Kick-Ass Women from History #8: Bartolina Sisa

Allow me to introduce to you, via song, the only woman from the Americas I know who can rival Lozen for sheer badassery. The song doesn't actually have anything to do with her, but it does get the vibe right. Sit down, strap in, and get ready to hear about one of the most amazing women to have ever walked our planet: Bartolina Sisa

Background

Bartolina was born sometime around 1750 in Q'ara Qhatu in what is now Bolivia, but then part of the Viceroyalty of Peru, to a family of indigenous traders trading coca leaves and textiles. Her family travelled far and wide across the Andean region, exposing her to the injustices and violence faced by indigenous peoples under Spanish rule from an early age. These experiences shaped her awareness of the oppression endured by her community and fueled determination to resist colonial authority.

She married Julián Apaza, better known today as Túpac Katari, a prominent indigenous leader. Together they had four children and, because of her intelligent, resourceful, and strong character (traits that would later define her leadership), they formed a powerful partnership in both family and political life.

Worldview

Bartolina's spiritual beliefs were an important part of what made her so effective in leadership and rebellion. They were deeply rooted in Aymara and Andean traditions, a set of syncretic beliefs that blended Catholicism with traditional beliefs that at their core revered natural forces, Achachilas (ancestral spirits), and the cyclic concept of pachakuti (tranformation and renewal) that intrinsically connected people to their territory, customs and traditions.

As a result of this, Bartolina's struggle was not merely a political disagreement with rulers, but rather a struggle for restoration of indigenous identity, dignity, as well as land and resource rights. Her movement also embodied the principle of chacha-warmi (complementarity of men and women) in which she insisted upon gender equity and on the vital role of women in leadership and resistance.

Uprising

In the late 18th century, at age 25(!), Bartolina became a key leader in the largest ever indigenous uprising, consisting mostly of Aymara and Quechua, against Spanish colonial rule in the Andes, alongside her husband Túpac. She began organizing indigenous militias and gathering an army that at its height reached 150 thousand. This army launched the Siege of La Paz on the 13th of March, 1781 with 20 thousand troops, later joined by 80 thousand more. Bartolina herself commanded an army of 40 thousand, organising military camps around all the mountain passes that led to the city and acting as the main commander of indigenous forces. In this role she displayed exceptional logistical and strategic skill, impressing on the Spanish how critical a figure she was to the rebellion, as a Spanish military force attempted, in May, to dissolve the siege and capture Bartolina but failed to do so.

Leadership

Túpac and Bartolina set up court in El Alto and maintained the siege for 184 days. During this period, Bartolina was proclaimed “Queen of the Inca”, an affectionate title, and ruled alongside her husband Túpac, with Bartolina taking total command after her husband was captured in April. Her leadership extended beyond the battlefield: she coordinated logistics, organized women’s participation, and inspired unity among diverse indigenous groups.

Execution

After over six months of siege, the uprising was finally broken by Spanish reinforcements from Lima, La Plata, and Buenos Aires, aided by other indigenous communities that opposed the Aymara and Quechua peoples.

Bartolina Sisa was captured, tortured, and executed by the Spanish on September 5th, 1782. Her death was intended as a warning to others. She was publicly humiliated (and I doubt I need to explain what that is code for), hanged, her body dismembered and then displayed to terrorize the indigenous population with Spanish brutality.

Despite this, however, her legacy endured.

Legacy

Bartolina is celebrated to this day as a symbol of indigenous resistance and the struggle for justice, equality, and self-determination. Even though her siege was ultimately broken by the Spanish, the uprising represented a significant indigenous challenge to colonial power in the Andes, demonstrating the organizational capacity, the unity, and the determination of indigenous peoples inspiring future generations of resistance.

Since 1983, the International Day of Indigenous Women has been commemorated on the anniversary of her death, honoring her sacrifice and leadership. Many indigenous organizations in Bolivia, such as the Bartolina Sisa Confederation, bear her name and continue her fight for the rights of indigenous peoples and women.

Her vision of identity, land, and gender equity continues to inspire contemporary movements for indigenous rights and social justice throughout Latin America. So despite her loss and subsequent horrible execution at the hands of the Spanish, it is clear that Bertolina Sisa was Unstoppable.

…but when it's a woman's body it's "confusing".

I think that’s just one of Granny’s myths, though.

