100 Nasty Women of History

by Hannah Jewell

  ‘Holy crap Izzy my period was so metal this month.’

  Fake news! (n.) – Though some people and presidents believe any media attention that casts them in a poor light to be ‘FAKE NEWS!’, the phrase actually refers to an article someone has written that they know to be made up, in order to generate traffic to their website or for other nefarious reasons.

  ‘I read an article I disagreed with and therefore deem it to be FAKE NEWS!!!’

  Woke bae (n.) – A gentleman who is both attractive and attuned to the social justice issues of the day. Perhaps he is attractive because he is attuned to the social justice issues of the day. Or perhaps he became interested in the social justice issues of the day merely because he wanted people to be attracted to him, in which case his status as a true woke bae is called into question.

  ‘Sooo I thought Steve could be my woke bae but then he got mad when I joked that his dog had white male privilege.’

  ‘Told you that guy was a prick.’

  WhatsApp (n.) – A popular text-messaging service before which no human communication was possible.

  ‘How did people even talk before they had WhatsApp voice notes? Idk.’

  Idk (abbr.) – Short for ‘I don’t know’.

  ‘Idk man, I’m kind of freaked out by hang-gliding.’

  YOLO (abbr.) – Short for YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE, as coined in 2011 by the musical artist Drake. While it should imply that you ought to live your life very carefully and never risk damage to life and limb, it is in fact a thing you yell before you do something incredibly stupid, dangerous, or expensive.

  ‘Come on man, just think how much chicks dig hang-gliding! You can put a pic on your Tinder profile it’ll be awesome. YOLO man!!’

  ‘Yeah, OK, fine, YOLO let’s do it!’

  [They both die in a terrible hang-gliding accident.]

  Ho (v. or n.) – An expression for a loose woman or man that is usually derogatory but in this book is used warmly.

  ‘Why shouldn’t people in the 17th century get to ho it up a bit? Everyone’s always been a big ho. YOLO.’

  BS (abbr.) – Short for bullshit. The shit that comes out of a bull, as opposed to a horse, which is called horseshit.

  ‘My boo told me he was working late but I’m pretty sure it was BS.’

  A lad (n.) – A person who likes a bit of banter and often does legendary things like drinking 12 cans of beer and placing their bare bum against the window of a bus.

  ‘St Brigid of Kildare was a lad.’

  An absolute lad (n.) – A lad but more.

  ‘St Brigid of Kildare was an absolute lad.’

  Tl;dr (abbr. or n.) – Short for ‘too long; didn’t read’. Can also mean the shortened, summarised version of something. Often used if someone has sent you an article over 300 words.

  ‘Hey did you read my book??’

  ‘Sorry tl;dr.’

  Acknowledgements

  It turns out that writing a book makes you a pretty awful person. The amount of whining you do and how self-centred you become is truly astounding. (And by you, I mean me. See what I mean?) To make things worse, all of this whining happens as a result of having received an incredible opportunity – to write a damn book, with a lot of help from a lot of people. What I’m saying is, thank you and I’m sorry to everyone who came into contact with me and supported me in the short but intense period of my life spent creating this wild she-beast of a book.

  First of all, thank you to my agent Charlie Viney of The Viney Agency, for reaching out to me in 2016 to see if I wanted to write a book, which it turns out I did. As a first-time author with little to no understanding of how the world works, I will always be grateful for your guidance, your good humour, and your belief in me and this project.

  Thank you to Hannah Black at Hodder & Stoughton, not only for your wise editing, but for your kindness in delivering me much-needed praise at the very moments when I was ready to set fire to my computer. (Great name btw.) I am also grateful to Ian Wong at Hodder for doing literally everything, particularly the nitty-gritty gruelling bits of making a book not suck. Thank you to Caitriona Horne, Heather Keane, and Rebecca Mundy for your marketing and PR work, as well as your top Twitter bants. Thank you to Claudette Morris and Susan Spratt for turning a miserable-looking Word doc into a real live book, and to Lesley Hodgson for getting all the wonderful photos you see in these pages – they add so much to the work, and were not always easy to find. In fact, everyone at Hodder did an incredible amount of work in a very short amount of time, and I hope it didn’t make you sick of historical ladies. It’s not their fault, it’s mine.

