Female Knights of the Middle Ages
Women commanded troops, defended cities, and entered chivalric orders, challenging the familiar image of knighthood and claiming recognition for military courage and leadership.
Women worth knowing
All Stories
Extraordinary women, overlooked stories, and a more complete history. Explore the lives, ideas, and achievements that changed the world.
Warriors & Soldiers
Masters of strategy and tactics, these women forged history with weapons of steel.
Queen Manduhai the Wise: The Warrior Empress Who Reunited the Mongols
She combined military strategy with political leadership to reunite divided peoples, preserving a royal lineage and securing influence in a world shaped by warfare.
The Spy Who Wore Red: Josephine Baker
She used celebrity to support wartime resistance and challenge racism, turning the access granted by fame into a means of gathering intelligence and demanding justice.
Helicopter Heroine: Valerie Andre, Surgeon, Rescue Pilot And Her Courage Under Fire
She combined surgical skill with dangerous rescue flights, reaching wounded people in combat zones and helping establish a new approach to emergency care on the battlefield.
Mary Richards, Civil War Spy: She Never Surrendered
She gathered intelligence inside an enemy leader’s home, then worked to educate formerly enslaved people, continuing the fight for freedom despite threats to her schools.
Buffalo Calf Road, Heroic Cheyenne Warrior Woman
She fought to defend her people and rescued others in battle, leaving accounts of courage that preserve a woman’s role in resistance to forced displacement.
Lin Siniang: Marshalling Spear and Sword
A young warrior’s leadership of women in battle placed martial skill in unexpected hands, leaving a story of courage, loyalty, and sacrifice that endured.
Admiral “Amazing Grace” Hopper, pioneering computer programmer
She helped make computer programming more accessible through readable instructions, transforming how people communicated with machines and opening new possibilities for building software.
Cathay Williams, AKA William Cathay, American Civil War soldier
She enlisted under a male name when the army excluded women, claiming a place in military service despite the racism and restrictions surrounding her.
Trieu Thi Trinh, the Vietnamese Joan of Arc
A young rebel leader became a lasting symbol of resistance to foreign rule, with legends of her courage carrying her influence far beyond the battlefield.
Ana Nzinga Mbande, fearless African queen
She used diplomacy, warfare, and shifting alliances to resist colonial expansion, defending her kingdoms and building the political and commercial strength needed to survive.
Sayyida al Hurra, Islamic pirate queen
Forced from her homeland as a child, she became a ruler and pirate commander, using a fleet to challenge the powers that had displaced her.