I'll take one of the easier ones first: Japan.
Yes, there were a few women warriors (onna bugeisha, or women trained in the use of weapons Tomoe Gozen was one), and samurai wives in general were expected to defend their households. That's one reason why in modern Japan and America, naginata-do is practiced more by girls and women than by men. Women also carried knives to commit suicide with. Supposedly there were female ninja, kunoichi, but I'm not sure how much about them is real, how much is fake, and whether they were assassins, spies, or some combination.
I'll also throw in an interesting weapon from Korea: the jang do (
link to one at Pitt Rivers). These were small (~10 cm) knives carried by women (and men to a lesser extent) during the Choseon period. Jang do were so highly ornamented that they were also jewelry, worn a variety of ways. Symbolically, they were also given to young women before their weddings, to protect against rape, and also as a symbol that they were now independent from their parents and full adults.
My 0.002 cents,
F