😍

Don't watch this video if you're emotionally fragile right now. This is not a story with a happy ending. But it leads to an important message for anybody who sees any tiny bit of themselves in Christine:

My sisters, you can't "fix" him. If he needs fixing, you need to get away quickly. Because he can't be "fixed".

Kick-Ass Women from History #7: Nellie Bly

“To be happy, to know how to find happiness under all circumstances, is the acme of wisdom and the triumph of genius." — Nellie Bly

This marks the first Kick-Ass Woman from History I'm covering who is a white American woman. The choice to avoid European-descended women at first was conscious because, honestly, if you're going to find documentation on a kick-ass woman, chances are it will be a woman of European descent, and I wanted to highlight other cultures' kick-ass women first. But I also didn't want to make those of European descent feel excluded, hence today's choice.

This isn't to say that Nellie Bly doesn't earn her place in the ranks of Kick-Ass Women. She earns it in spades being ... deep breath ... an investigative journalist, a stunt journalist, a war correspondent, a novelist, an industrialist, an "agony aunt", and a philanthropist.

So let's take a bit of a dive into the life and times of Nellie Bly, shall we?

Background

Nellie was born Elizabeth Jane Cochran in Cochran's Mills Pennsylvania. She was the thirteenth child of her father, Michael Cochran (for whom the town is named after), and the third child of her mother, Mary Jane Kennedy. Her father died when she was six. As a young girl she was nicknamed "Pink" for her proclivity toward wearing that colour. Later, in her teens, when she decided she wanted to be taken more seriously, she changed her name to "Cochrane" and attended a "normal school" to become a teacher, having to drop out because of lack of funds. In 1880 the family moved to Allegheny City which was later annexed by Pittsburgh.

First Career: Women's Journalism

While in Pittsburgh she wrote a passionate letter in response to an article in the Pittsburgh Dispatch that was largely dismissive of woman and so impressed the paper's editor that he offered her a job. Choosing the pen name Nelly Bly (after a popular song of the tiem), a transcription error had it printed as Nellie Bly and the mistake stuck. This was her professional name from this point onward.

She initially (and very briefly) started her career as an undercover journalist going into factories and exposing the working conditions that women and children were forced to be in. Her passionate articles advocated for were praised by labourers for their calls for social reform, but soon complaints came from factories and she was reassigned to the women's pages (or society pages) to write the kind of frivolous fluff that women were generally relegated to in newspapers. She chafed under these fluff assignments and swore she'd "do something no girl had ever done".

Second Career: Investigative Journalism

Her career as a full-blown investigative journalist began after persuading her editor to let her try on a role as a foreign correspondent, moving to Mexico to, over the course of six months, report on the lives and customs of Mexican people. These dispatches were later published in book form as Six Months in Mexico. Her reports from Mexico came to a sudden end when, in one of her dispatches, she protested the imprisonment of a local reporter for publishing something critical of the government. The angry Mexican officials threatened her with arrest and forced her to flee back to the USA, from where she published a scathing report calling the then-dictator Porfirio Diaz a "tyrannical czar" who suppressed the people and the press.

This return to Pittsburgh brought Nellie back into the "women's pages" which she could no longer stand. She quit her job and moved to New York City, joining Joseph Pulitzer's New York World. It was here, in 1887, where she made her name and became nationally (and internationally) famous by going undercover as a patient at the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island, exposing the mistreatment of mentally ill women. Her exposé, "Ten Days in a Mad-House" led to official investigations and significant reforms in mental health care. It is considered an important landmark in investigative journalism and a boundary-pushing one for women reporters on top of that.

Third Career: "Stunt" Journalism

After pioneering undercover investigative journalism (and serious reporting by women), almost redefining the profession, Nellie continued with her almost manic energy creating practically from whole cloth the field of "stunt journalism". Inspired by Jules Verne and his Around the World in Eighty Days, Nelly undertook a record-breaking trip around the world, completing the journey in only 72 days, captivating the public with her regular travel dispatches and her columns when she returned home. Her travel dispatches were later compiled into the book Around the World in Seventy-Two Days.

Fourth Career: Novelist

The beginnings of her new career began even before she returned home from her tour around the world. Cashing in on the fanfare of her world tour she quit reporting and started writing novels, the first chapters of her first novel (Eva the Adventuress) having been published while she was still in transit. Between 1889 and 1895 she published eleven novels (which had been considered lost until their rediscovery in 2021). In 1893, though still writing novels, she returned to reporting for the 'World.

Fifth Career: Industrialist

In 1895 Nellie married manufacturer Robert Seaman. She was 31 and he 73, and his failing health caused her to leave journalism and take over the running of his company the Iron Clad Manufacturing Co., a manufacturer of steel containers like milk cans, or boilers or their ilk. Under her stewardship the company invented what would later become the standard 55-gallon drum, and she herself had two famous patents (of a reported 25) to her name exclusively for a new kind of milk can and a stacking garbage can. Nellie's own patents, and those of others in her company, contributed significantly to the body of knowledge surrounding industrial packaging in the dairy and shipping industries.

Unfortunately Nellie was not as successful in this career as she had been in others. Her husband died in 1901 and she foolishly trusted some of the senior managers of the company who embezzled from the company so badly it collapsed. She tried to run it humanely with health benefits, recreational facilities, and many of the other things she'd advocated for as a journalist, but her negligence of business affairs led to her downfall and bankruptcy.

So she did what she seemed to always do in times of hardship: she reinvented herself.

Sixth Career: War Correspondent

Using the last of the funds she had available, Nellie travelled to Europe looking for other opportunities. The outbreak of WWI during her voyage brought these in spades. Stuck in Vienna, Nellie decided to embark on a new career trajectory: that of the war correspondent. Using her fame and some government connections she wrangled herself a path to the front where the Austrians were clashing with the Russians. Only four correspondents were permitted to do this, and Nellie was the only woman of the four.

The New York Evening Journal would publish Nellie's coverage of the war under the repeating headline "Nelly Bly on the Firing Line". The public hung off of every word she wrote as she described the punishing conditions at the front, the horrors of the war, all shown through her unflinching and sympathetic eyes. Her stories were still sought out even when they were weeks behind the rapidly changing circumstances at the front. She reported of shells exploding only 50 feet from her, spending weeks among the soldiers in active fire before travelling to Budapest ... to move on to the Serbian front. She also reported on the women of Austria-Hungary and their support behind the lines for the men at the fronts.

Interlude: Family Problems

The continuing legal problems that haunted her while she was in Europe as her company completed its immolation started to cause significant stress with her family. One disaster and mis-step after another led to her mother being forced out of the house Nellie had kept for her, causing her to move in with Nellie's brother instead. Some of the legal moves she'd attempted to keep the surviving elements of her company alive pitted her and her brother against each other until in the end she was persona non grata with both her mother and her brother.

Seventh Career: Agony Aunt and Orphan Placement

Being out of money, and in expensive disputes with her family, Nellie returned to journalism at the 'Evening Journal. She was given free rein in topics to write about. After a letter she received from a woman wondering if she should give up her two year old child (Nellie advised against), her column slowly turned into an advice column (a so-called "agony aunt"). This then further morphed into an impromptu agency for helping orphans and abandoned babies find good homes, all through the column-inches of her work at the newspaper.

This is the End

By 1920 Nellie was swamped with work. She was writing two columns a week, managing an impromptu and unofficial adoption agency, and embroiled in continuing legal battles with her family. The overexertion of her war reportage spilled over into her life in New York taking a severe toll on her health. She ate only sporadically and suffered a crippling bout of bronchitis that had her hospitalized. Since she would never be able to reconcile with her mother and brother, helping children became her overriding comfort. In 1921 she produced as much work as she had as a star reporter decades earlier.

Her last column ran in January of 1922. She was then hospitalized again, this time for bronchopneumonia with complications from heart disease. She had her will made while hospitalized, leaving what turned out to be worthless shares in a long-dead company to her younger brother and one of her sisters. Death paid her a visit on the 27th of January, 1922 at the age of 57.

Aftermath

Newspapers from all over eulogized Nellie after her passing, and the New York World, the paper that made her famous, ran a long piece illustrating the highlights of her almost unbelievable life. In her wake, Nellie made lasting changes to the world:

• as a champion of the working class;
• as the practical inventor of both undercover investigative journalism and stunt journalism
• as a shatterer of boundaries for women in realms long-considered for men only
• as a sympathetic succourer of lost children
• even as a progressive industrialist (despite her failure at the managerial level)

She never fought wars (only reported on one). She didn't rule nations. Yet she still stands as a Kick-Ass Woman from History.

"My men have become women, and my women, men." – Xerxes, reportedly after witnessing Artemisia's actions at Salamis.

This outburst by Xerxes is as good a summary of today's Kick-Ass Woman from History as any. Artemisia I of Caria is a truly formidable Greek woman whose battle prowess and courage had her praises sung not just by historians, but by her contemporaries.

Background

Born the daughter of Lygdamis I, satrap of Halicarnassus (today called Bodrum, Turkey) and a Cretan mother, Artemisia was of mixed Carian-Greek/Cretan heritage. She took the throne after the death of her (unnamed to history) husband as she had a son (Pisindelis) who was too young to rule. She ruled Halicarnassus and the nearby islands of Kos, Nisyros, and Kalymnos as a vassal under the Persian Empire.

(Well, I say "vassal" but Caria was not strictly beholden to Persia at the time. Her participation in the military invasion she is most famous for was not mandated but rather chosen by her acting of her own agency to better her nation's status.)

Unfortunately this is approximately all we have on Artemisia's life before and after what she is most famous for. Her activities between taking on the throne and the Greco-Persian Wars are not documented in any surviving sources (beyond some some contested claims of economic stability and cultural patronage), nor are any details of her rulership outside of battle beyond being noted for stability and dynastic continuity. What can be surmised is that outside of the wars she likely focused on governance and maintaining her position as regent.

Reputation

Artemisia was known for her exceptional courage, intelligence, and tactical acumen in this male-dominated era. She was praised by Herodotus for wisdom and bravery, and gained the respect and trust of none other than Xerxes I, the King of Persia, who valued his half-Greek/half-Cretan female naval commander's advice above that of his male commanders. She also demonstrated immense diplomatic skill, balancing maintaining her regency with keeping her local autonomy while being loyal to Persia.

So trusted was she, in fact, by Xerxes that in the retreat from the disaster at Salmacis, she was tasked with evacuating his children (though not his direct heirs) to Ephesus.

Kick-Assery

Artemisia was the only female naval commander among Xerxes' forces during the second Persian invasion of Greece. She commanded a squadron of five ships at the naval battles of Artemisium and Salamis in 480BCE. She advised Xerxes against attacking the Greek fleet at Salamis, warning of the naval superiority of the Greeks. Her advice, however, was ignored, leading to a crushing Persian defeat.

Nonetheless, she executed a brilliant tactical manoeuvre in that battle where she escaped a Greek trireme by sinking a ship on her own side, leaving no survivors. The ship in question was commanded by King Damasithymos of Calynda, a regnant with whom she'd possibly had beef according to Herodotus' speculation. The sinking had several important outcomes:

1. The Greek commander chasing her ship broke off pursuit, mistakenly believing she was a Greek or, alternatively, a defector, in either case on his side. He moved his attention to other Persian ships, leaving her free to flee.
2. Xerxes, observing from afar, saw her sink a ship and, at the time, thought she'd destroyed a Greek vessel, thus uttering the phrase with which this essay opens.
3. When the truth became known afterward, Xerxes, instead of being angered, praised her daring and her presence of mind in her escape from a doomed battle, cementing her reputation for both audacity and tactical brilliance.

After the Salamis disaster, Artemisia advised Xerxes to retreat to Asia, a suggestion that he this time followed. (It is here where she was tasked with protecting his children all the way to Ephesus.)

Legacy

The exact circumstances of Artemisia's death are not recorded in any surviving texts. A later legend claims that she died by leaping from Cape Lefkada due to unrequited love but historians generally treat this as apocryphal. What is known is that her son, Pisindelis, succeeded her as ruler of Halicarnassus in a continuation of her dynasty.

Artemisia is remembered as a rare example of female leadership and military command in ancient history, challenging the gender norms of her time.

Today's heroine, Lozen, is depicted by a modern painting (from Native Americans for Sovereignty & Preservation) because we have no known photograph of her. (There are photographs that purport to be her, but for a variety of reasons historians can't authenticate them. They're probably just pictures of random Apache women.)

