List of women who sparked a revolution

Throughout history several women have been instrumental in either starting or changing the course of a revolution.
In history
* c. 1200 BC, Deborah led a successful counterattack against Jabin, king of Canaan and his military commander Sisera. Jael killed Sisera and God gave the victory to Israel. (Judg. 5:23-27)
* In 131 BC, Cleopatra II of Egypt led a rebellion against Ptolemy VIII Physcon and drove him and Cleopatra III out of Egypt.
* In 14 AD, Mother Lü led a peasant rebellion against Wang Mang of the Western Han Dynasty.
* In 40 AD, the TrÆ°ng Sisters successfully rebelled against the Chinese Han-Dynasty rule, and are regarded as national heroines of Vietnam.
* In 200 AD Empress JingÅ« was an onna bugeisha who led an invasion of Korea after her husband, the fourteenth emperor of Japan, Emperor ChÅ«ai was slain in battle. According to legend, she miraculously led a Japanese conquest of Korea without shedding a drop of blood.
* In 269 AD, Zenobia, Syrian queen of the Palmyrene Empire led a famous revolt against the Roman Empire, expanding the empire and conquering Egypt.
* In 378 AD, Queen Mavia led a rebellion against the Roman army and defeated them repeatedly. The Romans finally negotiated a truce with her on her conditions.
* In 945-963 AD, according to the Primary Chronicle, Olga of Kiev launched a series of attacks against the Drevlians and established a system of taxation (poliudie) as the first legal reform recorded in Eastern Europe.
* In 1429, Joan of Arc led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War which paved the way for the coronation of Charles VII.
* In 1539, Gaitana led the indigenous people of northern Cauca, Colombia in armed resistance against colonization by the Spanish. Her monument sculpted by Rodrigo Arenas stands in Neiva, the capital of Huila in Colombia.
* In 1670, Alyona was a Erzyan ataman in Russia. She commanded a detachment of about 600 men and participated in the capture of Temnikov. She was burned at the stake.
* In 1780, Ñusta Huillac rebelled against the Spanish in Chile.
* In 1799, Bibi Sahib Kaur was a Sikh princess and Prime Minister who led armies into battle against the British and was one of few Indian women to win battles against a British general, and forced George Thomas to withdraw.
* In 1880, at the Battle of Maiwand, Malalai Anaa was a young Pashtun woman who rallied the Pashtun army against the British troops on 27 July 1880, during the Second Anglo-Afghan War. She is a national folk hero of Afghanistan.
* In 1958, Ani Pachen was a Tibetan Buddhist nun who led a guerrilla campaign of 600 fighters on horseback against Communist Chinese tanks.
In recent history
* In 2003, an African peace activists, Leymah Gbowee and Comfort Freeman, organized Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace and brought an end to the Second Liberian Civil War, which led to the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in Liberia, the first African nation with a female president.
* In 2004, Paraska Korolyuk and Yulia Tymoshenko were iconic figures and key activists of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine.
* In 2011, twenty-six year old Asmaa Mahfouz was instrumental in sparking the protests that began the uprising in Cairo and started the 2011 Egyptian revolution. She urged the Egyptian people to join her in a protest on January 25 in Tahrir Square to bring down Mubarak’s regime. She used video blogging and social media that went viral and urged people not to be afraid. Israa Abdel Fattah, also called Facebook Girl; drew the attention of the foreign media to gain international support.
In folklore
* The story of Cordelia of Britain was used by Shakespeare in his play King Lear. Before Shakespeare it was also used in Edmund Spenser's epic The Faerie Queene and in the anonymous play King Leir. The popularity of Cordelia at this period is probably because her role as a heroic queen was comparable to Queen Elizabeth I.

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