Short biography on strong/brave/important women in history

Did you find the 100 Most Important Women of the 20th Century on Amazon? Here's a link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0696208237/104-8988447-6147900?v=glance&n=283155

Try The Warrior Queens, Antonia Fraser, or Women Warriors: A History, David Jones. You can easily find either with an online search.

In addition, i would, just off the top of my head, suggest that you look up Martildaof Tuscany, Eleanor of Acquitaine, Margaret of Denmark, Maria Theresa, and the Russian Empresses Elizabeth and Catherine II. Additionally, Sophia Alexeevna, the daughter of the second Romanov Tsar, Alexei Mikhailovitch is of interest--after the death of Alexei, he was succeeded by his son Fedor, who was, however, in poor health. Upon his death, the boyars decided to put his healthy son Petr (one day to be Peter the Great) on the throne in place of his elder half-brother Ivan, who was of even poorer health than Fedor had been. Sophia helped to engineer a coup, and was made regent for the "co-Tsars", Ivan and Peter.

From ancient history, i suggest looking up Hatshetsup (Egyptian Queen) and Semiramis (Assyrian Queen).

@tin-sword-arthur: that looks like a great book, unfortunately Amazon does not sell it any more.
And since it is supposed to be a gift, I don't want 'new books' from other people that have been sitting on a shelf for years.
However, once I had a look at it, Amazon suggested several different books on the same subject, so it was a good try after all!

Really? I was able to add it to my shopping cart just now. I didn't try to purchase it, granted, but I did get to the point where I could have and never ran into any trouble.
Odd.
Well, as long as you found something.