Kickass Women in History

Kickass Women: Theodate Pope and Belle Naish

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

Kickass Women in History: Rusty Kanokogi

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

Kickass Women in History: Pearl Hart

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

Kickass Women in History: The Valiant Ladies of Potosí

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

Kickass Women in History: Lesya Ukrainka and Olha Petrovna Kosach-Kryvyniuk

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

Kickass Women in History: Faith Bandler

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

Kickass Women in History: Sarah, Lily, Abigail, and Amba

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

Kickass Women in History: Pauline Hopkins

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

Kickass Women in History: Buffalo Calf Road Woman

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

Kickass Women in History: The Tru’ung Sisters

This month we look to Vietnam for Kickass Women. The Tru’ung Sisters led a rebellion against the Chinese in Vietnam and ruled for three years. They lived from around AD 12 to AD 43. This entry comes with a few caveats. For starters, the history of Vietnam is long and complicated and not something I presume to have digested properly in the time it took to research this post. Secondly, stories about the Tru’ung sisters … Continue reading Kickass Women in History: The Tru’ung Sisters

Kickass Women: Mary Seacole

The Crimean War (1853-1856) was a messy and miserable conflict between Russia and an alliance that included Sardinia, France, the Ottoman Empire, and the United Kingdom. Just to make things extra confusing, it is NOT one of the Napoleonic Wars even though during the war France was ruled by Emperor Napoleon III. If I have to keep all this straight, by golly, I’m taking you all with me. Here’s how I tell these conflicts apart: … Continue reading Kickass Women: Mary Seacole

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