Tammy: This* is the time when women are knights, though not in equal numbers to the men–I’d say about a third are women. In another century the numbers will finish a long, slow decline that begins in Beka’s time and ends about a hundred years before Alanna’s. (Actually, they forbade the addition of more female knights about thirty years before the last ones died–the realm was overloaded with peacekeepers, the conservatives were in power, and the cult of the Gentle Mother was at the height of its popularity, so it was decided the realm no longer needed its women to help keep the peace. It was something that happened throughout the Eastern Lands.)
In the meantime, girls and boys train and fight under the same conditions.
NOTES FROM Words of Tamora Pierce
*Around the time Provost’s Dog/Beka Cooper Trilogy takes place
SOURCE: [Random Buzz: Teens at Random]
Words of Tamora Pierce 