Presidents, queens, ministers. Today, women are increasingly occupying positions of power and authority almost everywhere in the world, although their political and managerial equality is still far from universally accepted. Since the emergence of the first civilisations, monarchs have been, except in a few cultural settings, an anomaly to the established natural laws dictated by men. After all, the stereotypical inferiority of women is so deeply, even unconsciously, embedded in our social and religious systems that any significant deviation shakes the “natural” order to its foundations.
But many have made it to the top. Some because there were no male successors, some because of a combination of circumstance and chance, some through intrigue and strategic moves, and the most exceptional because of their multifaceted abilities, talents and total dedication to the cause. It is proverbial that a woman has to work at least twice as hard as a man to attain an important position, and all the women rulers who have changed the course of history have been above average in one way or another.
As a glimpse into the lives of some extraordinary women shows, their achievements in areas traditionally reserved for men, such as governance, were later discredited or even completely forgotten. When they indulged in tactics and means perfectly acceptable to male rulers, or were disturbingly confident and ambitious, they were criticised. History was written by men.
Hatshepsut – the Pharaoh with the beard in men’s clothes
The Ancient Egyptians also followed a civilisational pattern of domination by male rulers, but there are a few bright exceptions in their long dynastic period of three thousand years. A handful of women, mostly through a complex web of family succession and kinship ties, managed to rule a powerful kingdom, some as co-rulers, others even as pharaohs.
Who doesn’t know the icon of popular culture, Cleopatra, the last Egyptian pharaoh? She tried to protect her kingdom from the Romans with her charms, cunning and political intrigues, but in fact she achieved the opposite and helped to push the once mightiest civilisation of the ancient world into ruin. Having won the hearts of such influential Romans as Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, and having stirred up the whole Mediterranean with her lifestyle, she has already been immortalised by Roman historians. Shakespeare is also credited with her fame and she remains an inspiration to artists of all genres to this day.
Other Egyptian queens were not so fortunate and, despite their far greater actual influence, were almost deliberately erased from history for centuries. One such queen was Hatshepsut, who ruled Egypt for about twenty years (1479-1458 BC), longer than any other woman, and that was 1500 years before Cleopatra.
Today, most historians consider her one of the most influential pharaohs of the 18th Dynasty. This important dynasty reunited Upper and Lower Egypt after a long period of internecine strife, wars and the decline of neighbouring peoples, and is the originator of the so-called New Kingdom. This period certainly brought great strength and peace back to the land, and Hatshepsut is to be thanked for the economic boom, the expansion of trade routes and the monumental building projects that still adorn the Nile valley today. Her father pushed Egypt’s borders as far as the Euphrates in the north, Syria and Palestine in the west and Nubia in the south.
Hatshepsut was the beloved daughter of Pharaoh Tuthmosis I and his chief wife, and from a very young age her father paid much attention to her and raised her to be a queen. After his death, she married her probably much younger half-brother, Tuthmosis II, the son of Tuthmosis I and one of his less important wives, and because of her experience and his youth, she was in fact the ruler of the country. This kept power in the hands of the family – marriages between (half)brothers and (half)sisters were typical of ancient Egypt, as they maintained blood succession within dynasties due to high mortality rates. After her husband’s death, his successor was still a toddler, and Hatshepsut, this time as regent, kept the reins in her own hands.
Then she made an unprecedented move – she declared herself a Pharaoh! Egyptian queens had often held a prominent place alongside the consorts of the pharaohs before, but the pharaoh had always been the only true ruler and God’s representative on earth. Hatshepsut has been depicted in many artworks in full pharaonic attire, sometimes even with a beard and dressed as a man. In order to maintain her status as an equal to men even in the important afterlife for the Egyptians, she had her tomb built in the Valley of the Kings, not the Valley of the Queens.
