"Perhaps the existence in different cultures of war-making goddesses – Astarte, Athena, Kali, the Valkyrie – or the legends surrounding warrior queens such as Zenobia of Palmyra is a recognition of women’s potential. It is also a way of limiting it to divine or perhaps unnatural women. From Boudicca, the British queen of the first century ad, who is often portrayed in her war chariot, to the Rani of Jhansi, who led her troops against the British in the Indian Mutiny of 1857, many cultures have stories, some legend and some based on fact, of individual women warriors. Some have fought as women but many disguised themselves as men, including Deborah Sampson, who was in the American War of Independence, and Lizzie Compton and Frances Hook in the American Civil War, who kept reenlisting when their identities were discovered. Just like the women warriors in films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Wonder Woman and Kill Bill, however, they are exceptions, seen as outside the normal order of things where war is the male sphere."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Margaret MacMillan, War: How Conflict Shaped Us (2020)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Women_in_war
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Women in war
9 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Women in war →
Related Quotes
"The link between power and gender, as expressed through the gender hierarchy of men/masculinity over women/feminity, …"
"The assumption that it is the men who should be warriors seems to be almost universal through time and across culture…"
"We have been so consumed with seemingly objective discussions of politics, tactics, weapons, dollars and casualties. …"
"There are two sides of war. There is a side that fights, and there is a side that keeps the schools and the factories…"
"They are women who are standing on their feet in spite of their circumstances, not because of it. Think of how the wo…"
"We know that conflict is gendered: that men and women have different experiences and play different roles. We also kn…"
"The Prophet passed by me at a place called Al-Abwa or Waddan, and was asked whether it was permissible to attack the …"
"And you degenerate, you ingrate revolts, You bloody Neroes, ripping up the womb Of your dear mother England, blush fo…"
"Colonel Kyd, an Englishman, had the following to say regarding general surgical skill in the subcontinent: (In) chiru…"
"Dr. H. Scott wrote the following letter on January 12, 1792, again on the subject of Indian surgery: In medicine I sh…"