazing firsts (did you know who • blank templates to make your own cards or complete
was the world’s first novelist? what about the first deaf research on more amazing women
-blind person to graduate from college?)
• rules for a two-player game
• to celebrate diversity—yes, this particular game is
We hope you will enjoy this game!
about women, but they all come from very different
circumstances
• to touch on some interesting facts of social history (like
the times when, in order to become a nurse, a girl had
to fight really hard against her parents)
• to encourage players’ interest in learning more—and if
they do, there are blank cards in the end of the game,
so that they could add more characters!
2-PLAYER GAME
 PREPARE THE MATERIALS
1. Print one screen with an accomplishment legend
(page 7)
2. Print twenty biography cards (pages 8-12)
3. Print two sets of twenty character cards (pages 13-
14)
4. Optional textured backgrounds (pages 15-16) can
be printed on to the backs of character cards, so
that you would have a blue set and a red set.
5. Cut all the cards out.
SETUP
1. Fold the screen along the marked line, and place it
between the two players, so that each player sees
half of it.
2. Each player arranges twenty character cards face-
up on his/her side of the playing area. They do not
have to be hidden from the other player.
3. Shuffle the biography cards. Set them all to the side
of the screen, face-down. Each player takes one card
from the top of the biography deck. This is going to be
their mystery person for the round. Lean the biography
against the screen, in the place marked.
LET’S PLAY!
The younger player goes first, and the players take
turns asking a single question at a time.
On your turn:
1. Ask a “yes” or “no” question about your opponent’s
mystery person. Do not ask about their appearance—
ask about their accomplishments, based on the icons.
The accomplishment icons are listed on the side on the
character cards and explained in more detail on a
biography card. For example, you could ask, “Was this
woman involved in science?” Or you could ask, “Did
she publish a book?” Your opponent must answer
either “yes” or “no”.
2. Based on your opponent’s answer, flip your character
cards to eliminate some of the women. For example, if
your opponent states that his/her mystery person did
publish a book, you can eliminate Frida Kahlo, Mary
Anning, Harriet Tubman, and Sacagawea.
Next, your opponent takes a turn.
At any point, on your turn you can guess who is featured
on the other player’s biography card. After a correct
guess, you take the biography card of the woman you
guessed (for score keeping) and the other player takes a
new biography card. If incorrect, wait until your next turn
to ask another question.
Once you have made the right guess and the other
player has taken a new biography card, you need to
return all your character cards to their original face-up
position.
The game ends when one of the players has collected
three biography cards. This player wins.
 Table Setup

