Coates Beth - What would Boudicca do?: everyday problems solved by historys most remarkable women

If you could live in any period of history which would you choose? Maybe the mystical civilisation of the ancient Egyptians? The revolutionary Renaissance of the sixteenth century? The glamorous Mad Men stylishness of the 1960s? The only fly in the ointment when considering your options is that you need to be a rich guy to choose any day but the present as the best possible time to be alive. For women, any of those hundreds of centuries before the twentieth looks like a bum deal, given that you wouldnt be able to do basic things like vote, be properly educated, or choose your romantic partner independently.

This book came about as the result of a mistake. We were having such a nice time bobbing along in our little bubble of progress that we thought that everything nowadays was hunky-dory for the ladies. Then the news started to rain a little on our happy feminism-has-won parade. Suddenly misogyny seemed to be hip again (Weinstein and Pussygate being two choice examples), and we found ourselves looking anxiously to the past for reassurance and inspiration: reassurance that the world is still getting more female-friendly; and inspiration from the outstanding women who beat the system way back when. Happily, we got both.

The result of our delving is this pocket guide to our heroic sisters, who, living in much tougher times, took control of their destinies and made the world work for them. Surely if women living in the days of fullon, unapologetic sexist oppression could find a way to shine and flourish, then we can too. We started talking to each other about some of the women who made history despite the fact that most of that history was recorded and peopled by rich dudes. These ladies the Elizabeth Is and Cleopatras led us to other, lesser-known examples of female success in ye olden days, like Fanny Cochrane Smith, Wang Zhenyi and Sophia Duleep Singh.

We discovered that things were much more serious, and more likely to end in untimely death, for the sassy women of the past, but that is not to deny that there are new and different challenges to negotiate today. Life can be troublesome for the modern gal: were swimming the shark-infested waters of social media, constantly fiddling with the scales of our worklife balances, being actively encouraged to hate ourselves when we look in the mirror in the hope that well buy more sportswear, and all the while dealing with the shadow of centuries of patriarchal oppression that have also given us mansplaining/-spreading/-terrupting, and worse. Feminisms job is certainly not over, but at least we, unlike many of the ladies in this book, live in a world where its been invented.

We all need our lodestars to steer by when things get a little dark. Our friends, mothers, sisters and colleagues can shine a light on our problems, and many of us will have asked ourselves the question What Would Beyonc Do? when faced with tests in our personal and professional lives, but Queen Bey is not the only fiercely inspiring example available to us. We can turn to the most celebrated women throughout history for advice; those sisters who led the way in the fields of science, politics and the arts, who excelled at invention, creativity and generally getting shit done.

What wisdom might Boudicca, Cixi or Sappho be able to impart from the furthest stretches of misty time? They lived in ages when underwear wasnt even a thing and livestock was prized somewhere just above women in the pecking order. None of them would have the first clue about what to do with a smartphone, but we realised that they were all trying to make their way in conditions that have many resonances today. History is a continuum, and even in vastly different circumstances, women have had families to deal with, wanted to be fulfilled by their work and worried about what they look like. In our research we saw women being underestimated at every turn, dealing with unrealistic ideals of body image, being overloaded with housework, standing up to bullies, grappling with relationships The list goes on. And its been weirdly reassuring that whether were in Ancient Egypt or the Golden Age of the Russian Empire, frontierland America or wartime Paris, our utterly unique women have a shared experience.

We were fascinated to see that many of the same themes came up in their stories: as children they often had parents who educated them like boys (i.e. beyond embroidery), but many of them also had their schooldays interrupted by their duty to look after their families; lots of them found fame with different names to those they were given at birth; many of them were sexually unconventional for their times; and most of them were true strivers working hard and putting up with a lot of haters to get where they wanted to be. Everything is #inspiring these days, but the more we talked about these broads the more we felt fired up and empowered by their message.

We fell in love with women like scientist and gambler Ada Lovelace, who survived an acrimoniously broken home to put herself at the vanguard of modern computing; we channelled Elizabeth Is dope public-speaking skills when we were called on to give presentations at work; we took tips from the fabulous Frida Kahlo on the importance of finding our style, and why it isnt just superficial to do so. We looked at how these women handled assertiveness, failure, cack relationships, girlfriends, grief, impostor syndrome, cheating, children (or not), political engagement and the really important stuff like FOMO and appreciating their boobs. And we were inspired! And we learned so much! Did you know that a near-fatal bus accident caused Frida Kahlo to abandon her dreams of being a doctor and focus on painting instead? That Odette Sansom, the French housewife who was awarded the George Cross for her heroic efforts as a member of the Special Operations Executive, fell into espionage as a result of epistolary error? That pioneer domestic goddess Mrs Beeton in fact plagiarised most of her early recipes from her readers, and was pretty hopeless in the kitchen?

Our women are flawed and fabulous, and it cant be claimed that they led perfect lives, but all of them were extraordinary in their own kick-ass ways. So join us on our tour round the stereotype-smashing supergirls of history and let their stories help you conquer today.

Boudicca
and
Sticking Up for Yourself

(d. 61 CE)

Tired of being talked over in meetings? Of having your patronising boss bropropriate your ideas and present them as his own? Women have been putting up with this nonsense for countless centuries and resisting it for just as many. Faced with this kind of insult, Norfolks famous flame-haired queen would likely have responded: Incinerate him! Queen B. was the legendary chief of the Iceni tribe, who lived in East Anglia two thousand years ago. After the Romans, at the behest of their Emperor Claudius, invaded Britain in 43 CE, they made a treaty with Boudiccas husband generously allowing him to continue to govern his people. However, when he died, this gentlemans agreement didnt extend to the ladies. The Romans took Boudiccas kingdom and, according to their historian Tacitus, raped her daughters and flogged her. Instead of being cowed by this vile outrage, or simply accepting the inevitable sexual violence women endure in war zones, Boudicca set the world on fire. She led a full-on revolt in 60 or 61 CE, mercilessly burning the key settlements of Colchester, St Albans and London to the ground, slaughtering their citizens, both Roman and Briton, and seriously diminishing the crack Ninth Legion. This murderous monarch left her mark, literally, in the layer of burnt red sediment that youll find even today if you dig down deep enough in the cities she razed.