Sister Mary Kenneth Keller, from Cleveland, Ohio, entered the Sisters of Charity, a Catholic religious order, in 1932 and professed her vows in 1940. Later, she studied at DePaul University, where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and an M.S. degree in mathematics and physics. In 1965, she received a Ph.D. degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin. Her dissertation work involved constructing algorithms that performed analytic differentiation on algebraic expression, written in CDC FORTRAN 63.
Countess Agnes Randolph defended the castle of Dunbar against the English forces of King Edward III.
Though she was faced with one of England’s most able commanders and only had a few people to defend it, she refused to yield the castle when it came under siege in 1338.
She enjoyed mocking the besiegers. When bombarded by stones from catapults, she led her ladies in her best clothes to the damaged parts and wiped off the damage.
Agnes had a battery ram destroyed by dropping a huge boulder on it, which had first been thrown inside the castle walls by the English.
After a siege of almost five months, the English gave up and Agnes retained the castle.
Nowadays, she is still a famous heroine in Scotland.
“At the very beginning of my career, I had a teacher whose name was Vinnette Carroll; she directed a number of Broadway shows. She kept saying to me, “You know the problem with beautiful women? They tend to rely on their beauty.” And I said, How wrong she is! I never think of myself as being beautiful. I thought, What are you talking about? I work so hard. And I did. But I learned from her how important it is to learn your craft. When all else fails, you will land on that, and that alone.”
– The trailblazing Cicely Tyson for ELLE Magazine, 2017
Kereyid princess (a clan within modern China and Mongolia) and daughter-in-law of Genghis Khan
Birth late 1100’s - Death 1252
Claim to fame: one of the most powerful and competent women in the Mongol Empire, she promoted education and tolerance over exploitation.
As an adolescent, Sorghaghtani’s father gave her to Genghis Khan, who then passed her to his son, Tolui. The marriage produced four sons and, like most Mongol women of the time, Sorghaghtani managed affairs at home during the regular absence of her campaigning husband.
After Tolui’s death, Sorghaghtani controlled his appanages in parts of Mongolia, Iran and China. She refused marraige proposals from prestigious men, claiming that her sons needed her attention. This was an important decision for the Mongol Empire as all four sons, Möngke Khan, Hulagu Khan, Ariq Böke, and Kublai Khan became leaders in their own right.
Although illiterate, Sorghaghtani recognised the importance of literacy in running a widespread empire. Her sons therefore studied different languages and cultures from within the empire in order to better administer conquered lands. She was a Nestorian Christian but respected other religions, likewise, her sons were liberal minded and tolerant in matters of religion. She instilled in them her belief that the peoples of the Empire must be supported rather than mindlessly exploited.
Sorghaghtani raised her sons to be leaders, removed competitors and manoeuvred family politics in their favour. Her influence was decisive and considerably strengthened Mongol rule.
Sorghaghtani was well remembered by Muslim, Chinese and Christian chroniclers alike. European missionaries described her as “the most renowned of the Mongols”, and Syriac scholar Bar Hebraeus quoted, “If I were to see among the race of women another woman like this, I should say that the race of women was far superior to that of men.”
The nobility of your forbears magnified you, O Edith, And you, a king’s bride, magnify your forbears. Much beauty and much wisdom were yours And also probity together with sobriety. You teach the stars, measuring, arithmetic, the art of the lyre, The ways of learning and grammar. An understanding of rhetoric allowed you to pour out speeches, And moral rectitude informs your tongue – Godfrey of Cambrai, prior of Winchester Cathedral (1082-1107)
Edith of Wessex was born c. 1025, the eldest daughter of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, and his wife Gytha. Her family was a formidable one: Godwin was one of the most powerful men in England, while Gytha was the sister-in-law of Cnut.
She was raised at Wilton Abbey, which she later had rebuilt as a sign of gratitude. There she learned Latin, French, Danish, and some Irish as well as grammar, rhetoric, arithmetic, weaving, embroidery, and astronomy. There is little else we know about her early life apart from her education, but she seems to have been especially close to her brother Tostig.
Edith’s father, Godwin, had a troubled relationship with King Edward the Confessor because Edward believed that Godwin was responsible for the death of his brother. Even so, Godwin was the most powerful man in England and Edward needed his support, and so married Edith at Godwin’s behest on 23 January 1045.
