History & Biography
From monarchs to military heroes, notorious to unsung, we’ll feature biographies and research on women who history labelled dangerous.
Want to shine the spotlight on a dangerous woman from times gone past? See our submissions page for contribution guidelines.
Queen Mother of the Ashanti Confederacy
Strategic leader of the Ashanti Confederacy army in the fifth Anglo-Ashanti War, Yaa Asantewaa cemented her place in history as a dangerous woman.
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A dangerously undomesticated Roman wife
Suzanne Dixon shows us the hostile and misogynist historical tradition against Fulvia – perhaps most commonly known today as the wife of Roman general Mark Antony.
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‘Enemy of the Soviet People’
Remembering poet Anna Akhmatova, often thought of as Russia’s ‘Cassandra’ through the violent days of Revolution and even bloodier years of Sovietisation.
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Lady Franklin and Kate Rae had a lot in common: both had husbands who went exploring in the Arctic. But that may have been where the similarities ended…
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Women prophets of the Ancient Mediterranean
What’s more dangerous than a woman who speaks for God? Jill Marshall delves into the world of the Ancient Mediterranean and its women prophets.
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The paradox of Sri Lanka’s elite political women
In the 1960s, Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the world’s first female prime minister, and yet Sri Lanka’s elite political women continue to face gendered social and power dynamics.
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Karin Kukkonen draws threads through literature and history to connect Astrea, the virgin-goddess of antiquity, with the capacity to re-imagine contemporary ideas–such as the possibility of a female James Bond.
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Who was Cleopatra’s younger sister?
Karen Murdarasi explains how Cleopatra became an infamously dangerous woman to the Romans, whereas her sister Arsinoe was simply ‘a woman who was dangerous’.
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Pioneering Aviator
You probably know Amelia Earhart was the first woman to cross the Atlantic in an airplane. But do you know the story of Elsie Mackay, who came before her?
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