Lozen is one of those rare figures from history. She out-manned the men around her, while also bringing clearly feminine energy into the picture. She rode horses, fired bows, hunted, and fought alongside the menfolk of her tribe as an equal (or, more often, superior) but was also a spiritual leader, a medicine woman, and a healer. She stole horses and cattle, and killed for her tribe, without compunction, yet she was a staunch, compassionate defender of the weak and brought succour and healing to the ill and wounded. Of the women I've covered so far, only Zheng Yi Sao has any claim to being more kick-ass in the literal sense of the term, and none thus far have more claim to compassion.

Names

We do not know her birth name. "Lozen" is her war title (meaning, roughly, "skilled horse thief"—an honourable Apache occupation because it depended on bravery and tactical skill for success). She has also been given other titles and names by her people including Little Sister (obviously by her elder brother, Victorio), the Warrior Woman, and a Shield to her People. In the history books, however, her war title is how she is named.

Background

Lozen was born in the early 1840s sometime into the Chihenne ("Warm Springs") band of the Chiricahua Apache in what today is New Mexico. She was the younger sister of Chief Victorio, a very prominent Apache leader alongside the likes of the famed Nana.

In the 1870s, the Chihenne band was moved from out their ancestral lands to the deplorable San Carlos Reservation. In 1877 Victorio and his band left the reservation and raided the European invaders who'd appropriated their native lands near Black Mountain.

From 1879 to 1881 they rode and raided and fought the American army in what came to be known as Victorio's War, and Lozen rode and raided and fought alongside her brother and his band the whole way. At one point Victorio said of Lozen, when introducing her to the band's patriarch, Nana:

"Lozen is my right hand ... strong as a man, braver than most, and cunning in strategy. Lozen is a shield to her people."

At other points he sang the praises of his sister thus, tacitly confessing her superiority in strategy:

"I depend upon Lozen as I do Nana."

The band rampaged, trading blows with the American and Mexican military both until, tragically, Victorio's death at the Battle of Tres Castillos ended his life in 1880, with the demoralized band's remnants rounded up by 1881. Still, this did not end the career of Lozen who first threaded the military patrols to rejoin the remnants of her band, knowing they would need her healing skills among the survivors before joining Geronimo when he broke out of the San Carlos reservation in 1885, fighting alongside him until this last gasp of the Apache Wars petered out and the rampaging band surrendered. Taken into military custody as a prisoner of war, Lozen was taken to Mount Vernon, Alabama, dying of tuberculosis (as did so many Apache prisoners) in 1889.

Reputation

Lozen was renowned for her courage, her intellect, and her strategic and tactical skills both. Despite her very unusual choice to become a warrior woman, she was highly respected and beloved of both the men and the women of her community. She was known for her compassion, especially in protecting, guiding, and escorting non-combatants in the middle of chaotic times and battles. She was remembered as being determined, resourceful, and fiercely loyal to her people.

The Spiritual Side

But more than just a famed, strong, and skilled warrior, Lozen was, too, a medicine woman, a spiritual leader, and a prophet. She believed herself to have received spiritual gifts from Ussen (the Apache creator deity) during her coming-of-age ceremony, the most famed of which was her purported mystical ability to locate enemies through prayer and ritual.

This latter gift manifested herself most often by her standing with arms outstretched,. invoking Ussen in chants, while turning in place, eyes closed, until she felt in her palms a tingling that told her which direction her enemies were in. A recorded chant translates into something like this:

Upon this earth
On which we live
Ussen has Power
This Power is mine
For locating the enemy.
I search for that Enemy
Which only Ussen the Great
Can show to me.

She also used her spiritual authority to guide, to heal, and to inspire her people.

Accomplishments & Legacy

Lozen fought alongside her brother Victorio, and later Geronimo, in the Apache wars. In those times she engaged in raids, led war parties, stole horses and supplies, snuck through patrols determined to find the rampaging band, all while protecting women and children during conflicts. She played key roles more than once in helping non-combatants escape through enemy lines, only to turn around and return to the combat. She's credited with saving many wounded people's lives through her healing herbs and rituals. And despite these "extra-curricular" activities she managed to participate in more campaign than many male Apache leaders (indeed one might dare suggest more than most).

To this day she is still remembered and revered by her people as a legendary warrior, healer, and prophet. She is frequently held up as a symbol of indigenous peoples' (and especially women's) strength, resilience, and spiritual power. Her story continues to inspire native communities and women's movements both to this day.

