It's all well and good to sit around and write poetry, but there's a more important side to womanhood that we need to talk about. Violence.
Each woman listed here personally carried out violence against the patriarchy, but it was mass social movements of others doing the same that shifted history. They did not act alone, because they didn't have to. Because women have each other no matter how bad it gets.
Mabel Capper was active in the Women's Social and Political Union, an organization for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom. In 1912, she and several other women carried out powerful attacks against anti-suffrage elites, including arson and bombings. She was imprisoned multiple times and force fed during hunger strikes in prison. This was common of suffragettes at the time.
While the suffragette's tactics used violence, they had no interest in endangering human life. There were casualties, but destruction of property and disruption of economic activity was their target. They were extremely effective, dealing millions of dollars of damage and earning constant public attention to their cause.
The suffragettes eventually put their attacks on hold during WW1. The Women's Party was formed in 1917 and women's suffrage was gained between 1918 and 1928. While at this point they no longer used violent tactics, they never would have gotten this far without the use of just violence.
Juliana killed her husband/master circ. 1540 in Paraguay, and was executed. Before she was killed, she encouraged other indigenous women to do the same.
"Juliana" is the name given to her by her captors, her real name has been lost to time. Enslavement, forced labor, and sexual exploitation were ubiquitous of colonization and Juliana used violence to fight back despite being given a relatively comfortable position compared to her peers.
Calota led a slave rebellion against the Triunvirato sugar mill where she and other African people were enlaved. This and other uprisings comprised the Truynvirato rebellion, which ultimately contributed to Cuba fighting for independence against Spain.
It's no secret that I admire the SCUM Manifesto, despite being deeply uncomfortable with most of it. The work is both dead serious and an outrageous parody, which I love about it.
Valerie wrote of violence a lot, and lived a violent life. Her only documented act of violence was to shoot (non-fatally) Andy Warhol in 1968, for refusing to produce her screenplay. I don't think her famous act of violence was especially impactful or even good, but this page would not be complete without her contributions to women's violence.