Ching Shih
When it comes to Chinese warrior women, thoughts automatically jump to Mulan – thanks largely to Disney and her folk hero status. But Ching Shih is a name you may be less familiar with and was one of the most feared pirates – insert Kanye voice – of all time. She was working as a sex worker in the late 1700s when pirates captured her, with Ching going on to marry Zheng Yi in 1801 who came from a long line of famous thieves and commanded a massive force called the Red Flag Fleet which spanned 200 ships (and historians estimate between 20,000 – to 40,000 men). Yet his empire was at risk of sinking to the bottom of the sea when he died in 1807. Yet Ching Shih, being the boss lady that she was, took over and grew the fleet to 1800 sailing vessels and 80,000 crew members. She even set up her own form of government within the ranks where there were established laws and people paid taxes. And if you broke her laws, she cut off your head. Unlike most pirates, she didn’t meet a violent end and instead retired from the business with all her loot and dying at 69.
Mary Anning
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A palaeontologist, fossil collector and researcher from Dorset, England, Mary Anning was born the daughter of a carpenter and the first of ten children. She lived near the Blue Lias cliffs and grew up collecting fossils that were often found on the shore there with. While her father and brother began selling their finds to collectors, she made a career the things she discovered. She opened a shop with skeletons and fosils on display that attracted the attention of the international scientific community. It was a dangerous profession back in the 1800s, with Anning narrowly avoiding death several times due to landlsides at the cliffs – one such landslide even killed her faithful dog, a terrier that was always her companion while collecting. As a working class woman she was considered an outsider of the scifentifc community, with many of her discoveries actually being published by men – without her credited – because women weren’t allowed to join the Geological Society Of London, vote or attend university. Yet her findings continued to influence paleontology long after her death of breast cancer at 47. Her findings went on to become key pieces of evidence in proving extinction and identifying countless species of dinosaur.
Wilma Mankiller
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Politician, author, tribal chief and feminist – Wilma Mankiller was a memorable and important historical figure. The first female chief of the Cherokee Nation, she served for 10 years between 1985 and 1995. After getting married as a teen and having two daughters, she returned to school later in life getting a university degree and becoming involved in the activist movement, specifically the occupation of Alcatraz Island. During her time as female chief, the population of citizens dramatically increased from 55,000 to 156,000. She also authored two seminal texts: her autobiography and Every Day Is A Good Day: Reflections of a Contemporary Indigenous Woman. She’s credited with improving government and Native American relations, reopening a tribal high school and improving gender representation. She was once quoted as saying: “Prior to my election, young Cherokee girls would have never thought that they might grow up and become chief.” In 1998 Bill Clinton awarded her the medal of freedom.
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Julie d’Aubigny
A woman whose life was so extraordinary, many have trouble reconciling everything she did in the one tale. Her name was Julie d’Aubigny and she was a French Opera singer and expert fencer. Born in 1673, she was an openly bisexual woman who also went by the name Madame de Maupin. She was most famous for her wild antics which included – at one point – leaving her first husband for a young woman. When the young woman’s parents found out about the affair, they sent her to a remote convent in France. Maupin entered undercover, used a dead nun’s body as a decoy, broke her girlfriend out of the convent and then burned it to the ground. In another instance, she fought a young nobleman in a duel: injuring him drastically only to find out he was the son of the Duke Of Luynes. Later, they became lovers and lifelong friends. Maupin would frequently dress as a man when she felt like it, but also had a successful career as a touring opera singer. Her career came to an end, however, after she kissed a young woman at a society ball and was challenged to duels by three different noblemen – all of whom she beat. She then had to flee Paris due to a law from the King that forbade duels in the city. She died in a convent in Provence at only 33.
Ettie Rout
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Kiwi suffragette and sex education activist Ettie Rout was actually born in Launceston, Tasmania in 1884 and moved to Wellington, New Zealand when she was three. She became a shorthand typist for the Supreme Court, which historians believe gave her a wide perspective on social and political issues, before she became a news reporter. She’s most famous for her work as a volunteer nurse during the first World War which made her aware of the frequency of STIs among servicemen due to unprotected sex. She took to inspecting brothels so she could compose a recommendations list to servicemen and Rout made distributing safe sex kits one of her top priorities. In France she was awarded for her efforts, but in New Zealand if publications dared print her name they could be fined up to $100. She died in 1935 in the Cook Islands.
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