The relationship does not seem to have been a particularly romantic one. They were 20 or so years apart in age and he disliked her family, but all the same she had some influence and it was said that she always advised Edward wisely, and did a lot to improve his kingly image.
In 1051, Godwin and Edward’s relationship significantly deteriorated. Rather than risk arrest, Godwin fled the country with his sons. Edith was sent to a nunnery and all her lands confiscated, perhaps because he didn’t like her, thought they had little hope of conceiving together and wished to remarry, or simply wanted to get revenge on her father. The next year Godwin returned to England and civil war looked likely, but Edward lacked support and was forced to restore Godwin’s lands to him and reinstate Edith as Queen.
Though the two were still unable to have children (probably not because Edward had taken a vow of chastity, as is often said), Edith’s influence as Queen grew, as is shown by the increase in the amount of charters she witnessed, and she joined the circle of Edward’s most trusted advisers.
In 1055, Edith’s brother, Tostig, became Earl of Northumbria but his rule was hugely unpopular and 10 years later the local Northumbrian population rebelled, killing Tostig’s officials and outlawing him, asking instead to be ruled by a member of the leading Mercian family. There is some evidence that many of the Northumbrian people viewed Edith as complicit in Tostig’s tyranny, and indeed it’s likely that she herself had one of Tostig’s political enemies assassinated. Finally, one of Edith’s other brothers, Harold was sent to deal with the matter. He agreed to the rebels demands, depriving Tostig of his earldom, and Tostig, who fled to Flanders, never forgave Harold, nor did Edith.
On 5 January 1066, Edward the Confessor died, leaving Edith’s brother as King Harold II. The main chronicle on Edward’s reign, commissioned by Edith herself, actually attempts to discredit Harold’s claim, showing the extent of the rift between the siblings. Some historians, such as James Campbell, even believe that Edith was in personal danger from Harold, who wanted to placate the still restless Northumbrians by treating Edith harshly.
Harold successfully fought off Norwegian invaders that year at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, in which Tostig died fighting on the side of the Norwegians. Edith’s reaction is not recorded, but it is easy to imagine that she must have been heartbroken. Harold’s next major battle, the Battle of Hastings, was fought against William, Duke of Normandy. Harold and 2 of Edith’s other brothers died that day, and William was proclaimed King.
William sent men to Winchester to demand tribute from Queen Edith and she willingly complied. As a result, William allowed her to keep all her estates and income. Following this, Edith lived a comfortable life and when she died on 18 December 1075, she was recorded as the richest woman in England. She was laid to rest next to her husband in Winchester Cathedral and given a funeral befitting a queen.
As with so many women in history, Edith is often overlooked, but we have much to thank her for. Because she commissioned the Vita Edwardi Regis, she is responsible for much of the information we have on this period, and art historian Carola Hicks even suggests that she commissioned the Bayeaux Tapestry. Regardless of whether this theory is true, Edith is a person worth remembering. She was strong, determined, and loving, though some of her more corrupt actions are utterly deplorable. Nonetheless, her influence and contribution to Edward the Confessor’s reign is not one that should be forgotten.
Claim to Fame: A brutal and formidable queen, best know for her forty year feud with her sister-in-law, Queen Brunhild of Austrasia.
Background: High-ranking women in Merovingian Gaul could hold substantial wealth and status in the fifth and sixth centuries which enabled them to exercise significant social, political and religious influence.
Born into a low-ranking family, Fredegund was a servant to the first wife of King Chilperic I of Neustria, Audovera. She seduced Chilperic and convinced him to divorce and expel Audovera. Chilperic then married a wealthy second wife, Galsuenda, but she soon died and was swiftly replaced as queen by Fredegund. Stories of Galsuenda’s death vary but it is believed that she spoke out against the immorality of Chilperic’s court so the King and his favourite mistress, Fredegund, had her strangled in bed. The powerful Queen Brunhild of Austrasia was both the sister-in-law of Chilperic (she was married to his brother) and the sister of Galsuenda. Brunhild’s fury at her sister’s death sparked a feud between the once unified houses of Austrasia and Neustria that spanned over forty years. The rivalry between Brunhild and Fredegund was particularly bitter and lead their families through generations of conflict.