  Guess what: there are lots of others who worked on this book even though it wasn’t even their damn job to do so. Before I even get to them, I want to direct all my readers to the bibliography. This book depended on the work of Real Historians™, who do meticulous hard work for not much reward. Please have a look especially at the biographies I read for this project – these authors dedicated years to researching the details of these women’s lives that bring their stories to life. They did the hard part and I got to have the fun, so please support your local historians and buy their excellent books.

  Speaking of Real Historians™ (and other varieties of Real Academics™), this book was made 100 times better by the edits and suggestions of a whole army of clever PhD types, many of whom I quoted in these pages. Thank you to Joseph Kellner for having a look at my Russians, and to Eoghan Ahern and Timothy Wright for taking on my medieval babes. Thank you to Julia Wambach for sharing your expertise on my French and WWII-era chapters, to Melissa Turoff for your invaluable suggestions on my South Asian chapters, and to Maha Atal for your edits on my African chapters. Thank you to Trevor Jackson for looking in on my philosophers and revolutionaries – you, too, are a philosopher and a revolutionary. Thank you to Kelly Oakes for checking my scientists, you are not only a super smart scientist but also a brilliant writer and editor and I can’t wait to read YOUR book. And thank you times a million to Laura Gutiérrez for not only editing multiple sections, but for being the best cheerleader a girl could ever want throughout this whole process.

  But wait – THERE’S MORE. Thanks to Sam Stander for your perfect edits on my introduction, and to Bim Adewunmi for editing multiple chapters and for being a mentor, a friend, an advocate, and all-around top gal. Thank you to Gena-mour Barrett and to Tom Phillips, who did both normal editing and crucial banter checks. You are the funniest writers in the world, no offence to all other writers. I received so many great suggestions of women to include from friends and strangers – thank you in particular to Margaret Wetherell, Hattie Soykan, and Harry Kennard for going out of their way to find me excellent women in history. Thanks, I guess, to Dan Dalton for giving me a shitty old laptop to write the book with. Every time the ‘e’ key fell off, which was often, I cursed your name. Thanks to all my former colleagues at BuzzFeed UK for creating the environment of creativity and weirdness that incubated me as a writer over three years, you’re all hilarious geniuses and I miss you guys.

  Throughout my time spent writing and editing this book I was hosted by a number of fine and attractive people in their fine and attractive homes. Thank you to Maggy van Eijk and her family in Amsterdam, the perfect place to kick off the writing. Thank you Philippa and Flo Perry for hosting me in your splendid country home, where we worked hard but also took ample breaks for food, wine, and painting. Thank you Dee and Gordon Chesterman for being my surrogate parents while I worked in my very favourite place, your house in Ely. Sorry, Uncle Gordon, that you didn’t get to letterpress-print the whole book. Maybe next time. Thank you also to Felicity Taylor and Harriet Williams for letting me stay with you so often in your house, my other favourite place, which happens to be the cultural and political heart of London. It was a home away from home, and also my banking address. Thank you to my brother and sister-in-law Simeon and Amy Jewell, their daughter and future remarkable woman Hazel, and Amy’s parents Devra and John Harris, for looking after
me in the dire last moments of writing and editing.

  I wouldn’t know any of the Real Historians™ above if it weren’t for my boyfriend Sam Wetherell, the realest historian of all. Thank you Sam for being the first person to read and comment on every single chapter, for supporting me in my most extravagant moments of self-doubt, and most of all for making me delicious soups. You may not know how to put a duvet cover on, but you’re very good at history, and I continue to learn so much from you.

  And finally, I wouldn’t even EXIST if it weren’t for my parents, Jane and Chris Jewell, who not only made me a human person, for which I am very grateful, but raised me to be curious about the world, to care about other people and to not take myself too seriously. If the book does well, I promise to put you in an above-average retirement home some day. I love you both.

  Bibliography

  Ælfthryth

  Rabin, Andrew, ‘Female Advocacy and Royal Protection in Tenth-Century England: The Legal Career of Queen Ælfthryth’, Speculum 84, no. 2 (2009): 261–8.

  Æthelflæd

  Rank, Melissa and Rank, Michael, The Most Powerful Women in the Middle Ages: Queens, Saints, and Viking Slayers, From Empress Theodora to Elizabeth of Tudor (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013).

  Alexandra Kollontai

  Bridenthal, Renate, Koonz, Claudia and Mosher Stuard, Susan, Becoming Visible: Women in European History (Houghton Mifflin, 1987).

  Míeville, China, October: The Story of the Russian Revolution (London; Brooklyn, NY: Verso, 2017).