But such courageous beginnings of the first feminism did not have lasting consequences, and when her nephew, Tuthmosis III, took over the throne after her death, he began to deliberately destroy her memory. Although he continued her tradition of rule, he had most of the monuments, images and records of her destroyed or buried, forbade her to be mentioned and she slowly sank into oblivion. This remained the case until the great archaeological excavations of the 19th century revealed the truth about this enterprising ruler.
Nefertiti – Beauty has arrived
Another legendary member of the Eighteenth Dynasty was the mystically beautiful and mysterious Nefertiti (Nefertiti). Today, her 3,300-year-old bust is the most famous surviving image of Ancient Egypt, alongside the gilded mask of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. But few of the curious people who flock in their millions to Berlin’s Neues Museum, where she is the main attraction, are aware of the role of this Egyptian queen in the history of Ancient Egypt, apart from the artistic value of the statue.
Since the “arrival” of Nefertiti in Berlin in 1924, the statue has been the bone of contention between Germany and Egypt, which has been demanding its return. Even Adolf Hitler recognised something priceless in the statue and said: “I will never give up the Queen’s head.” Nefertiti was one of Hitler’s favourite works of art and the Nazis even hid it in a salt mine before the Allies bombed it.
Nefertiti, or Beauty, came to be translated into Egyptian as the wife of Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (reigned 1353-1336 BC). After centuries of practising polytheism, they briefly introduced a new religion in Egypt and an attempt to worship a single god, the sun god Aten. Amenhotep therefore changed his name to Akhenaten, meaning the living spirit of the god Aten. Aton had neither the form nor the human form nor the attributes of the other gods of the Egyptian pantheon, so such a sudden change in belief was very revolutionary.
Akhenaten and Nefertiti were very determined in their efforts to establish the new religion, even moving the capital of Egypt from Thebes to Akhetaton, today’s Amarna. They banned the worship of other gods and the influence of the priesthood declined radically in favour of their central government.
Even during her husband’s lifetime, Nefertiti was very influential and is more often depicted at his side than any other Egyptian queen, sometimes even wearing a pharaonic crown. She radiates power and authority. They had six daughters, and it is even possible that she reigned after Akhenaten’s death. There are many theories about her fate, but like many historical claims about the main players in ancient Egypt, it will probably never be possible to say for sure what is truth and what is myth.
Nefertiti is also closely linked to the most famous and most frequently mentioned boy pharaoh, Tutankhamun, the favourite not only of Egyptologists but of all Egyptian civilisation enthusiasts. Tutankhamun’s fame was enhanced by the discovery of his well-preserved tomb in 1922, which was an international sensation. For a time, the now disproven theory that Nefertiti was his mother was very popular. In any case, Tutankhamun’s father was Nefertiti’s husband, Amenhotep IV/Ehnaton, who – as was the custom of the time – had many other wives besides her. It is highly probable, however, that Tutankhamun, who revived polytheism and returned the capital to Thebes, was later married to a half-sister, one of Nefertiti’s daughters.
Boudica – with sword and axe against the Romans
Boudica, the rebellious Celtic princess and warrior who led her army in a bloody revolt against the Romans in 61 AD, is today an English national heroine, even if her short-lived uprising failed. A mighty bronze image of Boudica on a chariot stands outside the British Houses of Parliament, commemorating the period when she shook the beginnings of Roman dominance in the British Isles. Ironically, it now adorns London, the city she utterly destroyed 2 000 years ago.
The Romans invaded Britain in 43 AD under Emperor Claudius. Claudius wanted to prove himself and consolidate his authority, and the easiest way to do this was to conquer new territory. Today’s Britain was then on the edge of the known world and already had a mythical significance for the Greeks and then the Romans. The island was home to many different unconnected, differently developed and often hostile peoples, organised into kingdoms. The Romans established themselves relatively quickly in the south of England and subjugated many Celtic tribes; their aristocracy in particular began to stand in awe of them and soon imitated them in their way of life.
