Timeline of women's participation in warfare

[Sandra]

An interesting article from Wikipedia

The Amazons
The Amazons, a legendary tribe of warrior women.


Ancient Greece
6th century BC — Telesilla (a warrior poet) defended the city of Argos by rallying women with war songs.
480 BC Artemisia, Queen of Halicarnassus, participated in the Battle of Salamis


Roman Republic and Empire
Fulvia, wife of Mark Antony, organized an uprising against Augustus
Boudica, a Celtic chieftain in Britain, led an uprising against the occupying Roman forces.
Zenobia led a revolt in the East against the Roman Empire


China
Hua Mulan became 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, tested his skill by ordering him to train an army of 180 women.


Africa
960 Gudit (alias Judith, Esato, Gwedit, Yodit) — African rebel queen
When Shaka of the Zulus became king, he established an all-female regiment to which effectively defended the land against colonists.


Eleventh to sixteenth century
1081 Sikelgaita fought in the Battle of Dyrrhachium; Anna Comnena called her "a second Athena".
1140s Eleanor of Aquitaine participated in the Second Crusade
1346 Joanna of Flanders, Countess of Montfort, defended the rights of her son John V, Duke of Brittany in the Breton War of Succession. During the same war, the opposition was led for a time by Countess Jeanne de Penthievre.
1429 Joan of Arc led the French army.
1541 Inés Suárez, came to America to search her husband, fought 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) supplied the Dutch forces with wood. She owned a wood company at Haarlem. Myth says she led a force of women defending the city and ever since "kenau" has been a Dutch expression for a harsh woman.


Philippines
1763 After the assassination of her husband, Gabriela Silang decided to continue his rebellion against Spain but was unsuccessful.


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.


Russia
1807 Nadezhda Durova earned the cross of St George for valour in combat and became the Russian army's first female officer.


Crimea
1854 Florence Nightingale (a British nurse) revolutionised both the care of sick soldiers in the Crimean War, and 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 Adrianople.


Poland
1809 Joanna Żubr received the Virtuti Militari, the first woman to be granted the highest Polish military award.


United States
1778 Molly Pitcher (born Mary Ludwig in 1754) married John Hays in 1769. Her husband fought for the Continental Army at the Battle of Monmouth (New Jersey) on June 28, 1778. During the battle, she brought pitchers of water to her husband and fellow soldiers, thus earning the appellation Molly Pitcher. When her husband succumbed to exhaustion, she picked up his rifle and fought against the British.
1861 Dr Mary Walker was a doctor with the Union Army at the First Battle of **** Run (Manassas) and three later major engagements, and her duty led to her being awarded the Medal of Honor, the only woman to win the Medal of Honor in United States history.
2006 Major Tammy Duckworth became the first female combat veteran to be nominated for Congress.


Romania
1916 Ecaterina Teodoroiu was a Romanian heroine who fought and died in World War 1.


Turkey
1937 During the Dersim uprising, Sabiha Gökçen, the first female aviator in Turkey carried out sorties in operations against the guerrillas.

World War II
Main article: Female roles in the World Wars
The Soviet forces had a significant number of women serving, including an entire air force regiment of female fighter pilots, the 588th Night Bombers. The 588th was horribly feared by the Germans who called them "Night Witches". There are also accounts of very successful female snipers, including Lyudmila Pavlichenko.
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.


Twentieth century
May 14, 1948 The Israeli Defense Force was 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 two 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.
NB: A unit of the Israeli Defence force, named Karkal is a mixed sex infantry unit that patrols the southern border with Egypt.

The IDF Special Forces K-9 unit has female handlers.

The Israeli Defence Force Air Force now has within its ranks female helicopter flight mechanics/door gunners.

Many IDF Instructors are female. This includes personnel attached to the Sniping and Sharpshooting School.

In 1995 the Royal Norwegian Navy became the first navy in the world to appoint a female submarine captain.
In 1998, the Australian Navy became the second nation to allow women to serve on combat submarines. Canada and Spain followed in permitting women to serve on military submarines.


21st century
2003 Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski was in charge of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, where prisoners were abused.
2003 Jessica Lynch, a U.S. soldier, was embroiled in a controversy over differing accounts of her capture and rescue in Iraq.
2003 Lori Piestewa, a U.S. soldier, died in combat after fully discharging her weapon and throwing it at an Iraqi soldier.
2004 Capt Tammy Duckworth lost both legs on November 12, when the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter she was co-piloting was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by Iraqi insurgents. Later, she was the Democratic nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives seat for the sixth district of Illinois in the 2006 House election.
2005 Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester received the Silver Star for her actions in Iraq during an enemy ambush on their convoy near the town of Salman Pak. She killed at least 3 of the attacking insurgents. Hester was the first female soldier to receive the award for exceptional valor since World War II and the first woman ever to receive the silver star for close combat.

[Arashi]

I'll add the Scythians, and old Iranian tribe.

