Women have been literally in combat throughout history.

One of the earliest records is of:

Fu Hao - Queen and top general of King Wuding of Shang

Fu Hao, also known as Houmuxing, was a key player in the rise of the fortunes of the Shang Dynasty. She married King Wuding (r. 1250-1192 BCE), and with an army of 13,000 at her command, she was the Shang general with the largest number of troops during the reign of Wuding. King Wuding fought many wars against the peoples on the borders of the Shang Empire. Fu Hao led the campaign against the Jiang tribes, taking many of the Jiang captive. She also directed the campaigns against the Tu, Ba and Yi peoples, with key Shang generals Zhi and Hou Gao reporting to her. Her victory against the Ba people was the earliest recorded instance of a large scale ambush in Chinese history. King Wuding gave Fu Hao a fiefdom on the borders of his empire, from which she could defend his borders and launch assaults against foreign peoples.