A Female Boxing Match (1876)

A blow-by-blow account of two women boxing at Harry Hill’s concert saloon in 1876. To give this tale some context, Harry Hill was an Englishman (born in Liverpool, 1819) who opened his saloon in New York city in 1854 and operated it until 1888 when the reform politicians finally gained control of both the liquor [...]

A Woman’s Self-Defence for Women

Health & Vim, May 1912.

A highly interesting and vivid account by PERRY PEAKE, of a young girl whose jujutsu methods of self-defence are arousing widespread comment.

In common with most men, I suppose, I had always held the opinion that the athletic feat-performing woman was of the Amazon type—a heavy, fleshy person of powerful build and unattractive appearance [...]

Jujutsu Suffragettes

On November 18, 1910…300 suffragettes marched on the House of Commons. In a public relations disaster, police were caught on film assaulting unarmed women attempting to march past.

Militant suffragettes eventually upped the physical level of their own campaigns and smashed shop windows, burned and even bombed on occasion…