Can Women be Knights?
The original Crusader Orders never admitted women. However, females began to be accepted into Orders of Knighthood as early as the 1600s, primarily because many women who were powerful nobles in their own right sought admission to the prestigious Orders of Chivalry. Several modern Orders of Chivalry accept women as Knights, but,again, the practice is not universal. Even in Orders that Invest women as Knights, the sword is not used in the “dubbing,” following the tradition and historical practice that women were not battlefield warriors.