  Annie Jump Cannon

  ‘Annie Jump Cannon: American Astronomer’, Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed July 29, 2017; https://www.britannica.com/biography/Annie-Jump-Cannon.

  Greenstein, George, Portraits of Discovery: Profiles in Scientific Genius, 1st edition (New York: Wiley, 1997).

  Julie, Des, The Madame Curie Complex: The Hidden History of Women in Science (The Feminist Press at CUNY, 2010).

  Annie Smith Peck

  Kimberley, Hannah, A Woman’s Place Is at the Top: A Biography of Annie Smith Peck, Queen of the Climbers (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2017).

  Artemisia Gentileschi

  ‘Artemisia Gentileschi’ The Art History Babes. Accessed July 29, 2017; http://www.arthistorybabes.com/podcast/2016/8/4/artemisia-gentileschi.

  Danto, Arthur C., ‘Artemisia and the Elders’, The Nation, March 21, 2002; https://www.thenation.com/article/artemisia-and-elders/.

  Artemisia I of Caria

  ‘Artemisia I of Caria’, Ancient History Encyclopedia. Accessed July 29, 2017; http://www.ancient.eu/Artemisia_I_of_Caria/.

  Beatrice Potter Webb

  Nolan, Barbara E., The Political Theory of Beatrice Webb (New York: AMS Press, 1988); http://webbs.library.lse.ac.uk/628/.

  Seymour-Jones, Carole, Beatrice Webb: Woman of Conflict (London: Allison & Busby, 1992).

  Webb, Beatrice, The Co-Operative Movement in Great Britain (London: Sonnenschein & Co, 1899).

  Webb, Beatrice, Beatrice Webb’s Diaries,1912-1924, 1st edition (Longmans, Green Co, 1952).

  Brigid of Kildare

  Kennedy, Patrick, Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts (Cornell University Library, 1866).

  ‘Saint Brigid of Ireland | Biography & Facts’, Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed July 29, 2017; https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Brigit-of-Ireland.

  Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin

  Greenstein, George, Portraits of Discovery: Profiles in Scientific Genius, 1st edition (New York: Wiley, 1997).

  Julie, Des, The Madame Curie Complex: The Hidden History of Women in Science (The Feminist Press at CUNY, 2010).

  Ching Shih

  ‘6 Lady Pirates’, Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed July 30, 2017; https://www.britannica.com/list/6-lady-pirates.

  ‘Ching Shih (Fl. 1807–1810) – Dictionary Definition of Ching Shih (Fl. 1807–1810) | Encyclopedia.com: FREE Online Dictionary’, Accessed July 30, 2017; http://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/ching-shih-fl-1807-1810.

  Cordingly, David, Pirates: Fact & Fiction (Artabras, 1992).

  Coccinelle

  Costa, Mario A., Reverse Sex … The Life of Jacqueline Charlotte Dufresnoy. With Portraits, Translation by Jules J. Block (London: Challenge Publications, 1961).

  Constance Markievicz

  ‘BBC – History – 1916 Easter Rising – Profiles – Countess Markievicz’. Accessed July 29, 2017; http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/easterrising/profiles/po10.shtml.

  Haverty, Anne, Constance Markievicz: An Independent Life (London: Pandora, 1988).

  Dorothy Thompson

  Sanders, Marion K, Dorothy Thompson: A Legend in Her Time (Houghton Mifflin, 1973).

  Thompson, Dorothy, Dorothy Thompson’s Political Guide: A Study of American Liberalism and Its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (New York: Stackpole Sons Publishers, 1938).

  Thomas, Helen. Watchdogs of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public, 1st edition (New York: Scribner, 2006).

  Thompson, Dorothy, I Saw Hitler (Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., 1932).

  Thompson, Dorothy, Listen Hans (Houghton Mifflin, 1942).

  Elizabeth Hart

  Ferguson, Moira, Hart Gilbert, Anne and Hart Thwaites, Elizabeth, The Hart Sisters: Early African Caribbean Writers, Evangelicals, and Radicals (University of Nebraska Press, 1993).

  Lightfoot, Natasha, ‘The Hart Sisters of Antigua: Evangelica Activism and “Respectable” Public Politics in the Era of Black Atlantic Slavery’, in Toward an Intellectual History of Black Women (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: UNC Press Books, 2013).