Fredegund is represented in primary sources as a particularly violent woman who used her desirability to manipulate and corrupt those around her. She frequently contracted assassins as well as torturing, maiming and killing opponents. Among her many alleged misdeeds, Fredegund was suspected of ordering the assassination of Brunhild’s husband, Sigebert I, and attempting to assassinate Brunhild’s son Childebert II, her brother-in-law Guntram of Burgundy, and even Brunhild herself. In a jealous rage, she even attempted to murder her own daughter, Rigunth, by slamming the lid of a chest down on her neck as she reached for the jewelry inside. However, her violence was not limited to royal family members, and included a number of officials, clergymen and locals. In a classic example, Fredegund attempted to quell a dispute between kinsmen but ‘when she failed to reconcile them with gentle words she tamed them on both sides with the ax’ by inviting them to a feast and having them all murdered. Her formidable reputation served her well and she manipulated all levels of society through the fear of her fury.
When a dysentery epidemic struck her husband and two of her sons in 580 CE, Fredegund was plunged into remorse. Believing the epidemic was punishment for her sins, she burned unfair tax records and donated to the church and the poor after her sons succumbed to the disease.
In 584 CE, her husband, Chilperic, was mysteriously assassinated and Fredegund sought refuge in the Notre Dame de Paris cathedral. She died of natural causes 8 December 597 in Paris and is entombed in Saint Denis Basilica.
Several years after Fredegund’s death, her son Clothar II defeated Brunhild in battle and, despite the Queen being in her late sixties, he had her stretched on the rack for three days and then torn apart by four horses. Such was the bitterness of their familial enmity.
Note: The main source for Fredegund’s life is Gregory of Tours’ History of the Franks. Gregory was patronised by Queen Brunhild so his depictions of her qualities and the evils of her rival, Fredegund, are likely biased. Other sources recognise Fredegund’s brutality but treat her and Brunhild more equitably.
~ Much of this mini-bio is based on an essay of mine, so please PM me for sources.
Snippets from the introduction of a recent essay I wrote on women and gender in the crusades:
Besieged in Jerusalem in 1187, Margaret of Beverly proved herself an active participant in the crusades by patrolling the walls, describing herself as ‘a fierce warrior woman’.
Crusading was unmistakably gendered with socially constructed, rather than biologically determined, masculine and feminine roles. Participation was geared towards men, narratives favoured male exploits and contemporary gender constructs dictated women should merely support and encourage the masculine pursuit of warfare.
Despite being discouraged and marginalised, many women joined the crusade as pilgrims and camp followers where they provided services such as moral support, menial labour, cookery and prostitution. They assisted with siege warfare, defence and the provision of supplies to frontline fighters. In emergencies, noblewomen took leadership roles and lay women likely took part in direct combat. Those left at home took on the challenging burden of managing families, estates and businesses to facilitate the absence of male relatives.
Women within the army and crusader settlements faced a myriad of grave dangers including starvation, captivity, rape, family separation, injury and death.
The contribution of women to crusading was significant and varied, but the tendency to define a ‘crusader’ only as a direct combatant has led some historians to suggest only women who fought could be considered crusaders. As the crusades were a spiritual and societal movement as well as a military enterprise, I argue it is more appropriate to define a crusader as a participant. It is oversimplified to ignore the vast contribution of women who, like their male counterparts, took vows and committed to the Christianisation of the east at great personal risk. Therefore, I argue women should be called crusaders for their dedication, courage and sacrifices for the crusade effort.
An interesting segment on medieval Muslim women from the Memoirs of Usamah Ibn Munqidh in ‘The Crusades: A Reader’, edited by S.J. Allen and Emilie Amt
“Duke Amalo sent his wife to another estate to attend to his interests, and fell in love with a certain free-born girl. And hen it was night and Amalo was drunk with wine he sent his men to seize the girl and bring her to his bed. She resisted and they brought her by force to his house, slapping her, and she was stained by a torrent of blood that ran from her nose. And even the bed of the duke mentioned above was made bloody by the stream. And he beat her, too, striking with his fists and cuffing her and beating her otherwise, and took her in his arms, but he was immediately overwhelmed with drowsiness and went to sleep. And she reached her hand over the man’s head and found his sword and drew it, and like Judith Holofernes struck the duke’s head a powerful blow. He cried out and his slaves came quickly. But when they wished to kill her he called out saying: “I beg you do not do it for it was I who did wrong in attempting to violate her chastity. Let her not perish for striving to keep her honor.” Saying this he died. And while the household was assembled weeping over him the the girl escaped from the house by God’s help and went in the night to the city of Chalon about thirtyfive miles away; and there she entered the church of Saint Marcellus and threw herself at the king’s feet and told all she had endured. Then the king was merciful and not only gave her her life but commanded that an order be given that she should be placed under his protection and should not suffer harm from any kinsman of the dead man. Moreover we know that by God’s help the girl’s chastity was not in any way violated by her savage ravisher.”
