10 Real Badass Women from History

6. Zenobia

Female leaders may not get that much attention, but if you want to see that women were badass all through history, look no further than Zenobia. She was a third-century Queen of the Palmyrene Empire in Syria, famous for the revolt she led against the Roman empire.

After the death of her husband in 267, Zenobia massively expanded her country’s empire, conquering Egypt and even kicking out the Romans. She went on to rule over Egypt until 271, when the Roman forces finally overwhelmed her. After her defeat, she was taken to Rome and kept as a hostage by Emperor Aurelian, where tales of her life become confused and mysterious.

7. Tomoe Gozen

When we think of samurai, we often picture men, but in fact, there was a woman samurai who proved herself a force to be reckoned with. Her name was Tomoe Gozen, and she lived in the late 12th century.

She was known for her exceptional beauty, as well as for her remarkable talent as an archer and a bowman. She is described as being an incredible fighter, with little fear and a long list of brave acts to her name. In Japan, she is a popular historical figure, whose deeds are not soon to be forgotten.

8. Mata Hari

Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, better known by her stage name, Mata Hari, was an exotic dancer and courtesan from Holland. Zelle went on to marry MacLeod, who was looking for a wife to move to the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Their marriage had issues, and Zelle threw herself into Indonesian traditions and dance, becoming a performer she named Mata Hari (literally meaning sun). She became an acclaimed exotic dancer after her divorce, and during the war, was very well known.

Mata Hari had a relationship with a Russian pilot serving with the French, and was blackmailed by officials when she attempted to visit him while wounded into spying for the Germans. Ultimately, she was executed by firing squad in October of 1917 after being convicted of espionage. Still, she had a crazy badass life!

9. Anne Bonny

Anne Bonny was a woman from Ireland who went on to become a world-famous pirate. She was born around 1690, the daughter of a servant woman and her boss, a lawyer. In trying to escape her mother’s family, Anne’s father and mother moved to London, and then to the Carolinas. As a child, Anne’s dad took to dressing her as a boy and calling her Andy. She was just 12 when her mother died, and quite wild by all accounts.

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As an adult, she fell in with pirates while living in the Bahamas, and supposedly had a child with renowned pirate John “Calico Jack” Rackham. She was later caught, but there is no record of her execution or her release, feeding speculation that she might have been rescued by her family, given a new identity, and left to live her life in peace.

10. Boudica

Most people are familiar with Boudica, sometimes spelt Boadicea or Boudicea. She’s a veritable badass that’s for sure. She was the queen of the British Celtic Iceni tribe, and was known for leading an uprising against the Roman Empire when they were occupying her lands.

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Her revolt came entirely to the Roman’s surprise, and with an army of 100,000 strong, Boudica destroyed a number of established Roman settlements. The revolt was so successful that Nero at one point considered withdrawing all of his forces from Britain. However, the Romans did eventually gain the upper hand, and Boudica disappeared. Some say she killed herself to avoid capture, while others believed she died of an illness or a battle wound. She remains an important cultural symbol to this day.