Women’s History Month: Samurai women

Beginning in 1615, the legendary Japanese warriors known as samurai moved away from the battlefield to become an elite social class that included women.
 
Join Dr Rosina Buckland and distinguished guest speakers as they discuss historical women samurai and present-day gender inequality in Japan to mark Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day (Sunday 8 March).
 
Learn what life was like for these women from Anne Walthall, Professor Emerita of Japanese History at the University of California, as she discusses the duties and responsibilities of samurai women and what happened when a group of women actively defended the Aizu domain at the time of the Meiji Restoration in 1868.
 
Fast-forward to the present day with Sabine Frühstück, Distinguished Professor and the Koichi Takashima Chair in Japanese Cultural Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, to find out how women fare in the Japan Self-Defense Forces, how #MeToo played out in Japan and about the all-too familiar daily battles women face.
 
Image: Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839–1892), Tomoe Gozen, the woman warrior from Mirror of Beauties Past and Present. Colour woodblock print 1875–76. Photo © 2025 The Trustees of the British Museum.