As Corwin said, most of what you listed was because of female protagonists, working on their own.

Even Siuan's accomplishments don't necessarily count- she was doing them in total secret, without WT approval or knowledge!



My problem is that (in both pre-Salidar and post-Salidar) there is an incredibly large group of skilled channelers that are, for all intents and purposes ignoring the world for the purposes of their infighting. And the few Salidar/WT Aes Sedai who don't ignore the world actively make it worse (See: attacking the Black Tower, kidnapping Rand, pissing Rand off in general).

The hunt for the Black Ajah and the upcoming Great Purge is extremely cool, and I'm very impressed with those who are handling it. Confident, decisive, sneaky- they're what Aes Sedai are supposed to be.

But the rest of them are mostly useless. The only useful Aes Sedai are the ones who have gone outside Tower/Salidar protocol. So, the Wondergirls, Cadsuane, the Aes Sedai who have sworn to Rand (to a smaller extent).



Some of this has to be because of the Shadow's influence- we know Mesanna and Halima have been working to keep the rebellion going. Still, I'm pretty disappointed in the Aes Sedai.