Women are active agents deterring or engaging in violent extremist movements. Several contemporary violent organizations—the Islamic State, Boko Haram, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)—capitalize on women’s e orts and demonstrate keen awareness of the strategic and tactical potential of female extremists. While some women serve as supportive wives and mothers to the next generation of extremists, others act as propagandists, fundraisers, and suicide bombers. The apparent proliferation of female actors in extremist groups, often underestimated, calls for strategies that e ectively counter their participation in violent extremism.