[GS] MCQs on India’s Female Firsts: for govt job exams

Preparing for sarkari naukri means you should be aware of the important role of women in India’s progress. Questions related to women are often asked in various government exams like SSC, banks, and railways (not to mention interviews), as they test your social awareness (not just general awareness).

Therefore learn these questions about women in India with these 20 multiple choice questions related to politics, defense, and science.

Try to answer without looking at the web for answers. This will help you assess your knowledge level and also inform yourself about these exam-related questions. You can also check the correct answers and the sources at the end of the quiz. All the best 😊

How Well Do You Know These Amazing Women of India?

1. Who was the first woman president of India?
– A) Indira Gandhi
– B) Pratibha Patil
– C) Sarojini Naidu
– D) Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

2. Who was the first woman fighter pilot in India?
– A) Avani Chaturvedi
– B) Bhawana Kanth
– C) Mohana Singh
– D) All of the above

3. Who was the first woman to receive the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award in India?
– A) Mother Teresa
– B) Lata Mangeshkar
– C) Rukmini Devi Arundale
– D) Indira Gandhi

4. Who was the first woman to climb Mount Everest from India?
– A) Bachendri Pal
– B) Santosh Yadav
– C) Arunima Sinha
– D) Premlata Agarwal

5. Who was the first woman to become the Chief Justice of India?
– A) Leila Seth
– B) Fathima Beevi
– C) Ruma Pal
– D) Ranjana Desai

6. Who was the first woman to win an Olympic medal for India?
– A) Karnam Malleswari
– B) P.T. Usha
– C) Saina Nehwal
– D) Sakshi Malik

7. Who was the first woman to join the Indian Police Service?
– A) Kiran Bedi
– B) Kanchan Chaudhary Bhattacharya
– C) Meera Borwankar
– D) Vimla Mehra

8. Who was the first woman to become the Governor of an Indian state?
– A) Padmaja Naidu
– B) Sarojini Naidu
– C) Sucheta Kripalani
– D) Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

9. Who was the first woman to fly solo in the Indian Air Force?
– A) Harita Kaur Deol
– B) Nivedita Bhasin
– C) Gunjan Saxena
– D) Shaliza Dhami

10. Who was the first woman to become the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament?
– A) Meira Kumar
– B) Sumitra Mahajan
– C) Sushma Swaraj
– D) Sonia Gandhi

11. Who was the first woman to win the Booker Prize from India?
– A) Arundhati Roy
– B) Kiran Desai
– C) Anita Desai
– D) Jhumpa Lahiri

12. Who was the first woman to become a full-time Finance Minister of India?
– A) Nirmala Sitharaman
– B) Indira Gandhi
– C) P. Chidambaram
– D) Arun Jaitley

13. Who was the first woman to win the Miss World title from India?
– A) Aishwarya Rai
– B) Priyanka Chopra
– C) Reita Faria
– D) Manushi Chhillar

14. Who was the first woman to become a Cabinet Secretary of India?
– A) Rajni Razdan
– B) Kusumjit Sidhu
– C) Rita Teaotia
– D) None of the above

15. Who was the first woman to lead the Indian National Congress, the oldest political party in India?
– A) Annie Besant
– B) Sarojini Naidu
– C) Indira Gandhi
– D) Sonia Gandhi

16. Who was the first woman to become a Chief Minister of an Indian state?
– A) Sucheta Kripalani
– B) Nandini Satpathy
– C) Jayalalithaa
– D) Mayawati

17. Who was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize from India?
– A) Mother Teresa
– B) Amartya Sen
– C) Kailash Satyarthi
– D) Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

18. Who was the first woman to become a scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)?
– A) Tessy Thomas
– B) Ritu Karidhal
– C) Nandini Harinath
– D) Anna Mani

19. Who was the first woman to win the Ramon Magsaysay Award, also known as the Asian Nobel Prize, from India?
– A) Kiran Bedi
– B) Aruna Roy
– C) Ela Bhatt
– D) Medha Patkar

20. Who was the first woman to become a chess grandmaster from India?
– A) Koneru Humpy
– B) Tania Sachdev
– C) Harika Dronavalli
– D) Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi

I hope you find these questions interesting and informative. 😊 Check out some of the model questions for SSC exams.

Answer key to Quiz: India’s Female Firsts for govt job exams

1. Pratibha Patil was the 12th president of India from 2007 to 2012.
2. Avani Chaturvedi, Bhawana Kanth, and Mohana Singh are the first three women fighter pilots in the Indian Air Force, who were commissioned in 2016.
3. Mother Teresa was a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and a Catholic nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity.
4. Bachendri Pal was the first Indian woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1984.
5. As of 2024, no woman has been appointed as the Chief Justice of India, the head of the judiciary and the Supreme Court of India.
6. Karnam Malleswari was the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal, when she won the bronze medal in weightlifting at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
7. Kiran Bedi was the first woman to join the Indian Police Service in 1972, and later became the first woman to be appointed as the Director General of the Bureau of Police Research and Development, and the first woman to serve as the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry.
8. Sarojini Naidu was the first woman to become the Governor of an Indian state, when she was appointed as the Governor of United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh) in 1947.
9. Nivedita Bhasin was the first woman to fly solo in the Indian Air Force, when she flew a MiG-21 Bison in 1994. She was also the youngest woman pilot to command a Boeing 737 in 1988, at the age of 26.
10. Meira Kumar was the first woman Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 2009 to 2014.
11. Arundhati Roy was the first Indian woman to win the Booker Prize for literature, for her debut novel The God of Small Things in 1997.
12. Nirmala Sitharaman was the first woman to become a full-time Finance Minister of India, when she assumed office in 2019. She was also the first woman to hold the portfolio of Defence Minister of India, from 2017 to 2019.
13. Reita Faria was the first Indian (& Asian) woman to win the Miss World title, in 1966.
14. As of 2024, no woman has been appointed as the Cabinet Secretary of India, the highest-ranking civil servant and the head of the Cabinet Secretariat.
15. Annie Besant was the first woman to lead the Indian National Congress, the oldest political party in India, when she became its president in 1917.
16. Sucheta Kripalani was the first woman to become a Chief Minister of an Indian state, Uttar Pradesh in 1963.
17. Mother Teresa was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize from India, when she received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her humanitarian work.
18. Anna Mani was the first woman to become a scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), where she worked on meteorological instruments and solar radiation.
19. Ela Bhatt was the first Indian woman to win the Ramon Magsaysay Award (the Asian Nobel Prize) when she received the award in 1977 for her work in community leadership. She is the founder of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), a trade union for poor women workers in India.
20. Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi was the first woman to become a chess grandmaster from India, when she achieved the title in 2001. She was also the first woman to win the British Chess Championship, in 2002.

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