Rise to Power

Hatshepsut was born ~1504BCE as the daughter of Pharaoh Thutmose I and his Queen Ahmose. She was married to her half-brother, Thutmose II, strengthening her royal influence. Upon her husband's death, she took on the regency for her stepson, Thutmose III, who was a child. After several years as Thutmose III's regent, she declared herself pharaoh ~1473BCE, adopted full royal titulary, and co-ruled with her stepson instead. To help legitimize her rule in a strongly male-dominated society she had herself depicted in artworks as a man, often shown with the traditional postiche beard and masculine attire. Inscriptions would refer to her both in feminine and masculine terms to convey the idea she was both father and mother to the realm.

Hatshepsut Rules

Hatshepsut ruled as co-regnant for about twenty years—~1478-~1458BCE—making her one of the longest-ruling female pharaohs and her reign one of the most stable of that set. Her reign was marked by prosperity, peace, and internal stability, as well as by a sharp reduction in military campaigns and conquests. In addition she refined Egypt's governance, shifting from arbitrary (nearly whimsical) decisions of rulers to a more organized, bureaucratic system.

Trade & Diplomacy

Hatshepsut favoured trade neworks and diplomacy over military dominance; soft power over hard power, in effect. She reestablished trade networks disrupted during the Hyksos occupation and then expanded them. A sponsored expedition to the "Land of Punt" (probably Eritrea or Ethiopia these days) brought back gold, ebony, ivory, spices, incense trees, and many other luxury goods. Initiating trade with Byblos, the Sinai, Nubia, and Canaan further increased Egypt's wealth and access to exotic goods. Even with her later erasure (foreshadowing!) her trade policies and diplomacy were so important to Egypt they were kept even as her existence was erased.

Public Works

As one of the most prolific builders in Egyptian history, Hatshepsut commissioned hundreds of construction projects across Upper and Lower Egypt both. Two of her most important projects included:

• the mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri, an architectural marvel with multiple terraces, colonnades, and more than 100 statues of herself in various poses and positions (with some even as sphinxes);
• added monumental structures to the Karnak Temple Complex including two 100-foot obelisks (one still standing), the "Red Chapel", and the restoration of the Precinct of Mut, the ancient goddess whose temples had been destroyed under the Hyksos.

For all of her monumental works she employed prominent architects and officials, most notably Ineni and her chief minister Senenmut, to over see the projects. As a result her building programs raised Egyptian architecture to a standard rivaled only by later classical civilisations.

Over and above major projects like the two examples above, Hatshepsut also commissioned vast amounts of statuary and reliefs depicting her as both male and female, reinforcing her dual role as king and queen. Her mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri became a model for subsequent royal construction and ritual practice. So important a figure was she that many of her statues and monuments are now housed in major museums worldwide.

Legacy

Hatshepsut's reign set a precedent for female rulership (and not only in Egypt), though her example was rarely followed; Egypt would not see another comparably powerful female ruler until Cleopatra, 1,400 years later. She changed the relationship between king, god, and dynasty, emphasizing divine mandate and ritual legitimacy over mere political power. Her reign is often cited as one of the most successful and peaceful in Egyptian history, marked by economic growth, monumental art, and cultural flourishing.

Erasure

After her death in ~1458BCE, a systematic campaign began under Thutmose III and his successor Amenhotep II to erase her from the historical record. Her images and cartouches were chiseled off monuments, statues destroyed or buried, and her achievements ascribed to other pharaohs, especially her husband Thutmose II and stepson Thutmose III. Methods of erasure included defacement, replacement, smoothing, and covering of reliefs and inscriptions, particularly at Deir el-Bahri and Karnak.

There are several possible motives for this erasure:

• to legitimize Thutmose III’s direct succession;
• to diminish the precedent of female kingship;
• to reinforce traditional gender norms;
• to erase the memory of a successful female pharaoh, which may have threatened patriarchal structures.

Despite these efforts, many of her monuments survived, and modern archaeology has restored Hatshepsut’s reputation as one of Egypt’s greatest rulers. Hatshepsut’s legacy endures as a testament to her ambition, skill, and the enduring impact of her reign, despite later attempts to erase her from history.

You can easily go through your entire life in the west having never heard the name Wu Zao (courtesy name Wu Pinxiang). It's almost as if she's been erased from western scholarship. (Almost.) In the few places you'll see her mentioned, there's a very good chance, however, like the linked Wikipedia article, that you'll get the facts of her being a lyricist, a poet, a guqin player, and a literary scholar.