Queen consort of England and Countess of Angoulême
Born c. 1186/c. 1188 - died 1246
Claim to fame: a feisty young queen who defied the English monarchy and rebelled against the French.
At the age of 12 or 14, Isabella became the second wife of 34 year old King John of England in 1200. Though young, she was already a renowned beauty with blonde hair and blue eyes. It was reported by his critics that John was so infatuated with her that he neglected his duties as king to stay in bed with her. She became the Countess of Angoulême in her own right in 1202. She had five children with John, including his heir Henry III. She oversaw the coronation of Henry after John’s death in 1216 but left her son and returned to France a year later although he was just nine years old.
In 1220 Isabella married Hugh X of Lusignan, Count of La Marche. Interestingly, she had been betrothed to his father prior to her marriage to John and Hugh X was engaged to her daughter, Joan, but decided he preferred Isabella who was still still a beautiful woman of around 30 years old. She married without the consent of Henry III’s council which lead to a stoush whereby her dower lands were confiscated and she threatened to prevent the marriage of her daughter to the King of Scots. Her son tried to have her excommunicated but eventually came to terms. She had a further nine children with Hugh.
Apparently disgruntled with her lower status as countess, she took great offence to being publicly snubbed by the French Queen Dowager, Blanche of Castile, whom she already hated due to her support of the French invasion of England in 1216. In retaliation, Isabella reportedly conspired with other disgruntled nobles to form an English-backed confederacy against the French King Louis IX. By 1244 the confederacy had failed but Isabella was implicated in an attempt to poison Louis. To avoid arrest she fled to Fontevraud Abbey where she died two years later.
The first image is of her effigy at Fontevraud Abbey. The second is her seal, presumably designed before she had fourteen children…
“When we too are armed and trained, we can convince men that we have hands, feet, and a heart like yours; and although we may be delicate and soft, some men who are delicate are also strong; and others, coarse and harsh, are cowards. Women have not yet realized this, for if they should decide to do so, they would be able to fight you until death; and to prove that I speak the truth, amongst so many women, I will be the first to act, setting an example for them to follow.”
Edna Regina Lewis was an American renowned chef, teacher, and author who helped refine the American view of Southern cooking. She’s often called the Julia Child of the South, but Edna Lewis really needs no such qualifier. She is a culinary icon in her own right. The granddaughter of emancipated slaves in Freetown, Virginia, Lewis was a celebrated chef in New York in the late 1940s and 1950s, a time when chefs who were black or female were a rarity, let alone both.. She championed the use of fresh, in season ingredients and characterized Southern food as fried chicken, pork, and fresh vegetables – most especially greens. She wrote and co-wrote four books which covered Southern cooking and life in a small community of freed slaves and their descendants.
“One of the greatest pleasures of my life has been that I have never stopped learning about Good Cooking and Good Food.” Edna Lewis
Sālote Tupou was queen regnant of Tonga in the early 1900s. She was a very tall woman at 6ft 3in and ascended the throne at the age of 18. She married Viliami Tungi, this marriage united feuding dynasties. She ensured the mapping of Tonga archeological sites which led to in depth studies of Tongan history. Sālote also wrote dance songs and love poems such as Lakalaka.
Sālote brought international recognition to Togna when attending the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in London. She was seen as an endearing figure when she rode through the streets in an open carriage happily waving in the rain.
She died in 1965 and was deeply mourned by her people. Her body rests in Tonga.
