Like with boob armor i know its not a thing but was there any way for breasts instead, like a altered breastplate thats bigger or? Like a larger armor set to compensate? Or was there anything else? Did they just use standard armor as i know gladius (i belive thats the female ones) wore skirts with from what i hear but idk
like a altered breastplate thats bigger or? Like a larger armor set to compensate?
On average, women are smaller than men, and have smaller chests than men. A woman would be much more likely to find a breastplate made for men too large rather than too small.
The US Army, issuing body armour to its soldiers, has faced this problem and has in recent years addressed it by issuing armour in more sizes - specifically, smaller sizes to better fit women (and small men also benefit from the new smaller sizes). Wisely, the US Army based their decisions on data - their Anthropometric Survey of US Army Personnel (ANSUR II) data was available to the Army in 2012, and made public in 2017. This presents various measurements of body parts of men and women in the US Army. The data is available at
(the Summary Report is probably the most useful). From this data, you can see that men have, on average, larger chest circumferences (pg 91 in the Summary Report), wider chests (pg 89), and longer torsos (pg 213). Male and female chest depths (front-to-back measurement, pg 93) are similar, with the average male chest depth slightly greater than the average female chest depth. These data suggest that women will typically find male armour roomy enough for their breasts, but might find the armour too large in other ways. US Army experience is that the most common problem women find with their torso armour is that the rigid part extends too far down (because women have, on average, shorter torsos), which can make it difficult to bend over, or even to sit comfortably. The armour can also be too wide, which can reduce the range of motion of the arms.
Medieval women who wore rigid breastplates could easily have encountered the same problems with their armour: too long, and/or too wide. Medieval armour could be more forgiving in the these respects than modern body armour, since breastplates designed to be worn over mail can be made with larger arm holes and higher waists while the mail underneath provides protection where the plate doesn't cover. Also, spaulders allow larger armholes in breastplates while still providing plate coverage, and various tassets and armoured skirts can protect below the waist even when the breastplate is high-waisted.
Armours like these (with large armholes and high waists) might be the best choice for small women, to avoid the above potential problems:
https://fristartmuseum.org/exhibition/knights-in-armor/#lg=1&slide=1
https://art.thewalters.org/detail/77510/armor-and-lance-for-fighting-on-horseback/
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/7c/9b/7b/7c9b7b5210d50731d444f8213b42c29b.jpg
The width (and size of armholes) and length could also be a problem with brigandines, lamellar armour, mail-with-plates, and gambesons. Mail should be OK.
Some examples of armoured women:
Louise Labé (1524-1566), mostly known as a poet, but was also famed as a horsewoman and archer. She fought as an armoured cavalrywoman in the Siege of Perpignan, and also jousted in armour: https://i.pinimg.com/564x/08/50/da/0850daf5bf75d7f27be9e8ba8c5e9a25.jpg
Woman in mail - no fitting problems: https://i.pinimg.com/564x/7d/c0/b7/7dc0b7fbfe487dd618fb099729a304d8.jpg
Woman in plate (and a dress), with a high-waisted breastplate: https://i.pinimg.com/564x/9e/ed/3d/9eed3da3521040eaf72880696084a3ff.jpg
Joan of Arc, in an armour that would easily fit women of many sizes: https://i.pinimg.com/564x/06/c9/12/06c91248a9f3b37e3f4a517349bc0ce6.jpg
Women in brigandines who might have trouble with the fit - the waists are fairly low, and the chests wide: https://i.pinimg.com/564x/92/6a/11/926a11d8c50f4c1e6d00e17152b1aaeb.jpg
Woman wearing made-for-a-man samurai armour: https://video-images.vice.com/uncategorized/1537815255920-Onna_bugeisha-_ritratto_seduto.jpeg
Woman in kendo armour: https://i.pinimg.com/564x/e9/e7/2b/e9e72bf5958fd07793ced0de27cceb7e.jpg
Some kendo armour is specifically designed for women. The main changes are to fit a shorter and narrower torso (mirroring the US Army's experience): https://www.kendo-sport.de/Kendo/for-Women/Do-for-women-custom-made::202.html?language=en
There was not. To note, I'm going to be answering this from a medieval European perspective since that is what most people think of when they hear breastplate.
The first reason (the less important reason, I'm just building up to the main one) is that we have no reason to believe there were very many women fighting in armour. There are a handful of exceptional cases where women took up arms and fought alongside men, but these cases were recorded as clearly unusual and worth writing about which makes it seem unlikely that there were very many women in medieval militaries. u/Heregrim answers goes into this aspect in more nuance in this old answer.
The second, and more important reason that Medieval Europeans never made breastplates specifically to accommodate breasts was because the normal ones (often) already did that. Here is an example of an early breastplate dating to the late 1300s to early 1400s. Note the globose shape. it was designed to deflect powerful blows away from the ribs, hopefully off to the side. This left plenty of space for breasts. Even other shapes leave some room for an athletic persons breasts as evidenced by not so great modern breastplates here, here, and here. In this later historical example, you can still see space on the chest for breasts, even if they might have to be pressed against the chest.