But the Celtic tribe of the Iceni, ruled by King Prasutagas and Queen Boudica and living in what is now eastern England, on the periphery of the Roman province, managed to retain a good deal of autonomy in the administration of their land, despite being partially subjected to Roman rule. To make sure that the wolf was fed and the goat was unharmed, at his death Prasutagas left half of his territory to Rome and half to his two daughters, who were still children at the time. Boudica thus took over as regent.
The Romans immediately took advantage of the absence of a male ruler, annexing a wealthy kingdom and seizing family territory and property. In doing so, they made another colossal mistake: they publicly humiliated the proud Boudica, whipped her and raped her two daughters. In all their arrogance, they also despised powerful and publicly exposed women, and for them, women rulers were an affront to God’s natural order. Cleopatra, for example, had a bad record with them and her image and legacy were constantly blackened.
But Boudica, like many Celtic wives a trained warrior, resisted the Romans. Tacitus, the foremost Roman historian, summarised her vow of revenge as follows: “Nothing is safe from Roman pride and arrogance. They will destroy their own and disfigure our girls. We can defeat them or perish. That is what I, a woman, will do.”
It raised a mighty army and, in just two months, razed three of the most important cities: Colchester, then the capital, London and Verulamium (now St Albans). Even the whole of the Ninth Roman Legion was brought to its knees. But the final battle, whose exact location is still being sought by historians and archaeologists today, spelled the end of Boudica. Despite the numerical superiority of the Celts, the Romans were simply more experienced and better equipped. But it put a lot of fear into the bones of the Romans, and they almost left Britain. In any case, from then on, they sent much calmer governors who, fearing another revolt, ruled conciliatorily and in cohesion with the local population.
Boudica might soon have been forgotten in the historical annals and chronicles of Roman writers such as Tacitus Cornelius and Cassius Dio, had she not been chosen as a model by another great English ruler, Elizabeth I, in the 16th century. The revival of the British past in the Elizabethan era was no accident, for in the early days of British imperialism, Britain needed national heroes and freedom fighters to forge a strong national identity. Elizabeth was so taken by Boudica’s personality that she liked to compare herself to her and even claimed descent from her.
Queen Victoria, the grandmother of Europe, also did an exemplary job in the 19th century to ensure that Boudica remained anchored in the collective British memory. After all, the name Boudica means Victory, just like Victoria, of course. Thus, in the modern era, Boudica went from being a fighter against Roman imperialism to being a symbol of British imperialism, and today she is the epitome of the struggle for the rights of peoples and for independence.
Zenobia – the Syrian queen who shook Rome
Almost two centuries after Boudica, Rome was still thriving despite the so-called crisis of the 3rd century, proudly spreading around the whole Mediterranean, into central and northern Europe and far across the Middle East. On its eastern periphery, in modern-day Syria, another rebel and blue-blooded freedom fighter, the Arab queen of Palmyra, Zenobia, was giving grey hair to no fewer than two Roman emperors in the 3rd century AD. Boudica and Zenobia were similar in many ways, and both, after long centuries of near oblivion, became national heroines and symbols of resistance against the Romans.
Zenobia, Bat-Zabbai in the original Aramaic, was not a one-day fly. Not only did she undermine Roman rule in their remote Syrian province, but by breaking away from Rome she established an independent kingdom and extended its borders as far as Egypt, the breadbasket of the Roman Empire. Palmyra, from which she originated, was then part of the Roman Empire, but as a province of the Roman Empire it was entitled to a certain degree of self-government. Thanks to its central location on the Silk Road, the Palmyrene ruling family, to which Zenobia’s husband belonged, controlled a bustling trade route to the Far East. Palmyra was thus a rich, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural centre perfectly suited for the creation of a new kingdom.
Like many powerful women, Zenobia was only able to make full use of her abilities after her husband’s death, when, because of the youth of her successor’s son, she became regent and ruled in his name. She built a splendid court where the most important philosophers and intellectuals met, as well as military advisers who quickly awakened her conquering ambitions.