This is the character that

Player 1’s Character Cards Player 1 needs to guess

Screen

This is the character that Player 2’s Character Cards

Player 2 needs to guess
Involved in science Graduated from college

Involved in arts Ran a business

Involved in mathematics Explored the world

Involved in engineering Was an activist

Involved in medicine Published a book

Place the biography card here
Involved in education Had a physical disability

Involved in politics Rebelled against the law

Involved in military conflicts Married

Involved in journalism Had children

 JANE GOODALL
The least I can (b. UK, 1934-now)
do is speak out
for those who Scientist, environmental activist, and the only
human that has ever been accepted into
cannot speak
chimpanzee society.
for themselves.
1935: Her father gives her a toy chimpanzee.
Friends think that Jane will be horrified of the toy, but
she loves it.
1953: Wants to go to university to study animals, but cannot
afford it. She saves money to go to Africa—to study animals.
1960: Funded by the famous scientist Louis Leakey, she begins a
decades-long study on a group of chimpanzees in Tanzania.
She gives them names and describes their personalities.
1965: Writes a thesis on Behaviour of free-living chimpanzees and
receives a PhD in ethology (skipping all the other degrees).
1977: Establishes the Jane Goodall Institute that is known for
protection of wild life in Africa.
FRIDA KAHLO
(b. Mexico, 1907-1954)
I paint flowers
so they will not Artist, famous for her bold and vibrant self-portraits.
die.
1925: While riding a bus from medical school, where
she has been studying to become a doctor, Frida gets
injured in a traffic accident. It leaves her suffering from severe pain
and serious health problems for the rest of her life. During the
months of recovery, Frida starts painting.
1929: Joins Diego Rivera, a fellow artist and communist, in “a
marriage between an elephant and a dove”. Diego is a big man
who is 20 years older than her, but he is willing to look after her
health, and they share a passion for art and Mexican culture.
1938: Exhibition in New York. 1939: Exhibition in Paris and divorce,
1940: Remarries Diego Rivera.
1943: Accepts a teaching position in an art school. Unfortunately,
at this point, her health is rapidly declining.
ROSA PARKS
(b. USA. 1913-2005)
You must never
be fearful about
“The first lady of civil rights" and "the
what you are
mother of the freedom movement”.
doing when it is
right. 1955: Refuses to leave her seat in the
“coloured section” of the bus to a white
passenger, after the “whites only section” is
filled up. The coloured community of Montgomery, AL,
supported her and boycotted the public buses for 381
days.
1956: With buses standing and businesses suffering, the
city has to officially lift its bus segregation. The bus
boycott ends.
Afterwards: Becomes an icon of Civil Rights Movement.
Suffers hardships as well—it’s difficult for her to find a
job. Stays socially active for the rest of her life.
MARIE CURIE
Nothing in life (b. Poland, 1867-1934)
is to be
feared. It is Chemist and physicist who pioneered research on
only to be radioactivity. The first woman to win a Nobel Prize
understood. and the only person to win in two scientific fields.
1891: Goes to France to study at the University of Paris.
1895: Marries Pier Currie. They like cycling, travelling and— of
course, science. Together they discover two new elements—
polonium and radium and begin the study of radioactivity.
1903: Nobel Prize in Physics.
1906: Pier Currie dies in an accident. The University of Paris
offers his seat to the devastated Marie. She becomes the first
female professor of the University of Paris.
1911: Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
1914: During WWI, she develops mobile radiography units
and sets up France's first military radiology centres.
 NANCY WAKE MARY ANNING
I hate wars and violence,
(b. New Zealand, 1912-2011) (b. UK. 1799-1849)
but if they come, then I
don't see why we, women, The world has used
WWII special agent, saboteur, and
me so unkindly, I Fossil collector and paleontologist, whose
should just wave our men resistance commander, who was
fear it has made me discoveries changed the way people
a proud goodbye. the Gestapo's most wanted person with a
suspicious of thought about the history of Earth. An
5-million-franc price on her head.
everyone. outsider to the scientific community because
1933: Works for an American Hurst newspaper in Europe. of her gender and social status, she made
One of her assignments includes an interview with Hitler. lasting contributions to it.

1940: Lives in France with her husband. When Germany invades
France, she uses her car as an ambulance and brings goods to
refugees. After France surrenders, she joins the French resistance as
a messenger. Nazis don’t suspect a pretty young woman like her!
1943: Escapes to UK and joins Special Operations Executive
(organization responsible for sabotage and espionage in occupied
Europe) and First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (captain).
Childhood: Her father takes her and her brother fossil-hunting to
the cliffs around Lyme Regis. After his death, the children go fossil-
hunting on their own.
1811: Her brother finds a skull, and Mary finds a skeleton of a
strange creature that no one has ever seen. At the time, when
most people haven’t heard of evolution or extinction, it’s an
incredible find that proves species extinction.

1944: Goes back to France to fight with a French resistance group. 1823: Finds the first complete skeleton of plesiosaurus.
She turns it into a very successful group of 7000+ members.
1826: Opens a fossil shop with an ichthyosaur skeleton on
Post-War: Gets involved in Australian politics, but isn’t elected. display. It is visited by many scientists and even a king!

HARRIET TUBMAN ANNIE JUMP CANNON

There was one of two A life spent in the
(b. USA, c.1822-1913) (b. USA, 1867-1934)
things I had a right to routine of science
— liberty or death; if I Born a slave, she later became an anti-slavery need not destroy the An astronomer with a gift for
could not have one, I activist who rescued about seventy enslaved attractive human classifying stars.
would have the people. She was a scout and spy during the element of a woman's
Youth: After graduating from college,
other. American Civil War. nature.
develops interest in photography and
Childhood: Gets regularly beaten by her owners. In a takes a trip to Europe, later publishing a
violent attack, receives a serious head wound and suffers from it for pamphlet about it.
the rest of her life. 1893: Due to scarlet fever, becomes nearly deaf and decides
1849: Escapes from slavery in Maryland and moves to to focus on science. Starts working as a physics teacher in
Pennsylvania, where she lives and works as a free woman college and gets interested in astronomy.

