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Julie d'Aubigny
Sword-slinging, opera-singing bisexual rock star of the 17th century - who burnt down a convent to romance a nun and had to be pardoned by the king of France TWICE.
Khawlah bint al-Azwar
When Byzantine forces captured her brother, this warrior poet donned the outfit of a black knight and went on a bloody rescue mission.
Mary Bowser
Brilliant undercover spy who posed as a slave to spy on - and attempt to burn down - the Confederate…
Princess Caraboo
This phony Asian royalty fooled rural England for some time - but the truth she was hiding was far darker.
Chiyome Mochizuki
Recruited widows, orphans, and prostitutes into an all-woman ninja spy group, the largest in Asia at the time.
Jane Dieulafoy
A phenomenally successful archaeologist who became a fashion icon for wearing men's clothing.
The Valiant Ladies of Potosi
Eustaquia de Souza and Ana Lezama de Urinza, two sword-and-gun-toting lesbian teen vigilantes - 17th century Bolivia's answer to Batman.
Pope Joan
This pope was largely assumed to be male until she gave birth in the midst of a procession - and largely assumed to be factual until the 13th century.
Sonya Golden Hand
Russia's greatest female thief was so slippery that even once she was re-captured after escaping from a Siberian prison, nobody was totally sure it was her.
Yennenga
An unbeatable warrior princess who just wanted to have kids - and founded a new nation in her quest to…
Random Princesses
Lyudmila Pavlichenko
When her beloved college of history was bombed by the Germans, this woman began a dark path that would see her become history's deadliest female sniper -- and one of Eleanor Roosevelt's best friends.
Florence Nightingale
One half of the odd couple of Crimean nursing - the by-the-book Victorian rebel who revolutionized the field of medicine who stood in stark to Mary Seacole's jolly reliance on folk remedies and home comforts.
Ani Pachen
When China invaded her native land, this would-be monk put down her pacifist dreams and took up arms.
Kate Leigh and Tilly Devine
America had Al Capone. Sydney had Kate Leigh and Tilly Devine - who *hated* each other.
Ka'ahumanu
United Hawaii under one rule, abolished ancient taboos, and led negotiations with the fledgling United States.
Mary Seacole
One half of the odd couple of Crimean nursing - the jolly black businesswoman who swore by folk remedies, in stark contrast to Florence Nightingale's by-the-book Victorian approach to medicine.
Ada Lovelace
History's first computer programmer, who invented algorithms for the first computer - which didn't even exist during her lifetime, so…
Elisabeth Bathory
Possibly the most prolific female serial killer in history, a primary inspiration for Dracula, one of the most reviled women in history, and, I argue, innocent.
Sarraounia
The "panther queen" of the Azna defeated some of the greatest villains of French colonial history through wits, cunning -- and possibly magic.
Mother Jones (Mary Harris Jones)
This leader of the labor movement suffered imprisonment, defamation, and untold misery to battle against forces that most of us just take for granted.