Woman warrior The portrayal of women warriors in literature and popular culture is a subject of study in history , literary studies , film studies , folklore and mythology , gender studies , and cultural studies . Archaeology . In the older literature , the term " warrioress " , following the author / authoress pattern , was sometimes used when describing women warriors . In terms of the archaeological record , in 1997 the earliest known women warrior burial mounds were excavated in southern Russia . They were buried with their swords , daggers , arrowheads and saddles . David Anthony states , " About 20 % of Scythian - Sarmatian ' warrior graves ' on the lower Don and lower Volga contained females dressed for battle in the same manner as men , a phenomenon that probably inspired the Greek tales about the Amazons . " In 2004 , the 2 , 000 year old remains of an Iranian female warrior were found in the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz . Historical examples . Fu Hao was one of the many wives of King Wu Ding of the Shang Dynasty and , unusually for that time , also served as a military general and high priestess . Tomoe Gozen is believed to have been a late twelfth - century female samurai warrior ( onna bugeisha ) who may have pioneered the two - sword style made famous in the 17th century by Miyamoto Musashi . In terms of normal women fighting as part of a regular army , one of the earliest examples known is Nusaybah bint Ka ' ab ; the first female to fight battles in defence of Islam and Prophet Muhammad . After her , many others followed . She took part in the Battle of Uhud , the Battle of Hunain , the Battle of Yamama and was part of the battalion deployed which consequently negotiated the Treaty of Hudaibiyah . This was over a millennium before women took active roles in modern western armies . The daughter of a Duke , Princess Pingyang raised and commanded her own army in the revolt against the Sui Dynasty . Later , her father would become Emperor Gaozu . Artemisia I of Caria was a tyrant of Halicarnassus allied with Xerxes and commanded five ships of her own in the Battle of Salamis ; though her actions in the battle are questioned by some historians , it is said that Xerxes commented after the battle , a Persian loss , that " my men have turned into women and my women into men " in compliment to Artemisia ' s performance . The Spartan princess Arachidamia is said to have fought Pyrrhus ( of the phrase " pyrrhic victory " ) with a group of Spartan females under her command , and killed several soldiers before perishing , though little else is known about her . The British Queen , Boudicca , led a revolt against the Roman Empire in 60 AD but was decisively defeated at at the Battle of Watling Street . The Roman Empire was known to sometimes have women fighting , called gladiatrix , in gladiator games . Women leaders have not only played an important role in cultures where there is a direct analogy to the western concept of a " princess , " but have also served their societies in indigenous tribal warfare and rebellion , as well . The Dahomey people , who live in western Africa also established an all female militia , who served as royal bodyguards to the king . With regard to Native American history , the majority of Native American tribes possessed respected and well established women leaders of their " militia " . These female leaders determined the fate of prisoners of war among other tribal decisions . However , the Europeans and early American men refused to deal with Native American women on such matters and so their significance was not understood or appreciated until relatively recently . In Vietnam the sisters < nowiki > Trung Trac and Trung Nhi < / nowiki > led a rebel against the Han rule in 40 B . C . According to folk tradition , they were joined by many woman warriors and succeeded in establishing a short live independence . Another woman warrior called < nowiki > Lady Trieu < / nowiki > rose up against < nowiki > Eastern Wu < / nowiki > oppression in North Vietnam . An early modern example is the Tay Son General < nowiki > Bui Thi Xuan < / nowiki > who led an army in the age of gunpowder . In South Asia and the Indian Subcontinent , the concept of a " woman warrior " exists both in mythology and in history , and there are records of women who have led armies into battle . Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi was one of the leading figures of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and was described by the British as " remarkable for her beauty , cleverness and perseverance " , and that she had been " the most dangerous of all the rebel leaders " . Unniyarcca was a famed warrior princess who lived in south Indian state of Kerala during the 16th century . Kittur Chennamma , queen of the princely state of Kittur led a rebellion against the British decades before the 1857 uprising . Indonesia counts a number of female warriors among its National Heroines . Cut Nyak Dhien and Cut Nyak Meutia waged a nationalist war against the Dutch during the Aceh War at the turn of the 20th Century . Another Indonesian National Heroine , Martha Christina Tiahahu , joined a guerrilla war against the Dutch colonial government as a teenager , in 1817 . Somdet Phra Sri Suriyothai ( ) was a royal consort during the 16th century Ayutthaya period of Siam ( now Thailand ) . She is famous for having given up her life in the defense of her husband , King Maha Chakkraphat , in a battle during the Burmese - Siamese War of 1548 . For the movie , see " The Legend of Suriyothai " . Lyudmila Pavlichenko was a Soviet sniper during World War II , and is regarded as the most successful female sniper in history . Folklore and mythology . In Hindu mythology , Chitrāngadā , wife of Arjuna , was the commander of her father ' s armies . The Amazons were an entire tribe of woman warriors in Greek legend . " Amazon " has become an eponym for woman warriors and athletes . In British mythology , Queen Cordelia fought off several contenders for her throne by personally leading the army in its battles . In his " On the Bravery of Women " the Greco - Roman historian Plutarch describes how the women of Argos fought against King Cleomenes and the Spartans under the command of Telesilla in the fifth century BCE . Literature . Women warriors have a long history in fiction , where they often have greater roles than their historical inspirations , such as " Gordafarid " ( Persian : گردآفريد ) in the ancient Persian epic poem The Shāhnāmeh . Various other woman warriors have appeared in classic literature : Belphoebe and Britomart in Edmund Spenser ' s " The Faerie Queene " , Bradamante and Marfisa in " Orlando Furioso " , and Camilla in the " Aeneid " . There is also an ongoing debate among scholars as to whether Grendel ' s mother from the poem " Beowulf " was a monster or a woman warrior . Media . Professor Sherrie Inness in " Tough Girls : Women Warriors and Wonder Women in Popular Culture " and Frances Early and Kathleen Kennedy in " Athena ’ s Daughters : Television ’ s New Women Warriors " , for example , focus on figures such as Xena , from the television series " " , or Buffy Summers from " Buffy the Vampire Slayer " ( who inspired the academic field Buffy Studies ) , or the title character Kim Possible , or Sam , Clover and Alex from " Totally Spies " , or the Charmed Ones ( Prudence , Piper , and Phoebe Halliwell , and Paige Matthews ) from " Charmed " . Zoe Washburne of Joss Whedon ' s " Firefly " is referred to by her husband as a " warrior woman " and is often in the thick of action with her captain Malcolm Reynolds . In the introduction to their text , Early and Kennedy discuss what they describe as a link between the image of women warriors and girl power .