  Emmy Noether

  ‘Emmy Noether, Mathematics Trailblazer’, Stuff You Missed in History, September 7, 2015; http://www.missedinhistory.com/podcasts/emmy-noether-mathematics-trailblazer.htm.

  Mack, Dr Katie, ‘Dr Katie Mack On Emmy Noether’, The Laborastory (Podcast) on Player FM. Accessed July 29, 2017; https://player.fm/series/the-laborastory/dr-katie-mack-on-emmy-noether.

  Empress Theodora

  Rank, Melissa, and Rank, Michael, The Most Powerful Women in the Middle Ages: Queens, Saints, and Viking Slayers, From Empress Theodora to Elizabeth of Tudor (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013).

  Empress Wu

  Clements, Jonathan, Wu: The Chinese Empress Who Schemed, Seduced and Murdered Her Way to Become a Living God (London: Albert Bridge Books, 2014).

  Ethel Payne

  Morris, James McGrath, ‘Ethel Payne, “first lady of the black press,” asked questions no one else would’, Washington Post. Accessed July 29, 2017; https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ethel-paynefirst-lady-of-the-black-pressasked-questions-no-one-else-would/2011/08/02/gIQAJloFBJ_story.html.

  Morris, James McGrath, Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, the First Lady of the Black Press (New York: Amistad Press, 2015).

  Fanny Cochrane Smith

  Clark, J., ‘Smith, Fanny Cochrane (1834–1905)’, in Australian Dictionary of Biography (Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, n.d.); http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/smith-fanny-cochrane-8466.

  Fatima al-Fihri

  Glacier, Osire, Political Women in Morocco: Then and Now, 1st edition (Trenton, NJ: Red Sea Press, US, 2013).

  Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

  Field, Corinne T., ‘Frances E.W. Harper and the Politics of Intellectual Maturity’, in Toward an Intellectual History of Black Women (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: UNC Press Books, 2013).

  Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti

  Bishop, Moe, ‘Coffin for Head of State’, Vice, 2011. Accessed August 1, 2017. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/znqen3/Wasted-Life-Coffin-for-head-of-state.

  Byfield, Judith A., ‘Feeding the Troops: Abeokuta (Nigeria) and World War II’, African Economic History, no. 35 (2007): 77–87.

  Byfield, Judith A., ‘From Ladies to Women: Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti and Women’s Political Activism in Post-World War II Nigeria’, in Toward an Inte
llectual History of Black Women (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: UNC Press Books, 2013).

  Byfield, Judith A., ‘Taxation, Women, and the Colonial State: Egba Women’s Tax Revolt’, Meridians vol. 3, no. 2 (2003): 250–77.

  Soyinka, Wole, Aké: The Years of Childhood (New York: Random House, 1981).

  Gabriela Brimmer

  Brimmer, Gabriela, and Poniatowska, Elena, Gaby Brimmer: An Autobiography in Three Voices (University Press of New England, 2009).

  Mandoki, Luis, Gaby: A True Story, VHS, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 1987.

  George Sand

  Jack, Belinda, ‘George Sand: A Woman’s Life Writ Large’, New York Times. Accessed July 30, 2017; http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/j/jack-sand.html.

  ‘George Sand | French Novelist’, Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed July 30, 2017; https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Sand.

  Gladys Bentley

  Wilson, James F., Bulldaggers, Pansies, and Chocolate Babies: Performance, Race, and Sexuality in the Harlem Renaissance in Triangulations (Ann Arbor, Mich.: London: University of Michigan Press; Eurospan distributor, 2010).

  Hannah Arendt

  Arendt, Hannah, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (London: Faber and Faber, 1963).

  Arendt, Hannah, On Revolution (London: Faber & Faber, 1963).

  Arendt, Hannah, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2nd enlarged edition (Meridian Books, MG15, New York: Meridian Books, 1958).

  Arendt, Hannah, and Canovan, Margaret, The Human Condition: Second Edition, 2nd revised edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998).

  Trotta, Margarethe von, Hannah Arendt (Zeitgeist Films, 2013).

  Hatshepsut

  ‘Hatshepsut | Ruler of Egypt’, Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed July 29, 2017; https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hatshepsut.

  ‘Hatshepsut’ In Our Time, BBC Radio 4. Accessed July 29, 2017; http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04n62jx.

  Hedy Lamarr

  ‘Hedy Lamarr | Austrian-Born American Actress’, Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed July 30, 2017; https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hedy-Lamarr.