Woman Warrior - Historical Examples

Historical Examples

Fu Hao was one of the many wives of King Wu Ding of the Shang Dynasty and, unusually for that time, also served as a military general and high priestess.

Tomoe Gozen is believed to have been a late twelfth-century female samurai warrior (onna bugeisha) who may have pioneered the two-sword style made famous in the 17th century by Miyamoto Musashi.

In terms of normal women fighting as part of a regular army, one of the earliest examples known is Nusaybah bint Ka'ab; the first female to fight battles in defence of Islam and Prophet Muhammad. After her, many others followed. She took part in the Battle of Uhud, the Battle of Hunain, the Battle of Yamama and was part of the battalion deployed which consequently negotiated the Treaty of Hudaibiyah. This was over a millennium before women took active roles in modern western armies.

The daughter of a Duke, Princess Pingyang raised and commanded her own army in the revolt against the Sui Dynasty. Later, her father would become Emperor Gaozu. Artemisia I of Caria was a tyrant of Halicarnassus allied with Xerxes and commanded five ships of her own in the Battle of Salamis; though her actions in the battle are questioned by some historians, it is said that Xerxes commented after the battle, a Persian loss, that "my men have turned into women and my women into men" in compliment to Artemisia's performance. The Spartan princess Arachidamia is said to have fought Pyrrhus (of the phrase "pyrrhic victory") with a group of Spartan females under her command, and killed several soldiers before perishing, though little else is known about her. The British Queen, Boudicca, led a revolt against the Roman Empire in 60 AD but was decisively defeated at at the Battle of Watling Street .

Emilia Plater was a Polish noblewoman who fought as a Captain in the November 1830 Uprising against Russia.

The Roman Empire was known to sometimes have women fighting, called gladiatrix, in gladiator games.

Women leaders have not only played an important role in cultures where there is a direct analogy to the western concept of a "princess," but have also served their societies in indigenous tribal warfare and rebellion, as well. The Dahomey people, who live in western Africa also established an all female militia, who served as royal bodyguards to the king. With regard to Native American history, the majority of Native American tribes possessed respected and well established women leaders of their "militia". These female leaders determined the fate of prisoners of war among other tribal decisions. However, the Europeans and early American men refused to deal with Native American women on such matters and so their significance was not understood or appreciated until relatively recently.

In South Asia and the Indian Subcontinent, the concept of a "woman warrior" exists both in mythology and in history, and there are records of women who have led armies into battle. Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi was one of the leading figures of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and was described by the British as "remarkable for her beauty, cleverness and perseverance", and that she had been "the most dangerous of all the rebel leaders". Unniyarcca was a famed warrior princess who lived in south Indian state of Kerala during the 16th century. Kittur Chennamma, queen of the princely state of Kittur led a rebellion against the British decades before the 1857 uprising.

Indonesia counts a number of female warriors among its National Heroines. Cut Nyak Dhien and Cut Nyak Meutia waged a nationalist war against the Dutch during the Aceh War at the turn of the 20th Century. Another Indonesian National Heroine, Martha Christina Tiahahu, joined a guerrilla war against the Dutch colonial government as a teenager, in 1817.

Somdet Phra Sri Suriyothai (Thai: สมเด็จพระศรีสุริโยทัย) was a royal consort during the 16th century Ayutthaya period of Siam (now Thailand). She is famous for having given up her life in the defense of her husband, King Maha Chakkraphat, in a battle during the Burmese-Siamese War of 1548. For the movie, see The Legend of Suriyothai.

Lyudmila Pavlichenko was a Soviet sniper during World War II, and is regarded as the most successful female sniper in history.