I'm currently taking a class on Outlaws in the British Isles, Australia, Canada, and America, and I've chosen to write a paper about the representation and record of women as outlaws in the same general period as Rob Roy MacGregor. However, despite much searching, I've found little to no information on this topic - it seems the only female outlaws considered worthy of note are all from the 19th or 20th centuries.
If you're familiar with Sir Walter Scott's Rob Roy, the only thing I could write about in this paper is Diana Vernon, who certainly represents her own sort of "outlaw". Despite having gone through a fair amount of literature in the course so far, women are still under-represented in the texts, or in some cases entirely made up to have some sort of literary significance.
I understand that times were different back then, and female outlaws were less common, but I'd still like to know if there was anyone you may consider an "outlaw" by whatever standard. These women could be bushrangers, robbers, assassins, political figures, rebellious royalty, or even just women who strongly challenged gender roles in their time, and had a significant impact because of their 'unusual nature'.
Thanks in advance!
You can get some leads in Jessica Amanda Salmonson, The Encyclopedia of Amazons. You need to be good at scanning, because it's by name, not era.
Look for Roaring Girls and Viragos as types. The Roaring Girl dresses, swears, and brawls as a man in the late Renaissance and Early Modern. The Virago is a lady of charm, intelligence, and courage, who dresses as a lady and is perfectly capable of defending her own castle during the English Civil War. How much of an outlaw that makes her ...depends.
While you're looking up Anne Bonny and Mary Read, don't forget One-Eye Hawkins, who was sold into indenture by her husband, but escaped to become a pirate like a lot of indentured men (see Esquemeling on that: that's how he went out on his own account).
Are women who become soldiers outlaws? Then don't miss Hannah Snell.