Murderous temptress or weak pawn? These are the two enduring images of Lucrezia Borgia, but are either at all true? Evidence suggests not.
Author: historicallywoman
Suffrage Around the World: Clara González
During the early 1900s, women all around the world were mobilising to fight for their rights, and it was no different in Latin America. Clara González spent her whole career fighting for women and their rights.
Suffrage Around the World: Nüzi canzheng tongmenghui
China’s ‘first wave’ of feminism took place between 1911-1913 when the new constitution contained no mention of women's suffrage. Women's groups across China came together to form the Women's Suffrage Alliance - the first of its kind in the country.
Warriors: Black Agnes Randolph
‘From the record of Scottish heroes, none can presume to erase her.' These were the words used by novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott about Black Agnes Randolph, a Scottish heroine in the fight against the English.
Warriors: Nusaybah bint Ka’ab
The birth of Islam allowed women to have independent identities and for a woman’s successes or failures to rest entirely on her. This is no better demonstrated than in the case of Nusaybah bint Ka’ab, Islam’s first woman warrior.
LGBTQ+ Couples: Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West
"I am reduced to a thing that wants Virginia..." The love affair of Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West was colourful and lively, and the impact the two women had on each other and their work can scarcely be measured.
LGBTQ+ Couples: Anne Lister and Ann Walker
Gay marriage has only been legal across the UK for just over two years, after legislation took effect in Northern Ireland on 13th January 2020. However, the first lesbian ‘wedding’ actually took place a little short of two centuries before, when Anne Lister and Ann Walker wedded at Holy Trinity Church in York in 1834.
Women in Mythology: Nüwa (女媧)
Every religion and mythology has a creation myth. The Ancient Greeks believed in Chaos and Gaea, who gave birth to the first beings. In the Christian Bible, God spends six days forming animals, plants, and people. In Ancient China, there was Nüwa.
Women in Mythology: The Morrígan
Sometimes a triple goddess, sometimes an individual entity, the Morrígan is a feared figure from Irish mythology. As a goddess of war, her stories are centred around the battlefield, an unusual place for a woman in Celtic myth.
Z is for… Zenobia
Born around 240 AD in Palmyra, Syria, Zenobia would rise to challenge the likes of the Roman Empire and even earn their grudging respect, despite their prejudices against both her race and sex.