Two women disenchanted with the fact the popular board game Trivial Pursuit has no version focusing on women have developed their own gender-based game.
“We’re not man-bashing,” says Odette McCarthy. “Men can play it, too.”
The former Regina woman who now lives in Montreal said her business partner Joanna Broadhurst came up with the idea seven years ago while reading about all the versions of Trivial Pursuit.
“I’m an old friend – 14 years – and I’ve been enthusiastic about the project since the beginning,” McCarthy said.
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The two started researching the questions in earnest about 18 months ago and developed the look and format of the game. It came on the market in October and within three months they have sold 1,000 copies of Eve’s Quest.
Christmas sales went well and McCarthy joked they were “really big in Regina” where her family lives. The game is sold in 65 Canadian book and toy stores and the partners plan to turn their attention this year to the U.S. market.
The board game celebrates women’s achievements by asking players to guess them through questions and charades or by completing challenges in drawing, singing and intuition.
The game is for players 14 and older. Two-thirds of the content is based on North American women while the other third is international.
Farm women are not a prominent part of the game, McCarthy said, but there are questions about a Quebec woman farm activist and the Latino woman involved in farm workers’ issues in the United States.
She said if the first game sells well they plan to do a version for girls aged eight to 14 and another for Canadian women.
McCarthy and Broadhurst, who were on maternity leaves from their jobs when they started developing the game, are still working from their homes. With two children each and a third expected by McCarthy, the women developed the 1,000 questions with babies in tow.
She said the game was initially financed using “love money” from family and friends, but to get more capital they have been networking with women’s organizations. They have not yet approached the banks.
McCarthy said they have not yet turned a profit and still have debts. They have had no negative experiences in their new lives as entrepreneurs, she added, other than the traditional problem for women of juggling kids, spouses and work.
“If you don’t keep your priorities straight it’ll be a problem.”
Both still have jobs. McCarthy works in international development while Broadhurst is a social worker. McCarthy said they will measure success by when they can quit their jobs and work on the game full time.
Their politics are reflected in some of their business decisions, such as printing the game in Canada. Even though it probably would have been cheaper to print it in China, McCarthy said they then wouldn’t have been able to control the labour conditions and that wouldn’t have fit with their concerns about how workers are treated.
“For us, it was important to give back.”
The partners donate $2 from each game sold to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.
As well, a tournament using Eve’s Quest is planned for March 8, international women’s day. It will be a fundraiser for the Women’s Future Fund, which raises money for Canadian women’s organizations.
Test your knowledge
1) What was the name of the radio program used by Therese Casgrain to gain the support of rural women for the suffrage movement in Quebec, Canada? a) Femina b) Femmes en mouvement
c) Feministe
2) In what year did Dolores Fernandez Huerta become the first Chicana negotiator in the U.S., making labour history and winning the first contracts for farm workers? a) 1958 b) 1962 c) 1970
3) Women represent 70 percent of the world’s poorest people and work two-thirds of the world’s working hours. How much of the world’s income do women earn? a) 10 percent b) 20 percent c) 30 percent.
Answers: Femina, 1962, 10 percent.
