The Soldiers Were All Men
Internet commentators will emerge from hiding every time a historical drama depicts a lady using a sword in combat to call it ridiculous. It is assumed that men and women just function at fundamentally different levels of strength. Even fantasy shows like The Witcher received harsh criticism for their innovative choices.
The typical response is to name specific historical examples of female warriors, such as Queen Boudica or Queen Tomyris. But that strategy is inherently wrong because it suggests that these troops were the outliers who proved the rule.
Instead, let's think about the armies where the use of female combatants was not even worth mentioning. Two such examples are Trung Trac and Trung Nhi of Vietnam, who not only oversaw the drive of the Chinese out of Vietnam in 40 AD, but also served as the instructors for a general staff of 36 other women. Or there were the numerous Celtic burial sites from the Iron Age, which also contained chariots and female bones.
Insufficient armies when this was still a common practice? Hopefully, the reports of East Africa, where regiments of female archers from Western Sudan or comparably sizable formations of female warriors from Ghana were still being pitted against European forces during the Middle Ages, would suffice to make the point.