1850s: Comes back for most of her family (some refuse to go) and
other slaves who want to escape—over 70 people. It is dangerous,
and the journey is difficult, but she never loses a person.
1861: Serves as a nurse, an armed scout and a spy for the US Army.
Post-War: Supports her family and advocates for women’s rights.
1896: Becomes a part of a group of women in Harvard
Observatory, whose goal is to map and define every star
in the sky (in her lifetime, Annie did 350,000!). Shortly after,
she suggests changes in the classification system.
1922: The International Astronomical Union adopts Annie's
stellar classification system. They still use it today.
 MURASAKI SHIKIBU
One ought not to be unkind
to a woman merely on (b. Japan, c.973–c.1014)
account of her plainness,
any more than one has a
The author of the world’s first
right to take liberties with her novel—The Tale of Genji.
merely because she is
Childhood: Grows up in her father’s
handsome.
house. It’s unusual for the time: most
children live with their mothers, in a
separate house. She shows great intelligence
and learns Chinese while it’s being taught to her brother.
c. 1000: Begins The Tale of Genji, a story of an emperor’s son,
who was removed from a line of succession. Also writes
poetry.
c. 1005: Gets invited to join the court as a lady-in-waiting to
Empress Shoshi, probably because of her fame as a
writer. Continues writing poetry while in service and also
creates The Diary of Lady Murasaki about her life in court.
c. 1010: Completes The Tale of Genji.
AMELIA EARHART
(b. USA, 1897– c.1937)
A pioneer aviator and the first woman to fly solo non-
stop over the Atlantic ocean.
Adventure is
worthwhile in Childhood: Keeps a scrapbook of newspaper
itself. clippings about women who had success in
unusual areas—like law and engineering.
1917: While visiting Toronto, sees WWI soldiers who return
wounded. Gets nurse’s aid training and works in a military hospital.
1921: After a ride in an airplane, falls in love with it, saves money and
gets flying lessons from Anita Snook, another female aviation pioneer.
1928: Transatlantic flight in a group of three. Flies solo across North
America and back—the first woman to do so. Becomes an editor for
Cosmopolitan and encourages women to fly and travel.
1932: The first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.
1937: Disappears while attempting to fly around the world.
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE
(b. UK. 1820-1910)
The founder of nursing as we now know it.
I attribute my
success to this: I 1844: Begins to study nursing, despite her
never gave or aristocratic family’s protests.
took an excuse.
1854: Goes to Crimea and finds the
conditions for wounded to be bad. Her efforts
reduce the death rate among the wounded from 42% to 2%!
Her methods are simple: she insists on better hygiene,
nutritious food and bedrest—a revolutionary approach! She
also initiates fixing of the sewage and ventilation systems.
1859: Writes a book Notes on Nursing. Florence is good at
mathematics, and her works are full of statistical information.
She popularizes the pie chart and invents the polar area
diagram. In her other books, she also writes about women’s
identity and eventually, feminism.
1860: Sets up Nightingale Training School, which becomes
the first secular school of nursing in the world.
VALENTINA TERESHKOVA
(b. Russia, 1937-now)
Once you've been The first woman to fly in space and the
in space, you only woman to have been on a solo
space mission.
appreciate how
small and fragile 1959: Works at a textile factory, while
the Earth is. training in skydiving as a hobby and
making her first parachute jump.
1962: Gets selected to join the female cosmonauts corps.
Qualifications required: parachute experience, under 30 years of
age, under 170 cm tall and under 70 kg weight. Undergoes
training that includes weightless flights, isolation tests, centrifuge
tests, rocket theory, spacecraft engineering, 120 parachute jumps
and pilot training.
1963: Orbits the Earth 48 times in Vostok 6. Her call signal is
Chaika (Seagull). She takes scientifically important photos.
Post-flight: Studies engineering in university and becomes an
important political figure.