The greatest Polynesian Goddess was a complex figure of whom many myths were told. Like other major divinities, She was associated with many aspects of life and had many symbols: She was the tapa-beating woman who lived in the moon; She was Great Hina, the death mother; She was a warrior queen of the Island of Women. An all-inclusive divine archetype, Hina appeared in many Polynesian legends, some of which – not surprisingly, for such a complex and long-lived Goddess – contradicted others. In some legends, Hina was said to have been created of red clay by the first man. But others – in Tahiti, for instance – knew Hina as the preeminent Goddess, for whose sexual pleasure the first man was created. This Goddess has two faces, one in front as humans do, one at the back of Her head. She was the first female being on earth, many bearing Her name. One guise Hina wore was a warrior of the Island of Women, a place where no men were allowed, where trees alone impregnated the residents. A man washed up on the shore and slept with Hina, the ageless and beautiful leader. He stayed for some time. But every time She began to show Her years, Hina went surfing and came back renewed and restored. At the same time, Her human lover gradually bowed under the years. Hina returned the man to his people on a whale, which the humans impudently and imprudently killed. The whale was Hina’s brother, and She sent terrible sufferings on the people as a result. Among all the many stories of Hina, however, probably the most commonly known one was that of the Goddess and Her lover, the eel. Living on earth as a mortal woman, Hina bathed in a quiet pool where, one day, She had intercourse with an eel. Her people, afraid of the power of the serpent, killed him, only to find that Hina had been mating with a god. Furious and despairing at having Her affair so terminated, Hina took the eel’s head and buried it. Five nights later the first coconut there, a staple product thereafter to Hina’s folk.
Ethel Waters (1896 - 1977) was a blues, jazz singer and an actress. To be out as a #lesbian actress in #Hollywood is still rare. We can’t begin to imagine the struggles that Ethel Walters faced as a black lesbian entertainer in the early part of the 20th Century. She was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 1949 for the film Pinky, directed by Elia Kazan. She is also the first African-American woman to be nominated for an Emmy Award, in 1962.
Original #photograph at The @nationalarchivesuk Catalogue ref:COPY 1/432/63, ‘Her Majesty the Queen in pony carriage with Princess Christian and Princess Frederica of Hanover standing by.’ John Brown her faithful servant holds the reins. #Photographer: Robert Milne, Sep. 11 1897 #womenshistory #womenshistorymonth #British #monarch #herstory #history #regal #royal #archives #archivist #monarchy #tbt #throwbackthursday #1800s #QueenVictoria #Victorian #VictorianEra (at The National Archives) https://www.instagram.com/p/BvAjnbTg22l/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1408mjvzv6lfl
when girls like horses we call them ‘horse girls’ and mock them for their bond with giant nightmare leg-finger creatures
but if boys like horses we call them ‘future cowboys’ and ‘rugged outdoors men’
I’m just saying, I’ve met a lot more horse girls than horse boys so when the dystopic breakdown of society hits us, it’s not going to be roving bands of young men on horseback (they don’t know how to ride, they haven’t B O N D ED)
it will be Kelly from elementary school and her band of fifty midwest girls in pink cowgirl boots who have come for your resources
Wanna know a fun fact?
When they were filming Lord of the Rings, they needed A LOT of extras to be able to ride horses into battle. They couldn’t find nearly enough men with horses/ riding skills, so they hired just like a crap ton of women who were expert riders, slapped some beards on ‘em, and called it good. The VAST majority of the riders in that film are horse girls. Horse girls win battles.
~Friend of Dorothy~ had a special meaning based on a quote from The Wizard of Oz swipe to read the history behind this queer idiom . #friendofdorothy #judygarland #queerslang #queerundefined #gay #lebsian #bi #pan #trans #nb #enby #gnc #closeted #questioning #gayhistory #lesbianherstory #herstory #gayslang #gaymemes #lgbtq #queer #queermemes #gayteen #queerpride #gaypride #instagay #transgender #nonbinarypositivity #lgbtmemes #lgbtpositivity (at Brooklyn, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/BxqSMqlhxFh/?igshid=v09ir1purl1m
#NowReading Constellations by @sineadgleeson and it’s everything I expected it to be. I’m still near the beginning but I can tell I’m in for a journey. The chapter on hair brought up so many emotions within me, I had to let myself cry when I came to the end of it. Looking forward to savouring the rest of the book over the next few days. • #herstory #nonfiction #memoir #womenwriters #irishwriters #constellations #newbook #ourshelvesareourselves #bookstagram #books #bookstagrammer #bookcommunity #bookish #bestoftheday #saturday #weekend #igreads #reading #white #home #interiors (at Cheltenham, Gloucestershire) https://www.instagram.com/p/BxnwEbwA8TB/?igshid=cwsc6j6l23y
alright. we’re going to talk about typhoid mary. one last time, i promise.
