By Ben Fletcher-Watson
Gathering 45 essays from writers around the globe, the forthcoming collection Women Who Dared: From the Infamous to the Forgotten, publishing September 2025 with Edinburgh University Press, explores the twin themes of women and daring through the lives of monarchs, prophets, suffragists, soldiers, scientists, activists and artists. These trailblazers have much to tell us about the dynamics, conflicts, identities and power relations with which women live today. For this International Women’s Day, editor Ben Fletcher-Watson celebrates five of the women who feature in the upcoming book.
1. Hatshepsut, c.1507 – 1458 BC
In Ancient Egypt, the fifth pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty was a woman. Daring and ambitious, Hatshepsut overcame the difficulty of being a female king by combining her acknowledged femininity with traditional male imagery – even sporting a false beard on statues. As the embodiment of Egyptian state power, she was a spiritual protector, guarding her people against chaos. A later campaign of violent destruction to eradicate her memory has led to suggestions that the existence of this female king was considered transgressive. Other earlier female pharaohs may have existed, but Hatshepsut stands out because of the way she rewrote history, bent contemporary political norms and was treated after death.
2. Sophia Jex-Blake, 1840 – 1912
Sophia Jex-Blake and the other women known as the Edinburgh Seven discovered how dangerous the medical establishment felt them to be when they set out in 1869 to pursue the study of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. Despite support from members of the Medical Faculty, the university and the public, there was also influential opposition to the idea of women doctors. Crowds would gather outside their home to rattle windows and they would be pelted with peas and other objects, eventually culminating in the Surgeons’ Hall Riot of 1870. However, the ‘chariot wheels of progress’ were in motion and the momentum would prove unstoppable, with women finally formally and legally admitted to universities in 1877.
3. Lumina Sophie, 1848 – 1879
1870, Martinique, French West Indies: an eighteen-year-old pregnant black woman leads the first workers’ protests since slavery was abolished, in support of a wrongly imprisoned sailor. These female insurgents were in charge of burning down plantations, and so were called Pétroleuses, a name they shared with the women of the Paris Commune months later. The daring Lumina Sophie has since inspired musicians, artists, and playwrights, and even had a building named after her. Born the year slavery ended, she was not enslaved herself but carried the spark of her foremothers to ignition.
4. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, 1900 – 1990
When Indian independence activist Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit dared to apply for a passport to visit America in 1944, alarm bells rang across the British Empire. ‘We must regard Mrs. Pandit,’ wrote one Delhi official, ‘as an enemy willing to traduce H.M.G. and the Government of India in every way possible.’ Nonetheless, she would become an ambassador, MP, regional governor, and in 1953, President of the UN General Assembly, the first woman and the only Indian to do so. When it came to women, Pandit was undoubtedly conscious of her role as a trailblazer, remarking in her autobiography that ‘as I see the new generation forging ahead, my heart is full of joy because it is my colleagues and I who built the road on which these girls can walk forward today.’
5. Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya, 1958 – 2006
On 7 October 2006, award-winning journalist Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya was shot dead outside her Moscow apartment. She had the courage to investigate Russia’s war in Chechnya and paid for it with her life. Her murder had all the hallmarks of a contract killing, down to the kontrolnyi vystrel – the control shot, a final bullet into the head at close range – and there is little doubt that her death was in retribution for her fearless reporting. A daughter of Ukrainian Soviet diplomats, Politkovskaya is now recognised worldwide for her championing of human rights.
About the book
What does it mean to be a woman who dares to challenge the status quo? Whether by wielding power in patriarchal societies or rallying for peace, fighting for change has always put women in danger, but also led to remarkable stories of resistance. Women Who Dared: From the Infamous to the Forgotten publishes in September 2025 from Edinburgh University Press (£14.99 paperback).
Women Who Dared is edited by Ben Fletcher-Watson and Jo Shaw, and features a foreword by Scottish author Sara Sheridan.
About the editors
Ben Fletcher-Watson is Deputy Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at the University of Edinburgh. With Professor Jo Shaw, former IASH Director, he has published several books of essays emerging from the Dangerous Women Project, including The Art of Being Dangerous (2021) and Dangerous Women (2022).
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Insightful and informative