Tomorrow morning I will
WU ZETIAN
make an outing to
Shanglin Park. (b. China, 624–705)
With urgent haste I inform
the spring: The only female emperor of China.
Flowers must open their
petals overnight. Childhood: Born into a rich family
Don't wait for the morning with a supportive father, Wu spends
wind to blow!
her early years learning. She’s
interested in politics, music and literature.
She writes poetry her whole life.
638: Gets chosen as one of Emperor’s concubines.
649: The Emperor dies, but his son, the new Emperor, is
in love with Wu and takes her back, eventually having
two sons with her and making her his Empress.
665: With her husband sick, she rules the country.
690: Becomes the emperor of China and starts her own
dynasty. During her rule, the country prospers. She
brings positive changes to social order, agriculture and
education.
AGATHA CHRISTIE
(b. UK, 1890-1976)
The best selling novelist of all time—her novels
Very few of us
are what we have sold roughly 2 billion copies.
seem.
1910: Writes her first stories, as well as poems
and music. A few get published, but she isn’t
serious about literature as a future profession.
WWI: Works as a nurse and later as a dispenser.
1920: Her first novel, featuring the detective Poirot, is published.
After that, she starts writing consistently, creating two very
successful detective series and implementing innovative
techniques, In one of her books, the criminal is the one who tells
the story (yet readers don’t know it until the end!).
1930: Marries the archaeologist Max Mallowan, They spend much
time in the Middle East. Agatha writes and helps with the
archaeological restoration. Her travels inspire exotic settings in
her novels.
NELLIE BLY
(b. USA. 1864-1922)
Energy rightly A pioneer of investigative journalism.
applied and
1880: Writes a scathing response to an
directed will
article What Girls Are Good For and
accomplish
gets a job in Pittsburgh newspaper.
anything.
1887: Writes a famous piece on the
Women’s Lunatic’s Asylum for New York World.
To do that, she pretends to be insane. She discovers truly awful
conditions! Her report is a sensation and prompts social reform.
1888: Goes on a trip around the world to turn Around the World
in 80 Days into a reality. With just one bag and a monkey she
buys on the way, she does it in 72 days.
Later: After her industrialist husband’s death, runs his
manufacturing business. She patents innovative designs for a
milk can and a garbage can!
1914: The first female correspondent of the Eastern front.
HEDY LAMARR
Hope and (b. Austria, 1914-2000)
curiosity about
An actress and an inventor.
the future seem
better than 1930: Stars in her first movies, in Europe.
guarantees.
1933: Gets married to a wealthy
manufacturer. He doesn’t want her to have
a career or any life of her own,
1937: Escapes from her husband and moves to the USA. For
the next decade, she appears in many movies, usually
playing glamorous, exotic ladies.
1940: Upon hearing about how radio-controlled torpedoes
can be easily set off course, she thinks of creating a high-
frequency hopping signal. She does it together with
composer/pianist George Antheil. They patent the
invention, but the US Navy doesn’t try to implement it.
1962: Their invention gets used in the Cuban war, and
eventually leads to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
 ADA LOVELACE
(b. UK, 1815-1852)
I never am really
satisfied that I A gifted mathematician who
understand wrote the first program ever—for a
anything. machine that did not exist.
Childhood: Her mother is worried that
Ada might take after her father Lord Byron (a poet, as great
as eccentric) and encourages an interest in logic and math.
1833: Meets mathematician Charles Babbage who
becomes her life-long working partner.
1843: After Babbage makes designs for the Analytical
Engine (an early computer), Ada writes about it,
explaining its importance and possible capabilities. She
creates an example of an algorithm for it, which is
considered to be the world’s first program tailored for a
computer. In reality, the machine is never built, but
Ada’s work gives insight into the potential of computers.
SACAGAWEA
(b. USA, 1788-1812)
Everything I
During the first American expedition to the West,
do is for my
all the way to the Pacific ocean, she was a
people.
diplomat, an interpreter, and the only woman.
1788: Born an Agaidika (Salmon Eater) of
Lemhi Shoshone tribe in Idaho, USA.
1800: Captured by the Hidatsa tribe and, within a year, sold into
a nonconsensual marriage with Toussaint Charbonneau.
1804: Meets with the expedition who engage her husband and
her as guides and interpreters.
1805: Gives birth to her son and, two months later, heads west
with the expedition, while carrying the infant on her back.
She helps with negotiations, trade and, occasionally,
direction. Most importantly, she symbolizes the peaceful
nature of the expedition.
HELEN KELLER
(b. USA. 1890-1968)
Although the
The first deaf-blind person to graduate
world is full of
from university, she later became an
suffering, it is full
author and an activist.
also of the
overcoming of it. 1882: An unknown disease (possibly
scarlet fever) leaves her deaf and blind.
1887: Has about 60 signs to communicate with her family when
her parents engage young Anne Sullivan as her instructor (Helen
later refers to their first meeting as “her soul’s birthday). Anne
teaches her to communicate by spelling words into her palm.
1900: After schools for the deaf/blind, goes to study in Radcliff
College of Harvard University. Anne stays as her companion.
1904: Becomes the first deaf-blind person to earn a BA.
Later: Goes on to become a writer and a lecturer. She
advocates for people with disabilities, suffrage, socialism
and pacifism.
ANNA PAVLOVA
(b. Russia, 1881-1931)
No one can arrive
A talented ballerina, who, with her
from being talented
own company, was the first to tour
alone. Work
the world.
transforms talent into
genius. 1891: Gets accepted into the Imperial
Ballet School. At the time, ballerinas are
small and compact; Anna with her long
and thin limbs is considered substandard. But she practices
all the time—and eventually changes the standard.
1906: Becomes a prima ballerina in Mariinsky Theatre after
dancing in Giselle.
1908: Forms a company that performs around the world.
The performers dance abridged parts of famous ballets
and specially choregraphed pieces. Over the years, they
tour all over Europe, Asia, USA, and Australia!
After WWI: Forms an orphanage for Russian children in
Paris and provides for them.
 Jane Goodall Frida Kahlo Rosa Parks Marie Curie Nancy Wake
primatologist & anthropologist artist civil rights activist physicist & chemist secret agent