One of the key facts of her identity, however, will not be shared typically. Which is weird because she's celebrated in China partially for these very key facts. (Well, that and she's actually a very accomplished poet; poetry being an art still beloved in Chinese culture.)

So let's explore a bit more what makes this woman worthy of being a "Kick-Ass Woman from History", shall we?

Just the Facts, Ma'am

Let's get the dull facts out of the way first. Wu Zao was born in 1799 in the Qing Dynasty to a wealthy merchant family in Renhe (modern day Hangzhou). She was married (unhappily: this is called foreshadowing!) to another wealthy merchant. Her literary talent was demonstrated and recognized from a very young age; her clear intellect and poetic talent well-known among her peers.

The Qing Dynasty is a period marked both by a flourishing literary culture, but also very strict gender norms. Despite this she entered the literary scene in her twenties with a huge splash: with, specifically the 杂剧 (Zájù) play 喬影(Qiáoyǐng or "The Fake Image"). Specializing in 词 (cí) 曲 (qū) lyric forms, both noted for refined emotional expression, she had a meteoric rise in the arts scene and her songs were sung China-wide in her lifetime.

In her later years she withdrew to Buddhist contemplation, eschewing her poetry and favouring religious/philosophical study. She died in 1862 leaving behind several Kunqu and Zaju operas, along with three volumes of Ci poetry, as well as a detailed and insightful critique of the famed novel A Dream of Red Mansions.

Her works are categorized into four main themes: lyrical self-expression, poetic exchanges and dedications, metaphorical self-reflection, and appreciation of beautiful scenes and are known for vivid imagery, clever allusions, and refined rhetorical techniques. They are significant for both their artistic achievement and their role in the development of female literary consciousness in China.

Wu Zao is correctly celebrated as one of the most distinguished female lyricists and poets of the Qing Dynasty. Her lyric verse and poetry was widely sung and admired during her lifetime. She was recognized for her unique voice, emotional range, and influence on later generations of women writers in China. In addition she wrote in a style that sometimes adopted masculine literary conventions, further challenging gender norms of her time.

If we stopped here she's already quite the impressive woman. To achieve such widespread recognition in her own lifetime in a field dominated by men and a society that gave little value to women is a magnificent accomplishment already. I could stop this essay right here and you'd think that perhaps she has already earned the title of a "Kick-Ass Woman of History".

But she was so much more.

Teasing Hints

The first teasing hint as to the nature of where she really kicks ass is that in all her poems and songs, all her paeans to love and passion (the focus of much of her work) …

… there is absolutely no mention, direct or indirect, of her husband. Now this should not come as a complete surprise to a modern reader given that I already said her marriage was not a happy one. But it runs VERY STRONGLY against the conventions of the time: if women did art, they praised their husbands.

And she didn't even mention hers.

Sapphic Poet

And the reason for this (and the likely reason for a loveless marriage) is quite simple: Wu Zao was openly sapphic, expressing romantic and sexual love for women in her poetry, especially for female courtesans

Her poems contain direct and passionate language about her relationships and desires for women, making her one of the few historical Chinese poets whose sapphic identity is clear in her literary work. Her sapphic themes are not mere subtext but are explicit, distinguishing her from most of her contemporaries.

She was known for her wit, talent, and the admired "personage spirit" of her era, all while she maintained close relationships with women, including female courtesans and disciples, who were often the subjects of her poetry. Her poetry and life embodied the image of a gifted woman (才女), but also subverted expectations through her overt sapphic themes and literary self-fashioning.

Employing flirtatious and sensual language, especially in her arias, her works both reflected her personal desires and defied the conventions of the genres she worked within.

Today, Wu Zao is especially noted for her openly sapphic poetry and is frequently cited as a historical lesbian poet (though "lesbian" is as much a social construct as is "woman"; it is, however, the closest term we have to what she would have been called in her own time). Her poetry covers themes of love—especially between women—using imagery and wording of longing, sorrow, friendship, and unfulfilled passion.

Her open sapphic identity and literary self-fashioning make her a rare and important figure in Chinese literary history, and that is why she deserves the title of a "Kick-Ass Woman of History".

Isn't it a shame she's barely heard of in the west, and when she is her sexuality is glossed over if mentioned at all?