The Kingdom of Kush existed along the Nile Valley in what is now parts of Sudan and Egypt. It included the city-states of Kerma, Napata, and Meroë. The inhabitants of this kingdom spoke and wrote in the Meroitic language, a language that is currently almost completely untranslated. Kush existed for over 3,000 years, and during much of that time it was ruled by women. Queen Amanirenas is famous for having successfully resisted the Roman army’s … Continue reading Kickass Women in History: Queen Amanirenas→
While many women in Mexico’s history have been kickass, Elvia Carrillo Puerta is known as “Mexico’s First Feminist.” She campaigned for women’s suffrage and the right to equal access to birth control, divorce, and economic equality. She was especially instrumental in advocating for the rights of Mayan women. Her passion for feminism and socialism led people to call her “The Red Nun.” Elvia was born in 1878 in Motul, Yucatán. She was one of fourteen … Continue reading Kickass Women in History: Elvia Carrillo Puerto→
This month’s Kickass Women column is inspired by The Boxing Baroness by Minerva Spencer, which features a female boxer in Regency England. This was not as unusual in the Regency period as one might think. Literal kickass women entertained crowds and gained Regency fame and fortune in the golden days of bare knuckle boxing. Bare-knuckle boxing was wildly popular in England during the 18th Century, with the peak of its popularity falling during the Regency … Continue reading Kickass Women in History: Regency Era Boxers→
I broke a reading slump by reading something different from my normal fare: Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson, which is a nonfiction book about the sinking of the RMS Lusitania. Turns out that the Lusitania had a lot of kickass women on board when it sank. One of its survivors was Theodate Pope Riddle, one of the first women to be a certified architect in America. She was also … Continue reading Kickass Women: Theodate Pope and Belle Naish→
This edition of Kickass Women in History is by Pam G. PamG’s most interesting era was middle age when she returned to school to earn a BA in English, spent a decade practicing judo with family and friends, and subsequently converted to devout Band Boosterism when her daughter embraced the cult of Marching Band. Ms G is currently spending her twilight years wrangling teenagers in her alma mater’s library media center by day and her … Continue reading Kickass Women in History: Rusty Kanokogi→
Pearl Hart was not only a fascinating individual, but she was also a member of a scrappy family of stubborn survivors, each of whom had their own interesting stories to tell. Pearl Hart led a difficult but adventurous life and gained renown for dressing up as a man and robbing a stagecoach in Arizona in 1899. Bear with me, readers, because the lives of Pearl and her siblings, especially her sister Kate, are hard to … Continue reading Kickass Women in History: Pearl Hart→
This month’s Kickass Women takes us to the silver boom town of Potosí, located in what is now Bolivia, in the 1600s. This city was riddled by crime, but two teenage girls, Ana Lezama de Urinza and Eustaquia de Sonza, took it on the task of cleaning it up. At the time, Potosí was adjacent to a massive silver mining operation owned and run by the Spanish colonizers. Most of the silver was sent by … Continue reading Kickass Women in History: The Valiant Ladies of Potosí→
This month’s Kickass Women in History is all about two kickass sisters from Ukraine, Lesya Ukrainka (born Larysa Petrivna Kosach) and her sister, Olha Petrovna Kosach-Kryvyniuk. These two sisters were literary powerhouses and feminist activists. The sisters came from a literary family. Their mother, Kickass Woman Olha Petrivna Kosach, who used the pen name Olena Pchilka, was a famous writer, translator, and feminist activist. Their father, Petro Antonovych Kosach, was, among other things, an accomplished … Continue reading Kickass Women in History: Lesya Ukrainka and Olha Petrovna Kosach-Kryvyniuk→
NB: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this site contains names, images, and quotes by deceased persons. Can you believe we’ve gone all this time without featuring a Kickass Woman from Australia? This month we are featuring Faith Bandler, a campaigner for the rights of Indigenous Australians and Torres Strait Islanders. She is best known for her decade-long struggle to pass the 1967 referendum on the rights of Indigenous Australians and … Continue reading Kickass Women in History: Faith Bandler→
This month’s Kickass Women doubles as a review of the graphic novel Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts, by Rebecca Hall (Grade: A). This nonfiction book describes Hall’s efforts to uncover the history of women who led slave rebellions – women who often went unnamed and erased by history. Dr. Hall, who qualifies as a kickass woman in her own right, also describes the psychological toll of doing this research, and the way … Continue reading Kickass Women in History: Sarah, Lily, Abigail, and Amba→
I found this month’s Kickass Woman in the pages of Redwood and Wildfire by Andrea Hairston. Pauline Hopkins was an Black author whose work broke barriers and called readers to action. Hopkins was born in Massachusetts in 1859. At sixteen, she began a career as a singer. She was known as “Boston’s favorite colored soprano.” She was also an actress and wrote plays. Her play Slave’s Escape, which later became Peculiar Sam; or The Underground … Continue reading Kickass Women in History: Pauline Hopkins→
The Battle of the Greasy Grass, also known as The Battle of the Little Bighorn, or as Custer’s Last Stand, took place on June 25, 1876 in what is now Montana. It was fought between U.S. troops, led by George Custer, against Lakota Sioux, Arapaho, and Northern Cheyenne warriors led by Sitting Bull, Chief Gall, and Crazy Horse. The Lakota Sioux, Arapaho, and Cheyenne won the battle. While most fighters on both sides were men, … Continue reading Kickass Women in History: Buffalo Calf Road Woman→
