Chicks in Chainmail

Chicks in Chainmail, Esther Friesner (ed.), Baen Books, 1995

This is a group of fantasy stories about women who don't dress or act like male wish-fulfillment fantasies and who can take care of themselves quite nicely without men around. Among the stories are: an attempt to tax bronze bras because they aren't a "necessity", the wives of a king are trained to be a pretty good palace guard, a present day "road rage" story, a female warrior captures the kidnappers of the king's son, with some unintended shapechanging along the way, a woman whose daughter is in a contemporary elementary school gets corralled into taking a bunch of fourth graders on a field trip to her workplace, a medieval world where mathematics has magical powers, and the story of Hillary Clinton in Valhalla.

Get past the sexist-sounding title, which the editor admits is her fault, and this is a group of really good stories about women who don't have to wear chain-mail bikinis or be sorceresses to get some respect. Well worth the reader's time.