Happy Women’s History Month! You ought to know the drill by this point. This article will highlight the lives of three spectacular girl bosses from Malaysia, Germany, and, yes, America too this time. These individuals were brilliant examples of gender equality, advocating for gender rights and improving the world around them in a uniquely “girlbossy” way. Many of the previously covered girl bosses, like Eleanor of Aquitaine, rose from tragic beginnings to become powerful rulers, but did so solely for their personal ambition while buying into semi-conventional gender roles and passing down what they’d built to their male heirs. The three girlbosses covered in this issue, in contrast, fought not for themselves, but for their people, for Womendom as a whole.

The most obscure girlboss on this list, from the Sultanate of Patani (modern day Malaysia), is the revered Raja Hijau. Raja Hijau, as the daughter of the Sultan Mansur Shah, was meant to serve as nothing more than a token to be exchanged between warring states to bring about peace or to forge alliances. After all, the succession to the throne was safe. Mansur Shah had the fortune of not only having a male heir, but a male spare, should either kick the bucket. The younger of the two, Bahdur, would ascend to the Patani throne at the age of ten, but in 1584 was murdered by his older half-brother. Consequently, Bahdur’s older half brother was also put to death, and Raja Hijau was now Queen or Peracau of Patani. Raja Hijau’s rule was unstable at first, as she had to immediately put down an internal coup from a minister all too unhappy to be lorded over by a woman. After stabilizing her own place on the throne, rather than look to aggressively expand and rule an empire like some previously covered girlbosses, Raja Hijau looked to stabilize her sultanate itself. She ordered that a dam be built to ensure reliable access to water, increased trade with Portuguese and Dutch merchants, nurtured a multilingual elite class, served as a patron for the arts, and even strengthened the legal code. For her great contributions to Patani, it is unsurprising that Raja Hijau directly translates to “the great queen.” Furthermore, Raja Hijau’s decision not to sire an heir led to a succession of four women to the Patani throne, something unprecedented even in world history at the time. Her reign increased both gender equality across Patani and the overall standard of living. She truly was a girlboss for the people.

Centuries later and continents away, in the small German village of Hamburg, our second girlboss would be born. Her name? Angela Merkel. Merkel spent a majority of her youth in a world where Germany was split by walls and ideologies, with Merkel living in the less economically prosperous and Soviet-aligned East Germany. Merkel was subjugated to several compulsory Marxist and Russian courses. While only proficient in the former, she excelled in the latter, along with mathematics. She would complete her high school studies with the equivalent of a perfect GPA (a mere dream at our institution), and went on to eventually get her doctorate in quantum chemistry in 1986. After the fall of the Berlin Wall three years later, Merkel became politically active, successfully standing for election in the Bundestag in 1990. Almost immediately, Merkel was appointed to be Minister for Women and Youth. Merkel immediately got to work, codifying preschool education and reducing restrictions on abortions (although she was personally opposed to the latter). She then became Minister of the Environment and eventually Secretary-General of the CDU. In 2005, fifteen years after first entering the Bundestag, Merkel would rise to the post of Prime Minister. Throughout her sixteen-year reign as Prime Minister, Merkel presided over several key crises, managing the European debt crisis, the Great Recession, the migrant crisis, and even the Covid pandemic. Throughout it all, she stood steadfast, serving as the face of the European Union itself. Merkel also supported the use of renewable energy sources and healthcare reform. She left Germany in 2021 much better than she found it, despite having endured crises that could have destroyed the state throughout her tenure. She is that woman, a peak girlboss. 

Finally, there is my favorite girlboss this issue. Born on September 28, 1827, in Newburyport, Massachusetts, he is the great Aaron Augustus Sargent. Leading a younger life that was largely unremarkable, it was when Sargent became secretary to a Congressman in DC that the political fire was lit under his feet. He soon moved to California, specifically Nevada City, involving himself in journalism and eventually owning his own paper. He then pivoted into law, becoming a practicing lawyer in 1854. Two years later, he became district attorney for Nevada County and served in the California Senate. Later, in 1861 he was first elected to the United States Congress. Though leading a largely unremarkable adult life, Sargent is renowned for what he did in January, 1878. It was this year that Sargent introduced the twenty-nine words that would eventually morph into the Nineteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. He did this, in part, due to his wife’s friendship with Susan B. Anthony. For nearly the next half a century, the same amendment was annually reintroduced. Though not a biological female and identifying as a male, Sargent pushed forward the cause of gender equality, which gives him girlboss status in my eyes. After all, isn’t the real girlboss all the friends we made along the way?