There's historical sources of female warriors, from argued viking shieldmaidens to onna-bugeisha, from a thousand years ago, and there's obviously female soldiers in the 21st century, but there's that thousand-year span in between.
Why were female soldiers/warriors/combatants a concept before weaponising gunpowder, and after the invention of modern firearms, but largely unheard of in the middle there?
I feel like there's some key element that I've overlooked here, and I want to figure out what it is.
Hi there - we're happy to approve your question related to your novel for the second time, as you deleted the first one, and we are happy for people to answer. However, we should warn you that many flairs have become reluctant to answer questions for aspiring novelists, based on past experience: some aspiring novelists have a tendency to try to pump historians for trivia while ignoring the bigger points they were making, while others have a tendency to argue with historians when the historical reality does not line up with what's needed for a particular scene or characterization. Please respect the answers of people who have generously given you their time, even if it's not always what you want to hear.
Additionally, as amazing as our flair panel is, we should also point out that /r/AskHistorians is not a professional historical consultation service. If you're asking a question here because you need vital research for a future commercial product such as a historical novel, you may be better off engaging a historical consultant at a fair hourly rate to answer these questions for you. We don't know what the going rate for consultancy work would be in your locality, but it may be worth looking into that if you have in-depth or highly plot-reliant questions for this project. Some /r/AskHistorians flairs could be receptive to working as a consultant in this way. However, if you wish for a flair here to do this work for you, you will need to organize this with them yourselves.