From Jezebel to Catherine the Great, from Cleopatra to Mae West, from Mata Hari to Bonnie Parker, strong women have been a problem for historians, storytellers, and readers.
Strong females smack of the unfeminine.
They have been called wicked, wanton, and willful.
Sometimes that is a just designation, but just as often it is not.
Well-behaved women seldom make history, is the frequently quoted statement by historian and feminist Laurel Thatcher Ulrich.
But what makes these misbehaving women.