This discussion came up at work after a female coworker decided to run a marathon dressed as Batman. Somebody said that she'd be running as Batwoman, to which she replied that, no, she was running as Batman.
This got me wondering - has there ever been a female Batman, in any continuity?
To be more precise (and to borrow some wording from the comments), has a woman put on the Batsuit made by Bruce Wayne and claimed the identity of BATMAN, to whatever purpose? This question is open to alternate continuities, universes, timelines, body/gender-swaps etc.
Just to clarify, I'm specifically talking a female character using the Batman name, or otherwise posing as Batman, rather than the obvious answer of Batwoman or Batgirl.
Answer
One of the few examples of parallel universes where Batman has been replaced with a woman who is still "technically" Batman (named Batwoman) is a gender-bent reality (Earth-11) where Bruce Wayne (Batman) meets his gender-swapped counterpart and he believes her to be Helena Bertillini.
Batwoman was Earth-11's counterpart to Batman. Earth-11's recent history reflects that of New Earth, as both Wonder Man and others note the killing of Maxine Lord for the murder of Booster, and mind controlling of Superwoman.
Batwoman's history and adventures are unknown, but presumably similar to the exploits of Batman, her New Earth counterpart. She was a hero of long standing, an ally of her world's Superwoman and an inspiration to her world. Recently, she and her fellow heroes fought against an army of Amazonian warriors when they invaded Washington DC.

The characters appear in Superman/Batman number 24 produced by Jeph Loeb, Ed McGuinness & Dexter Vines.
An earlier depiction of Batwoman from Superman #349 in the 1980s, depicts a magically-altered world where the genders of all of Superman's friends have been gender-swapped. This is from the pre-Crisis version of the DC Universe. The perpetrator was the 5th dimensional meddler, Mister Mxyzptlk.

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