The examples in nature are legion -- don't mess with a mama bear (or any other mama creature).

Toughness and resilience and resolve tend to win out over sheer physical strength.

Human history shows that, in many places and many impossible situations, the resolute female does what she can, and quietly, relentlessly, carries civilization forward.

None of this is noted in heroic history books; but, to the careful observer, the fact that they are written at all tends to prove the point.