Eleven Women You Should Know About

WWII Special Ops badass Nancy Wake has no patience for that French shit.

International Women's Day was last Friday. In celebration I dipped into the bookmark folder I call "Awesome Ladies" and tweeted links to almost a dozen Women of Badassery. (I have the folder because I have a secret dream of writing a series of blockbuster movies about real-life ladies who make the Avengers look junior varsity.)

Someone asked me to put all the links together, so here they are:

Ching Shih, the most successful pirate of all time, male or female, in that not only did she wreak havoc and strike fear into the hearts of millions, she also successfully retired and died in her bed instead of hanging from a noose. (Badass of the Week)

Sayyida al Hurra, Muslim pirate queen, who turned to piracy as an Eff You to the Europeans who had overtaken her home in Granada. (Amazing Women in History)

Hazel Ying Lee, Asian-American, WWII WASP pilot. (Wikipedia) (Discovered via Kelly Sue DeConnick's tumblr, which often features interesting links to women warriors.)

Lumberjills! Yeah that's right: lady lumberjacks. During WWII, the British Women's Timber Corps did everything the 'jacks did, but with cuter head scarves. (Long May She Rain)

Mary Kingsley, who explored and wrote about the West African coast on her own during the Victorian era. (The chief end of life)

Florence Dixie, another Victorian, who traveled to Patagonia and South Africa and wrote about her adventures, and spent her time at home agitating for women's suffrage and Irish home rule. (Wikipedia)

Mary Anning, who found and cataloged dinosaur fossils in England during the early 19th century. (Lyme Regis Museum)

Emmy Noether, a pioneering mathematician who contributed advances to abstract algebra and theoretical physics and became one of the world's first female math professors. (Wikipedia)

Nancy Wake I'm just gonna quote the wiki for this one: On the night of 29–30 April 1944, Wake was parachuted into the Auvergne, becoming a liaison between London and the local maquis group headed by Captain Henri Tardivat in the Forest of Tronçais. Upon discovering her tangled in a tree, Captain Tardivat greeted her remarking, "I hope that all the trees in France bear such beautiful fruit this year," to which she replied, "Don't give me that French shit.”" (Wikipedia)

Hatshepsut, who ruled ancient Egypt as pharaoh (oh pharaohs have to have a certain beard, seeing as how they're supposed to be men? Wooden beard! Problem solved.) (Lapham's Quarterly)

And finally, an ancient, anonymous Siberian princess, whose gorgeous, intricate tattoos provide a visual link between past and present. (Siberian Times)

So that's pirates, pilots, lumberjills, explorers, writers, a fossil hunter, a mathematician, a spy, a queen, and a Siberian. Go Team Women.