Kara Cooney’s volume, When Women Ruled the World, explores the lives and regimes of six female pharaohs. I think this book can best be summed up by this paragraph in the introduction:
In the fifth century B.C., thousands of years after her lifetime, the Greek historian Herodotus wrote about a certain Nitocris, a queen whose husband-brother had been murdered by conspirators. The young, beautiful woman claimed her revenge by inviting all the collaborators to a grand banquet in a fancy and newly commissioned underground hall. When the men were all happily eating and drinking, Nitocris ordered the floodgates opened through a secret channel, drowning them all in Nile waters. The rebels thus dispatched, her final act was to throw herself onto a fiery pit so that no man could exact his retribution on her.
Cooney, Kara. When Women Ruled the World. Washington D.C.: National Geographic, 2018. p. 9
Wow, just wow, right? Not only does Cooney explore the individual reigns of the various female rulers in this book, but she also seeks out to answer the question, “Why don’t women rule the world now?”
When Women Ruled the World is a fascinating look at women’s leadership in the Egyptian world – from Nitocris to Hatshepsut, from Nefertiti to Cleopatra, this in-depth exploration of female pharaoh leadership is both fascinating and well-crafted.
About When Women Ruled the World
• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: National Geographic (October 30, 2018)
This riveting narrative explores the lives of six remarkable female pharaohs, from Hatshepsut to Cleopatra–women who ruled with real power–and shines a piercing light on our own perceptions of women in power today.
Female rulers are a rare phenomenon–but thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt, women reigned supreme. Regularly, repeatedly, and with impunity, queens like Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, and Cleopatra controlled the totalitarian state as power-brokers and rulers. But throughout human history, women in positions of power were more often used as political pawns in a male-dominated society. What was so special about ancient Egypt that provided women this kind of access to the highest political office? What was it about these women that allowed them to transcend patriarchal obstacles? What did Egypt gain from its liberal reliance on female leadership, and could today’s world learn from its example?
Celebrated Egyptologist Kara Cooney delivers a fascinating tale of female power, exploring the reasons why it has seldom been allowed through the ages, and why we should care.
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Purchase Links
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About Kara Cooney
KARA COONEY is a professor of Egyptology at UCLA. Her academic work focuses on death preparations, afterlife beliefs, and gender studies. She has participated in digs with the Metropolitan Museum of New York at the Royal Pyramid complex of Senwosret III and the Theban Necropolis with Johns Hopkins University. She appeared as a lead expert in the popular Discovery Channel special The Secrets of Egypt’s Lost Queen, and is a recurring team member of the History Channel’s Digging for the Truth. Her book The Woman Who Would Be King was published in 2014.
Find out more about Kara at her website, and follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
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