When outsiders first encountered the Celts, one of the details that astonished them most was the position of women. To Greeks and Romans—societies where women were largely confined to the household, excluded from politics, and denied legal independence—the Celts appeared shockingly unconventional. Among them, women could inherit land, wield weapons, lead warriors into battle, and speak with authority in assemblies. To the classical eye, this seemed unnatural, even barbaric. But to the Celts themselves, it was an expression of balance, a recognition that power and wisdom were not confined to men.
The women of Celtic society were not universally equal in all respects—status still varied according to wealth, tribe, and circumstance—but they occupied a space of influence unmatched in most contemporary cultures of Iron Age Europe. Their stories, preserved in myth, law, and the writings of astonished foreigners, reveal a society where women could be rulers, poets, healers, and warriors, as well as mothers and keepers of the household.
Myth and Archetype: Goddesses as Models
Celtic mythology places female figures at its very heart, suggesting that women held symbolic and spiritual authority long before history recorded their actions. Goddesses such as Danu, Brigid, Epona, and the Morrígan embody sovereignty, fertility, war, and wisdom. These were not meek or secondary deities; they commanded power over life and death, kingship and the battlefield.
The sovereignty goddess in particular played a central role in Celtic kingship rituals. A king's legitimacy was often portrayed as a "marriage" to the land, embodied as a goddess. Without her blessing, no man could rule. This mythic archetype elevated women to the very core of political power: they were the land itself, the wellspring of prosperity and the guardians of legitimacy.
The prominence of such goddesses reflects how Celtic society viewed women—not merely as passive figures but as embodiments of force, authority, and continuity. Myths of warrior-queens such as Scáthach (a fearsome trainer of heroes) or Medb of Connacht (who waged the epic cattle raid of the Táin Bó Cúailnge) highlight that the Celtic imagination accepted women as leaders of armies and shapers of destiny.
Marriage, Property, and Law
Unlike their Roman or Greek counterparts, Celtic women enjoyed significant legal rights. Irish Brehon law and Welsh legal codes, though recorded later under Christian influence, preserve echoes of earlier customs. These reveal that women could inherit property, retain ownership of dowries, and even divorce their husbands under certain conditions.
Marriage among the Celts was less rigid than in many Mediterranean societies. Contracts could be arranged for alliances, property, or love, but women were not wholly subsumed into their husbands' households. They maintained certain rights to their own goods and could dissolve a union if it proved unsatisfactory. In some cases, a woman might even bring her own wealth and retain control over it, a degree of independence remarkable for the time.
Polygamy and concubinage were not unknown, but neither did they strip women of authority. In fact, high-ranking women often used marriage as a tool of diplomacy, shaping alliances between tribes. The balance of power in these unions was not always weighted toward men; wives could negotiate, refuse, or enforce terms of honor.
Women in Warfare
Few images shocked the Romans more than the sight of women on the battlefield. Dio Cassius, describing the revolt of Boudica, leader of the Iceni tribe of Britain, noted how she addressed her army "not as a woman of noble descent, but as one of the people," inspiring warriors to fight for freedom. Riding her chariot, tall and fierce with flowing red hair, Boudica became the embodiment of Celtic resistance.
Nor was she alone. In Irish myth, women like Scáthach and her sister Aífe trained champions in the arts of war. Female warriors appear in the Ulster Cycle not as anomalies but as integral parts of the heroic landscape. Archaeological discoveries—graves of women buried with swords, shields, and spears—lend weight to the idea that some Celtic women fought in reality, not just in story.
To the Romans, this was unthinkable. Yet to the Celts, warfare was an expression of communal survival, and women, as part of that community, were not excluded from its most dangerous duties.
Mothers, Healers, and Keepers of Tradition
Though celebrated as warriors and rulers, most Celtic women lived within the rhythms of home, family, and community. Yet even here their role carried deep significance. Mothers were honored not only for bearing children but for transmitting memory and tradition. They taught songs, stories, and genealogies that anchored identity across generations.
Women were also often the healers of their households, versed in herbs and remedies. In some cases, this knowledge overlapped with Druidic training. Though Druids themselves were predominantly male in Roman accounts, evidence suggests that women served as seeresses, healers, and prophetesses. Tacitus described a Germanic seeress, Veleda, consulted as an oracle during rebellion against Rome—a role not unlike those Celtic women may have held.
The later figure of the banfháith (female prophet) in Irish tradition likely echoes much older practices. These women were believed to speak the words of the gods, bridging the human and divine.
Queens and Rulers
Perhaps the most striking examples of Celtic women's authority come from the realm of politics. Cartimandua, queen of the Brigantes in northern Britain, ruled as Rome's ally, negotiating treaties, commanding armies, and controlling her people's fate. Her authority was not derived from her husband—indeed, she divorced and replaced him—but from her own position as queen.
Boudica, by contrast, represented resistance rather than collaboration. Her revolt nearly drove Rome from Britain in the first century AD. Though ultimately crushed, her leadership demonstrated the power a Celtic woman could wield not only over her own people but as a symbol of freedom against empire.
In Ireland, the legendary queen Medb was said to demand equality with her husband in wealth and authority, sparking the cattle raid of Cooley to match his possessions. While myth embellishes her story, it reflects a society willing to imagine women as ambitious rulers whose power was natural, not exceptional.
Daily Life and Labor
Outside the rarified circles of queens and heroines, ordinary Celtic women carried much of the labor that sustained daily life. They managed farms, tended animals, wove textiles, and brewed ale. They participated in seasonal festivals, offerings, and rituals, ensuring the household remained in harmony with both tribe and gods.
Their work was central to the survival of communities, and though it lacked the glory of battlefield or throne, it was no less honored. Celtic art frequently depicted women as symbols of fertility, abundance, and continuity, their presence entwined with the cycles of land and harvest.
Perceptions by Outsiders
To Romans and Greeks, the freedom of Celtic women was often recounted with a mixture of fascination and disapproval. Diodorus Siculus remarked that Celtic women were "nearly as tall as the men and rival them in courage." Caesar himself noted their influence in councils and their participation in public life.
Yet these same observers sometimes twisted such accounts into depictions of savagery. To Roman writers, women in power often symbolized chaos or inversion of natural order—propaganda meant to portray Celtic culture as uncivilized. Still, their testimony inadvertently preserved glimpses of a society where women's roles extended far beyond what Rome deemed acceptable.
The Decline of Women's Authority
With the Roman conquest came profound changes. The imposition of Roman law stripped away many rights Celtic women had once held, subsuming them under patriarchal structures. Queens like Cartimandua and Boudica became exceptions rather than norms. Later, with the spread of Christianity, older traditions that had celebrated female power were reshaped or suppressed. Goddesses became saints, warrior-queens became legends, and the memory of women's public authority receded.
Yet traces endured in Irish and Welsh law, in mythic cycles, and in folk tradition. The stories of powerful women—divine, mortal, and somewhere in between—kept alive the idea that female authority was once both natural and necessary.
Legacy
Today, the image of Celtic women continues to inspire. Figures like Boudica symbolize defiance against oppression; Medb embodies ambition and autonomy; Brigid blends pagan goddess with Christian saint. The legacy of Celtic women is not simply one of exception but of integration: they were leaders and laborers, warriors and mothers, judges and healers, woven fully into the fabric of their world.
The Celts remind us that ancient societies were not all cut from the same cloth, and that even in a world dominated by men, there existed cultures where women stood shoulder to shoulder with them in law, in battle, and in legend.