Mind The Gap: The 2025 year-ender gender quiz
Another year gone by and it’s time for my year-ender gender quiz. Let’s go…
Heroes and villains
- In what was billed as a “clash of generations”, this 19-year-old beat 38-year-old Koneru Humpy at the FIDE Women’s World Cup 2025 in Georgia in July. Can you name her?
- Banu Mushtaq’s collection of short stories was the first work in Kannada to win the International Booker prize. Name the book.
- This member of Parliament introduced a private member’s bill in Parliament seeking to make marital rape a crime. The name of this MP is?
4. That’s the actor Dileep leaving the Ernakulam District and Sessions Court after his acquittal in the case involving the sexual assault of a woman actor in 2017. What was Dileep accused of?
5. Her posthumously published memoir has excruciating details about being sex-trafficked by convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. Just before its publication, the brother of King Charles, Andrew was stripped off all his titles. The name of the woman is?
6. Six years after he was sentenced to life imprisonment for kidnapping and raping a minor girl, the Delhi high court suspended the sentence of this former BJP MLA and set him free. What is his name?
7. This beloved primatologist died aged 91 while on a speaking tour. She is?
At home
8. In a bid to stem declining fertility, which of these men (could be more than one) publicly urged women to have more children?
i) Mohan Bhagwat
ii) Chandrababu Naidu
iii) MK Stalin
iv) Narendra Modi
9. This state became the first to pass a uniform civil code in independent India. Can you name it?
i) Goa
ii) Uttarakhand
iii) Maharashtra
iv) Gujarat
10. By the end of 2025, as many as 15 states were handing out unconditional cash transfers to women. True or false?
i) The first state to distribute cash to women was Andhra Pradesh.
ii) In Bihar, Nitish Kumar distributed ₹10,000 each to 14.1 million women on the eve of the elections and won.
iii) Unconditional cash transfers recognize the power of the woman voter who is increasingly determining election outcomes.
iv) Studies show that women use the extra cash in hand for gambling and drinking.
11. This state became the first in India to offer menstrual leave in both the government and private sector.
i) Goa
ii) Sikkim
iii) Karnataka
iv) West Bengal
12. Women and work. True or false?
i) Women’s workforce participation is low because women bear a disproportionate burden of housework.
ii) The three sectors that hire the largest number of women are construction, power and chemicals.
iii) More than half of all large companies hire less than 10% of women.
iv) Women’s workforce participation is unrelated to policies such as flexible work arrangements, mentorship and family care policies by companies.
Leading the way
13. Harmanpreet Kaur led the Indian team to its first World Cup cricket victory. But it was an unbeaten 127 that took India to the finals. Who scored that 127?
14. Nepal’s first woman chief justice is now also its first woman prime minister. This 73-year-old grandmother was sworn in as interim prime minister after anti-corruption protests ousted the previous government. Can you name her?
15. This country nominated its former vice-president Rebeca Grynspan to take over from Antonio Guterres of Portugal as United Nations secretary general when he steps down on January 1, 2027. If elected, she will become the first woman secretary general in the UN’s 80-year history. Her country is?
16. This is Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s first woman prime minister. True or false?
i) Her idol is Margaret Thatcher.
ii) She is a proud feminist who has promised to push gender rights in her country.
iii) She is a heavy metal drummer.
iv) She is a former journalist.
Around the world
17. Can’t make this s*** up! True or false?
i) Hungary banned the popular Budapest Pride Parade.
ii) In Italy, a Meta (formerly Facebook) group had men exchanging intimate photos of their wives without their knowledge.
iii) Weeks after Donald Trump’s swearing in, Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan, barred from leaving Romania where they were facing charges of rape and trafficking, flew back to the US on a private jet.
iv) Brigitte Macron filed a libel suit against two women who say she was born male.
18. Towards the end of the year, this country had banned social media use for children under 16. It is:
i) China
ii) India
iii) Australia
iv) Austria
19. This four-part series on television sparked a global conversation on toxic ideas of masculinity into which young men are being indoctrinated. Name it.
20. At its world premiere, this film by Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania received a 23-minute long standing ovation. It is based on the story of a five-year-old Palestinian girl whose family was killed in January 2024 by Israeli Defence Forces. What is the name of the film?
21. In January, this country became the first in southeast Asia to legalize same-sex marriage. It is:
i) Singapore
ii) Thailand
iii) Malaysia
iv) Philippines
Answers
- She is Nagpur-born Divya Deshmukh who won two golds and one bronze at the Women’s Chess Olympiad and took the title at the Women’s Chess World Cup 2025.
2. The book is Heart Lamp, a collection of 12 short stories that capture the hardships of Muslim women living in southern India. It is not only the first work in Kannada to win the prestigious prize but also the first short story collection to do so. The stories were translated into English by Deepa Bhasthi who shared the prize with Mushtaq.
3. Shashi Tharoor.
4. Dileep had been accused of ordering the abduction and sexual assault of a female colleague allegedly as ‘revenge’ since she told his wife about his extra-marital affair. The court convicted six men of rape and abduction but could find no conspiracy by Dileep.
Nobody’s Girl by Virginia Giuffre was published after her death by suicide in April this year. Epstein of course continues to make news even after his own death, also allegedly by suicide in prison, with sickening revelations of his reach among the powerful and well-connected including US president Donald Trump, former president Bill Clinton, left intellectual Noam Chomsky and billionaire Bill Gates.
6. Kuldeep Sengar.
7. Jane Goodall transformed our understanding of animals and the natural world. When she was hired by Louis Leakey to research chimpanzees in the wild in Gombe, western Tanzania in 1960, there were almost no women in the field. She established that chimps had emotions, empathy and culture.
8. Mohan Bhagwat urged women to have at least three children twice this year. And, concerned about their states’ declining population chief ministers Chandrababu Naidu (Andhra Pradesh) and M.K. Stalin (Tamil Nadu) also said women should have more children. So, it’s (i), (ii) and (iii).
9. It’s (ii) Uttarakhand. Goa incidentally has a uniform civil code that predates independence.
10. (i), (ii) and (iii) are true. The last statement, (iv) is false, obviously!
11. It’s (iii) Karnataka that introduced 12 days of paid leave, or one day a month, off as menstrual leave.
12. (ii) and (iv) are false. In fact, construction, power and chemicals are sectors that hire the least number of women. Also, companies that adopt and implement policies such as flexible work arrangements tend to retain women employees more than those that don’t have such policies.
13. Rodrigues.
14. Following the protests known as the Gen-Z protests, Sushila Karki who has a clean image and the support of student leaders took oath of office as Nepal’s first woman prime minister.
15. Costa Rica.
16. All true, except (ii).
17. In an often bizarre world for gender rights that saw a reversal of many gains (and not fast-enough change) all are true.
18. It’s (iii) Australia.
19. Adolescence set off a global debate on the toxic effect of the manosphere on young men.
20. The Voice of Hind Rajab is based on the true story of the Rajab family fleeing Gaza City in January 2024 when their vehicle was hit by an Israeli tank, killing everyone but the child. Rajab begged for help from the Palestinian Red Crescent. After three hours, the Israeli army finally allowed an ambulance to go through but the ambulance was also bombed. The film focuses on Rajab’s final hours in a war that killed an estimated 16,000 Palestinian children.
21. It’s (ii) Thailand
