Introduced as a Catwoman replacement and as a love interest for Batman
The irony of Batwoman’s introduction in 1956 was that she was there to refute ideas that Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson were a gay couple. She was also there to be a female love interest of sorts, since Catwoman was banished from the Batman comic in 1954.
That year, German psychiatrist Fredric Wertham’s book Seduction of the Innocent gripped America. It caused panic within the comic book industry, never mind that the book contained faulty research. However, it adversely affected many comic book titles, including the Batman and Detective Comics titles.
When originally created, Kathy Kane was a top circus acrobat and stunt motorcyclist. She yearned to follow in Batman’s crime-fighting bootsteps. She got her chance after inheriting a large fortune, which she used to stock her satchel of gadgets—sneezing-powder powder puff, charm bracelets that double as handcuffs, tear gas perfume (not unlike Roberta the Girl Wonder). She even had her own Batcave, hidden in an abandoned mine under her estate.
Batwoman became a Bat-family regular through the 1950s and early ‘60s; her niece, Betty Kane, even became the original Bat-Girl—introduced in 1961, replaced by Barbara Gordon in 1967—giving Robin his own heterosexual love interest.
Batwoman was basically phased out of the Batman comics by 1964, when the comic books were revamped. She made rare appearances until her re-emergence in 2006.