Infantry in the Middle Ages heavy toll on the English invaders of their lands. Adapted by the English, the longbow was nevertheless a difficult weapon to master, requiring long years of use and practice. Even bow construction was extended, sometimes taking as much as four years for seasoned staves to be prepared and shaped for final deployment. A skilled longbowman could shoot 12 arrows a minute, a rate of fire superior to competing weapons like the crossbow or early gunpowder weapons. The nearest competitor to the longbow was the much more expensive crossbow or Arbalest, used often by urban militias and mercenary forces. It required
Sisterhood Is Powerful “sisterhood” that some second-wave black feminists demanded and was used by many second-wave feminists to communicate this demand. It also included what Morgan coined "verbal karate”: useful quotes and statistics about women. The anthology has been widely credited with helping to start the general women's movement in the U.S. It was cited by the New York Public Library as "one of the 100 most influential Books of the 20th Century." However, Chile, China, and South Africa banned the anthology. Robin Morgan established the first American feminist grant-giving organization, The Sisterhood Is Powerful Fund, with the royalties from "Sisterhood is Powerful: