When Women Ruled the World

Summary (from the publisher): 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 powerbrokers 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. 

Review: Cooney covers the reign of six women throughout ancient Egypt who ruled for periods of time: Merineth, Neferusobeck, Nefertiti, Tawosret, Hatshepsut and Cleopatra. Cooney gives an overview of what is known about each woman, including how she came to power. With each woman, Cooney tries to identify what the world can learn from their example and relate them to women in leadership roles today. 

Although of course there is much we will never known about each of these women, I loved learning more about each of them, particularly the lesser known rulers like Merineth and Neferusobeck. Each woman is alike in that they gained power through male relatives or their husbands and many assumed masculine attributes or used other male figures to maintain or entrench their position. Like many other readers, I didn't care for Cooney's insistence on trying to make parallels with modern day female leaders. It would be fine to drop this comparison in the introduction or conclusion to illustrate a point, but continually weaving it into the narrative was tiresome. I was drawn to this book for the history, not modern day asides. And besides, other than also being a woman, there's strikingly little about any of these ancient Egyptian lives that coincides with, say, Hillary Clinton's experiences. 

I previously read Cooney's book The Woman Who Would be King and loved it. I enjoyed this one too, but I did like how much more in depth the other bookswas since it focused in on only one figure and gave more in-depth contextual history as well, such as everyday life in Egypt at the time. Furthermore, having previously read Cooney's work, I know she embeds a lot of information and disclaimers in lengthy footnotes. Since I listened to this book on Audible, I feel like I missed out on all that information in the footnotes. However, the audible edition was narrated by the author, which I enjoyed.

 

Stars: 4

Related Title: The Woman Who Would Be King by Kara Cooney