Mary Anning Harriet Tubman Annie J. Cannon Florence Nightingale Murasaki Shikibu
founder of modern nursing author of the very first novel
paleontologist scout and civil rights activist astronomer
Amelia Earhart Valentina Tereshkova Wu Zetian Agatha Christie Nellie Bly
aviation pioneer the first woman in space emperor of China the best selling novelist ever innovative journalist

Hedy Lamarr Ada Lovelace Helen Keller Sacagawea Anna Pavlova

actress & inventor mathematician & programmer deaf-blind author and activist explorer & diplomat ballerina
MAKE-YOUR-OWN CARDS
 Make Your Own Cards
Have you played many times, and you would like to have new cards?
One of the women you particularly admire doesn’t appear in the
game? Or, possibly, you are using this game in an educational
environment, and you’d like your students to do further research?
Use the templates for make-your-own-cards from the end of this file
and fill them in with other inspiring women from history.
Then, next time you can even have a game with the cards you
created!
 NAME:
Place of birth:
ACCOMPLISHMENT ICONS
Dates of life:
Involved in science Graduated from college
Main accomplishment:
Involved in arts Ran a business

Important life events: Involved in mathematics Explored the world

Involved in engineering Was an activist

Involved in medicine Published a book

Involved in education Had a physical disability

Involved in politics Rebelled against the law

Involved in military conflicts Married

Involved in journalism Had children

Paste the accomplishment icons here

NAME:
Place of birth:
ACCOMPLISHMENT ICONS
Dates of life:
Involved in science Graduated from college
Main accomplishment:
Involved in arts Ran a business

Important life events: Involved in mathematics Explored the world

Involved in engineering Was an activist

Involved in medicine Published a book

Involved in education Had a physical disability

Involved in politics Rebelled against the law

Involved in military conflicts Married

Involved in journalism Had children

Paste the accomplishment icons here
 name:
accomplishment:
Paste the accomplishment icons here

name:
accomplishment:

Paste the accomplishment icons here

name:
accomplishment:

Paste the accomplishment icons here

name:
accomplishment:

Paste the accomplishment icons here

name:
accomplishment:

Paste the accomplishment icons here