Social Movements: Feminist, Labor, and Environmental Quiz

Grade 11 · Social Studies · Quiz

Test your understanding of the feminist, labor, and environmental movements in the United States, including key legislation, figures, and turning points.

Questions

1. The National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) of 1935 was significant because it:

   1. Created Social Security and unemployment insurance
   2. Established the 40-hour work week and minimum wage
   3. Guaranteed workers' rights to organize and bargain collectively with a federal enforcement board
   4. Merged craft unions and industrial unions into the AFL-CIO
   Show answer

   Answer: Guaranteed workers' rights to organize and bargain collectively with a federal enforcement board

   The Wagner Act guaranteed private-sector workers the right to organize, join unions, and engage in collective bargaining, and created the National Labor Relations Board to enforce these rights.

2. Which Supreme Court case significantly advanced women's workplace rights by ruling that sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination prohibited by Title VII?

   1. Reed v. Reed (1971)
   2. Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson (1986)
   3. United States v. Virginia (1996)
   4. Frontiero v. Richardson (1973)
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   Answer: Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson (1986)

   In Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson (1986), the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that sexual harassment creating a hostile work environment violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

3. The Kyoto Protocol (1997), which the U.S. Senate refused to ratify, was an international agreement to:

   1. Ban the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) to protect the ozone layer
   2. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change
   3. Establish international standards for toxic waste disposal
   4. Create a global carbon tax on industrial emissions
   Show answer

   Answer: Reduce greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change

   The Kyoto Protocol committed industrialized nations to binding reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S. Senate passed a 95-0 resolution refusing to ratify it, and President Bush withdrew the U.S. signature in 2001.

4. The concept of 'intersectionality,' coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, refers to:

   1. The overlap between labor rights and environmental justice movements
   2. How different aspects of a person's social identities (race, gender, class) overlap and create unique forms of discrimination
   3. The intersection of federal and state authority over civil rights enforcement
   4. The connection between political organizing and legislative lobbying
   Show answer

   Answer: How different aspects of a person's social identities (race, gender, class) overlap and create unique forms of discrimination

   Kimberlé Crenshaw coined 'intersectionality' in a 1989 law review article to describe how overlapping social identities create compounding forms of discrimination that cannot be understood by examining race or gender in isolation.

5. The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA, 1980), known as Superfund, was passed primarily in response to:

   1. The Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska
   2. The Three Mile Island nuclear accident
   3. The Love Canal disaster, where toxic waste buried under a residential neighborhood caused serious health problems
   4. Acid rain damaging forests in the northeastern United States
   Show answer

   Answer: The Love Canal disaster, where toxic waste buried under a residential neighborhood caused serious health problems

   Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York was a neighborhood built over a toxic waste dump; when residents suffered high rates of cancer and birth defects, it led to CERCLA/Superfund and the relocation of over 800 families.

6. The 1981 firing of over 11,000 air traffic controllers by President Reagan is historically significant because it:

   1. Led to the creation of OSHA
   2. Signaled a dramatic shift in the balance of power between employers and unions, accelerating union decline
   3. Was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court
   4. Triggered the creation of the Department of Transportation
   Show answer

   Answer: Signaled a dramatic shift in the balance of power between employers and unions, accelerating union decline

   Reagan's firing of striking PATCO workers set a precedent that emboldened private employers to take harder stances against unions; union membership declined sharply throughout the 1980s as a result.

7. Title IX applies only to athletic programs at schools and universities receiving federal funding.

   Show answer

   Answer: False

   Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in any educational program or activity receiving federal financial assistance, covering academics, admissions, housing, financial aid, and athletics — not just sports.

8. The environmental concept of 'environmental justice' holds that communities of _______ and low-income communities bear a disproportionate burden of environmental hazards.

   Show answer

   Answer: color

   Environmental justice advocates document that communities of color and low-income communities are disproportionately located near toxic waste sites, industrial facilities, and other environmental hazards.

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