Timeline of women's participation in warfare

Women have participated in warfare in a variety of ways in different times and places. This is a list of some notable events related to this.

Contents

1 The Amazons 2 Ancient Greece 3 Roman Republic and Empire 4 China 5 Africa 6 Eleventh to Sixteenth century 7 Dahomey 8 Crimea 9 Bulgaria 10 Romania 11 Turkey 12 World War II 13 20th Century 14 21st Century

The Amazons

• The Amazons, a legendary tribe of warrior women.

Ancient Greece

• Amastris, wife of Dionysius of Heracluria established her own city state by conquering and uniting 4 settlements.
• 5th century BC - Telessilla ( a warrior poet) defended the city of Argos by rallying women with war songs.
• 480 BC Artemisia, Queen of Halicarnassus, participates in the Battle of Salamis

Roman Republic and Empire

• Fulvia, wife of Mark Antony, organizes an uprising against Octavian Caesar
• Boudicca, a Celtic chieftain in Britain, leads an uprising against the occupying Roman forces.
• Zenobia leads a revolt in the East against the Roman Empire

China

• Hua Mulan becomes an officer of an ancient Chinese army in her father's place
• 6th century BC A story about Sun Tzu describes how Ho Lu, King of Wu, test his skill by ordering him to train an army of 180 ladies.

Africa

960 Gudit (alias Judith, Esato, Gwedit, Yodit) - African rebel queen

Eleventh to Sixteenth century

• 1081 Sikelgaita fights in the Battle of Dyrrhachium; Anna Comnena calls her "a second Athena"
• 1140s Eleanor of Aquitaine participates in the Second Crusade
• 1346 Joanna of Flanders defends the rights of her son John V, Duke of Brittany in the Breton War of Succession
• 1428 Joan of Arc (Jehanne la Pucelle) led the French Army to victory against the English, recapturing Orleans. In May 1431 she was burned at the stake in Rouen.
• 1541 Inés Suárez, come to America to search her husband, fights with Pedro de Valdivia in Chile.
• 1572 In defence of the city during a siege of Haarlem by Spanish troops, which lasted from december 1572 to 1573, Kenau Simonsdochter Hasselaer (1526-1588) led a force of 300 women.

Dahomey

• From the 17th century up to 1894 the Dahomey Amazons were an all female regiment (under female command) of the west African Kingdom of Dahomey.

Crimea

• 1854 - Florence Nightingale (a British nurse) revolutionises both the care of sick soldiers in the Crimean War, but also expectations of the role of women of her status.

Bulgaria

• 1912 - Rayna Kasabova during the Balkan War was the first woman to fly as observer on combat missions in the history of military aviation. She carried out a number of sorties droping propaganda materials and bombs on Turkish positions during The siege of Edrine.

Romania

• 1916 - Ecaterina Teodoroiu was a Romanian Heroine who fought and died in WW1.

Turkey

1937 - During the Dersim uprising, Sabiha Gökçen, the first female aviator in Turkey and the first female combat pilot in the world carried out sorties in operations against the guerillas.

World War II

• The Soviet forces had a significant number of women serving, including an entire air force regiment of female fighter pilots, the 586th fighter regiment. There are also accounts of very successful female snipers.

• Many women served in the French Resistance, Polish Resistance and Italian Resistance in World War II.

• American women perform many varieties of non-combat military service in special units such as the WAVES, Women's Army Corps and Women's Auxiliary Air Force.

20th Century

• May 14, 1948 - The Israeli Defense Force is founded. Several women transport pilots served in the 1948 war of independence and "Operation Kadesh" in 1956), but later the Air Force closed its ranks to female pilots. There is a draft of both men and women. Most women serve in non-combat positions, and are conscripted for only 2 years (instead of three for men). Israel remains the only country to conscript women. However, they were largely barred from combat until a landmark high court appeal in 1994, which forced the Air Force to accept women air cadets. In 2001, Israel's first female combat pilot received her wings. Until 2005, up to 83% of positions in the Israeli army were open to women, and today, they serve in combat positions in the Artillery, frontier guards and on Navy ships. Combat duty is voluntary for women.

21st Century

• 2003 - Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski is in charge of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, where prisoners were abused.
• 2003 - Jessica Lynch, a U.S. soldier, is embroiled in a controversy over differing accounts of her capture and rescue in Iraq.

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