100 Nasty Women of History: Brilliant, badass and completely fearless women everyone should know

341 Pages·2017·2.12 MB·English

by  Hannah Jewell

About the Author
Hannah Jewell is a pop culture host and editor at The Washington Post, and a
former senior writer at BuzzFeed UK, where she became known for her humour
writing about gender, her satire of British and American politics.
100 Nasty Women of History is her first book.
www.hodder.co.uk
For my friend Sylvia Bingham, who was bold and brilliant and unlike anyone
else.
Contents
About the Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Introduction
Wonderful ancient weirdos
1. Hatshepsut – c. 1507–1458 BC
2. Brigid of Kildare – ?–524
3. Sappho – c. 640–570 BC
4. Seondeok of Silla – ?–AD 647
5. Khayzuran – ?–AD 789
6. Subh – ?–999
7. Hildegard von Bingen – 1098–1179
8. Margery Kempe – c. 1373–1438
Women with impressive kill counts
9. Artemisia I of Caria – 5th century BC
10. Æthelflæd – c. AD 870–918
11. Ælfthryth – c. AD 945–c. 1000
12. Zenobia – c. AD 240–274
13. Tomoe Gozen – c. 1157–1247
14. Sorghaghtani Beki – ?–1252
15. Wǔ Méi – 16th/17th century AD
16. Kosem Sultan – c. 1589–1651
17. Empress Wu – AD 624–705
18. Laskarina Bouboulina – 1771–1825
19. Ching Shih – 1775–1844
Women who were geniuses despite the fact that they were girls
20. Hypatia – c. AD 355–415
21. Fatima al-Fihri – c. AD 800–880
22. Wáng Zhēnyí – 1768–1797
23. Jang-geum – 15th–16th centuries AD
24. Artemisia Gentileschi – 1593–c. 1653
25. Raden Ajeng Kartini – 1879–1904
26. Emmy Noether – 1882–1935
27. Nana Asma’u – 1793–1864
28. Jean Macnamara – 1899–1968
29. Annie Jump Cannon – 1863–1941
30. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin – 1900–1979
31. Hedy Lamarr – 1914–2000
32. Louisa Atkinson – 1834–1872
33. Laura Redden Searing – 1839–1923
34. Gabriela Brimmer – 1947–2000
Women who wrote dangerous things
35. Murasaki Shikibu – c. AD 978–1014
36. Ulayya bint al-Mahdi – c. AD 777–825
37. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz – c. 1651–1695
38. Tarabai Shinde – 1850–1910
39. Phillis Wheatley – c. 1753–1784
40. Nellie Bly – 1864–1922
41. Elizabeth Hart – 1772–1833
42. Jovita Idár – 1885–1946
43. Louise Mack – 1870–1935
44. Beatrice Potter Webb – 1858–1943
45. Julia de Burgos – 1914–1953
46. Marie Chauvet – 1916–1973
47. Zabel Yesayan – 1878–1943
48. Mirabal Sisters – Patria Mercedes Mirabal Reyes 1924–1960
49. Mary Wollstonecraft – 1759–1797
50. Ida B. Wells-Barnett – 1862–1931
51. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper – 1825–1911
52. Ethel Payne – 1911–1991
Women who wore trousers and enjoyed terrifying hobbies
53. Annie Smith Peck – 1850–1935
54. Jean Batten – 1909–1982
55. Khutulun – c. 1260–1306
56. Pancho Barnes – 1901–1975
57. Julie D’Aubigny – c. 1670/1673–1707
58. Lilian Bland – 1878–1971
59. Lotfia Elnadi – 1907–2002
Women who fought empires and racists
60. Queen Nanny of the Maroons – c. 1686–1755
61. Njinga of Angola – c. 1583–1663
62. Rani Chennamma – 1778–1829
63. Lakshmibai, Rani of Jhansi – 1828–1858
64. Yaa Asantewaa – c. 1840–1921
65. Jind Kaur – 1817–1863
66. Lozen – 1840–1889
67. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti – 1900–1978
68. Queen Liliuokalani – 1838–1917
69. Fanny Cochrane Smith – 1834–1905
70. Lillian Ngoyi – 1911–1980
71. Miriam Makeba – 1932–2008
72. Te Puea Herangi – 1883–1952
73. Whina Cooper – 1895–1994
74. Susan La Flesche Picotte – 1865–1915
75. Sojourner Truth – c. 1797–1883
Women who knew how to have a good-ass time
76. Empress Theodora – c. AD 500–548
77. Wallada bint al-Mustakfi – c. 994–1091
78. Nell Gwynn – 1650–1687
79. George Sand – 1804–1876
80. Lucy Hicks Anderson – 1886–1954
81. Mercedes de Acosta – 1893–1968
82. Gladys Bentley – 1907–1960
83. Coccinelle – 1931–2006
84. Umm Kulthum – 1898/1904–1975
85. Josephine Baker – 1906–1975
Women who punched Nazis
86. Sophie Scholl – 1921–1943
87. Hannah Arendt – 1906–1975
88. Noor Inayat Khan – 1914–1944
89. Nancy Wake – 1912–2011
90. Dorothy Thompson – 1893–1961
91. Irena Sendler – 1910–2008
Your new revolutionary role models
92. Olympe de Gouges – 1748–1793
93. Policarpa Salavarrieta – 1795–1817
94. Sofia Perovskaya – 1853–1881
95. Alexandra Kollontai – 1872–1952
96. Juana Azurduy – 1781–1862
97. Rosa Luxemburg – 1871–1919
98. Constance Markievicz – 1868–1927
99. Luisa Moreno – 1907–1992
100. Jayaben Desai – 1933–2010
Conclusion
Old People Glossary
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Picture Acknowledgements
Footnotes
Introduction
I
n the final debate of the 2016 US presidential election, Donald Trump leaned
into the microphone as Hillary Clinton spoke about social security, twisted up
his small, wrinkled mouth, and called his opponent ‘such a nasty woman’. The
phrase has stuck around since he first uttered it. It’s been whacked on T-shirts,
it’s been put in Twitter bios, and it’s come to mean something more than either a
smear of Hillary Clinton or a defiant rallying cry for her supporters. In this book,
a nasty woman is one who has managed to piss off a man for not behaving as she
was expected. Or for having unladylike ideas. Or for murdering him.
When dear Donald became president, it was hard to know what to do to feel
better if you weren’t a Donald fan, beyond perhaps a cathartic scream, or
drinking to oblivion. So here’s a suggestion: what better time than the present to
look back at the difficult women who came before us? What can we learn from
them about how to live our nastiest lives?
Often when learning about history, when you get to hear about women at all,
their lives are made to sound decidedly un-nasty. As if they spent their entire
time on Earth casting woeful but beautiful glances directly into their glittering
futures, calmly rebuking those that would stop them from achieving their goals.
‘But you’re a woman!’ a powerful man says to the imagined Bold-Yet-
Morally-Irreproachable Woman of History. ‘Shh, I shall overcome this
difficulty,’ she replies heroically, turning to face the audience. ‘Because I am a
strong, empowered woman, and I will never stop believing in the power of my
dreams! Live, laugh, love.’
Well, that isn’t how life works, and it never has been. There are no
unrelentingly noble people. When you hear the story of a woman who lived a
life that was 100% pure and good, you’re probably missing the best bits. The
nasty bits.
Maybe she got her tits out. Maybe she slept around. Maybe she stole. Maybe
she betrayed someone, or was betrayed. Maybe she was pure and good, but made
mistakes. Maybe she fought against one injustice, but ignored another. Maybe