Scythian women dressed in much the same fashion as the men, and at times fought alongside them in battle. A Pazyryk burial found in the 1990s confirms this. It contained the skeletons of a man and a woman, each with weapons, arrowheads, and an axe. "The woman was dressed exactly like a man. This shows that certain women, probably young and unmarried, could be warriors, literally Amazons. It didn't offend the principles of nomadic society", according to one of the archaeologists interviewed for the 1998 NOVA documentary "Ice Mummies".
Scythian warrior-women have become popular contenders for the honour of having inspired the Greek myths of the Amazons. The work of Jeannine Davis-Kimball (Secrets of the Dead August 4, 2004) provides archaeological and genetic evidence that the Sarmatians may have provided the source of the Greek tales.

The Scythians and Amazonians were the same people. Note that the ancient Amazonians were not from the Amazon river, which was given it's name by a Spanish conquistador who there encountered female native warriors.

Originally Posted by Sandra

Timeline of women's participation in warfare

What About Gaddafis Female Bodyguards!

Sassanid women also fought.

[Sandra]

A realy impressive woman:
Lyudmila Pavlichenko one of the 2000 Soviet female snipers.



Total confirmed kills during WWII: 309, including 36 enemy snipers.
Final rank: major
Was awarded the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union.

[Sandra]

The Dahomey Amazons

The Amazon army corps, made up of female warriors, is said to have been established by King Agadja (1708-1740). His father, King Houégbadja, had already created a detachment of "elephant huntresses" who were also bodyguards. But Agadja made them into real warriors.

E. Chaudoin in "Three months in captivity in Dahomey" describes them as follows in 1891:

"There they are, 4,000 warriors, the 4,000 black virgins of Dahomey, the monarch's bodyguard, motionless in their war garments, with gun and knife in hand, ready to leap forward at the master's signal.

Old or young, ugly or beautiful, they are wonderful to look at. They are as well built as the male warriors and their attitude is just as disciplined and correct, lined up as though against a rope".


According to A. Djivo, in "Guézo, the renovation of Dahomey", some of the women enrolled voluntarily whilst others who had difficult marriages and whose husbands had complained to the king were enrolled forcibly. Military service disciplined them and the strength of character they had shown in marriage could be expressed through military action.


They protected the king on the battlefield and took an active part in the fighting, giving up their life if necessary. Guézo said to them: "When you go to war and if you are taken prisoner you will be sacrificed and your bodies will become food for vultures and hyenas".

They, could neither marry nor have children as long as they were in the army. They were trained for war and, in principle, were dedicated to it for life.


"We are men not women. Those coming back from war without having conquered must die. If we beat a retreat our life is at the king's mercy. Whatever town is to be attacked we must overcome it or we bury ourselves in its ruins. Guézo is the king of kings. As long as he lives we have nothing to fear".

"Guézo has given birth to us again. We are his wives, his daughters, his soldiers. War is our pastime, it clothes and feeds us".

This seasoned army, often drunk with gin, accustomed to suffering and ready to kill without fear for their own lives always fought bravely at the battle-front and urged the troops forward.

In 1894, at the beginning of the war between the troops of General Dodds and the kingdom of Abomey, the army contained about 4,000 amazons divided into three brigades. "They are armed with double-bladed knives and Winchester rifles. These amazons perform wonders of bravery; they come to within 50 feet of our positions to be killed..." (Captain Jouvelet, 1894).

The amazon corps was disbanded by Agoli Agbo, Gbêhanzin's successor, after the defeat of the Abomey kingdom.

Originally Posted by Shapur II

Sassanid women also fought.

That also explain why their empire crumbled so easily in the 640;s.

[Good Guy 2]

yeah and thats why they roman imperator valerian was bagging for his life on hes knees to sassanid king shapur ; )

[Haj Gholam]

there should just be beautiful woman heads of states all over there world. then thered be no war and countries bickerin over disputes.

[atilla]

Originally Posted by Sandra

Turkey
1937 During the Dersim uprising, Sabiha Gökçen, the first female aviator in Turkey carried out sorties in operations against the guerrillas.

Sabiha Gökçen (March 22, 1913, Bursa—March 22, 2001, Ankara) was the first Turkish female aviator and the first female combat pilot in the world. She was one of the eight adopted children of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Throughout her career in the Turkish Air Force, Gökçen flew 22 different types of aircraft for more than 8000 hours, 32 hours of which were active combat and bombardment missions.[8] She was selected as the only female pilot for the poster of "The 20 Greatest Aviators in History" published by the United States Air Force in 1996.

The second international airport of Istanbul on the Asian side, the Sabiha Gökçen International Airport, is named after her.

[Jamasb]

Originally Posted by Cunver_Goadbeiles

That also explain why their empire crumbled so easily in the 640;s.

Sassanid Empire didn't crash. What crashed was the power of Persian aristocrats, who were defeated and killed or evicted by the Arabs.

Originally Posted by Cunver_Goadbeiles

The Scythians and Amazonians were the same people. Note that the ancient Amazonians were not from the Amazon river, which was given it's name by a Spanish conquistador who there encountered female native warriors.

no...it's been proved that Amazonians are of Mongol origin