it was not mary’s fault that her body was hospitable. it was not mary’s fault that there was no cure.
she wasn’t discovered as a fluke. an epidemic fighter by the name of george a. soper, who was investigating the outbreak at oyster bay, tracked her down. her work as a cook wasn’t directly her downfall either, for almost everything she handled would be exposed to high temperatures thus killing the bacteria. instead it was a frozen dessert “which Mary prepared and of which everybody present was extremely fond. This was ice-cream with fresh peaches cut up and frozen in it.” in the beginning there is always a woman and a piece of fruit. whether an apple, a pomegranate, or a peach. an ovarian symmetry persists in propagation.
mary didn’t believe that which she could not see. in her defence, what would you do if a man showed up at your door demanding samples of piss and shit and blood, insistent that you were an accomplice to a crime, unwitting or not.
soper kept tracking mary down. she was increasingly bullish and refused to acknowledge any part in the infection. soper called mary a proved menace to the community. mary retorted that there had been no more typhoid where she was than anywhere else. there was typhoid fever everywhere. the department of health and the police hunted her down. after administering the tests and fully confirming her role as a carrier, she persisted in her denial while they forced her confinement.
when soper discovered her once more she was again sent to north brother island. this time there was less of a struggle.
she never fully admitted that she agreed with the diagnosis but the fact that enough around her accepted it meant that perhaps she could no longer go about her life in the usual fashion.
no one came to her aid while she was sick and no one came to claim the small sum she left behind. for all intensive care purposes she was alone.
it’s funny that we don’t have other accounts of asymptomatic carriers of the like. then again, how can we expect others to self-report an unrecognizable lack.
consider war as a disease. it spreads from one to another while borders are shut hoping to keep out the infection hoping to contain peace. those considered to be instigators are shut up and isolated.
consider that war is self-induced. a mass hysteria of its own. an auto-immune condition that erupts from within.
“war is a disease, a disease not of individuals, but of countries.” this metaphor is neither new nor controversial. but often it is treated as an inevitably malady, something to be contained and limited but unavoidable. laying skeletons and genes bare to decode a resistance to nature while unable to ascribe a resistance to ourselves.
almost everyone is a warmary. asymptomatic carriers who go about their daily business because their own personal lives aren’t interrupted by the sickness. never mind the fact that it is often those daily habits that contribute to the suffering of others, whether witnessed or not.
what would it mean to stop that spread of transmission? how can a sickness that ripples through us all be contained? such questions reveal the limits of the metaphor as well as of our own coping mechanisms.
carrying it within ourselves the potential to spread to aggravate is great. typhoid mary persisted with her habits because it was all she knew. other options were more difficult. they always are.
we have to question the systems that keep us entrenched in asymptomatic warfare.
•
metaphors can easily be stretched thin, like butter scraped over too much bread. metaphors can spread like an infection, drawing dangerously false equivalences like the recent economist article that i will not dignify with a link. or become kindling to inflame without elaboration for the sake of a buzzing headline.
war on a virus is proclaimed, willfully oblivious to the fact that a virus cannot sign a peace treaty. aiming for an annihilation of the abstract regardless of the bodies that lie in the wake. bodies are just carriers, patients made culpable by their visibility.
so of what use is this warmary analogy when nothing is quite like another and straws grasped at are hollow nonetheless. perhaps the appeal lies in its ability to reveal complicity without malice. a banality of evil that is at once benign and malignant like a cancer cell who claims it’s just trying to survive like all the rest. but what’s to be gained from acting like there’s opposing sides when there’s only one body.
marina manoukian is a reader and writer and collage artist. she currently resides in berlin while she studies and works. she likes honey and she loves bees. you can find more of her words and images at marinamanoukian.com or twitter/instagram at @crimeiscommon.
