Badass Women!

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

I've seen several places where people are trying to even up the overwhelming bias in most history books where men are central and women peripheral, if present at all.  Likewise collections of inspiring women scientists, programmers, inventors, etc. to try to combat the prejudice that such roles are for men.  I'd like to think such biases are diminishing, and we're starting to recognize the badass women who were an integral part of creating and improving the workd we live in, but there's still a long way to go.

Coming across a new bold, creative, brave, smart woman I'd never heard of before still gives me a little thrill.  So, I figured it would be nice to have a thread where I can share new discoveries and old favorites, and hopefully others will share some of their favorites too!

 

To kick things off, someone in the comments of a Scandinavia and the World mentioned their hometown's hero, Sybil Ludington.  At the age of sixteen, she rode forty miles (Paul Revere's ride was twenty), in the middle of the night and through the rain, to warn the town of Danbury that a British attack was imminent, and to rouse and alert about four hundred minutemen to rally to the town's defense.  Along the way she is said to have had to defend herself from a highwayman with a stick she'd been using to knock on doors.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

Queen Margrethe the First of Denmark. She managed to get a bunch of unruly noblemen united and pointed in the same direction and then unite Denmark, Norway and Sweden into the Union of Kalmar. She also wasn't afraid of stomping on the Church if it started to get ideas about having too much political power. Ultimately the Union fell apart due to her successors being a lot less competent than her.