Pamela D. Toler is the author of Women Warriors: An Unexpected History.From her Q&A with Deborah Kalb:
Q: Of the various women you wrote about, were there some whose stories you found especially compelling?Visit Pamela D. Toler's website.
A: I kept coming back to the story of the Contessa Matilda of Tuscany. She was the largest landowner in the Holy Roman Empire in the 11th century—an accomplishment in its own right, since few women were able to maintain control of their inheritance.
She was deeply involved in one of the most important political and theological issues of her day. And she was a successful military commander for 40 years. And yet her career is often reduced to a supporting role in a single incident.
I found her story fascinating in its own right and emblematic of the way women have been...[read on]
--Marshal Zeringue