Her strategic thinking and her ability to rule well and fairly earned her the trust of experienced generals. Soon, at the head of her troops, she annexed the Roman province of Arabia and even briefly took Egypt from the Romans, and in the west her army reached as far as modern-day Ankara. Zenobia’s empire reached unprecedented proportions, encompassing territories from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey and the eastern Mediterranean as far as the Euphrates River. As a true empress, she took the title Augusta (the Magnificent) and had money minted in her image.
But the new Roman Emperor, the steely Aurelian (reigned 270-275), after a period of internal strife, invasions by European peoples and even the secession of some provinces in Europe, decided to restore order, at least in the eastern Roman provinces. He struck at Zenobia with the full might of the experienced Roman army. Her success irritated the Romans all the more because she was a woman.
Trapped between the walls of Palmyra, besieged by the Roman army, she exchanged a series of furious letters with Aurelian, the authenticity of which is questionable today. Among other things, Aurelian is said to have written to her: “You should voluntarily do what I am now commanding you. I say to you, give in and your life will be spared.”
Zenobia proudly wrote back, “You demand my surrender, as if you didn’t know that Cleopatra also died a queen rather than stay alive /…/.”
In the end, however, she succumbed and, after trying to escape, Aurelian sent her back to Rome and, in all likelihood, paraded her shamefully through the streets of Rome as part of the celebrations of his military success. It is also not known exactly how she met her end, but her bravery certainly made her one of the few warriors who successfully stood up to the mighty Romans.
Today, Palmyra is a ruined pile of stones and one of the sadder scenes of the horrors of the Syrian civil war, which not only caused the deaths of thousands of innocents, but also the destruction of thousands of years of cultural legacy from the mighty civilisations of the past.
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Wu Zetian – the heart of the serpent and the character of the wolf
Wu Zetian is one of China’s most famous and controversial figures, but her legacy is little known in the West. The first and only Chinese empress from the 7th century, she is the darling of the Chinese people and even has her own 74-part TV lemonade, the most expensive in the history of Chinese TV productions. Neither Cleopatra nor Elizabeth I, let alone any other monarch of the world, has such a cult posthumous success.
But there are many versions of Wu Zetian’s life story, and until recently she was portrayed mainly as an ambitious and ruthless manipulator, capable of infanticide for power. It will be difficult to know what the truth is, as of course is true of so many other important figures, but Wu Zetian has been particularly vilified by Chinese historians, all of them men, in the immediate aftermath of her death. Doubts about their version of history are therefore in order.
She was certainly the only woman in the 2,000 years of Chinese imperial history to become empress in her own name and not just as the wife of a ruler or regent. In doing so, she undoubtedly had to manipulate the complex Chinese political system, which was extremely patriarchal and hostile to women. At the time of her birth in 624, China was ruled by the Tang dynasty, one of the most successful and powerful dynasties, which led China into a long, sophisticated and cosmopolitan golden age of three centuries. But this was particularly true of the male part of the population, since the Confucian philosophy by which the Chinese lived dictated a subordinate role for women, confined to the private sphere.
At the age of 14, Wu Zetian became a concubine at the Emperor’s court, a success in itself. She must have been extremely beautiful to be noticed and sent to court. But she started at the bottom of the hierarchical concubine system, “only” as a maid, as it was customary for emperors to have more than a hundred concubines. She quickly became close to the Emperor, as she was supposed to be in charge of changing his bed linen. She quickly learned how to charm men’s hearts and deal with rival women. After the Emperor’s death, she had to go to a convent to avoid ever being touched by a man again, but during a visit to the son of the deceased Emperor, she charmed him so much that he took her back to court.
According to Chinese history books, she quickly became his main concubine by accusing her predecessor of murdering her newborn daughter. The rival is said to have dismembered the girl and drowned her in a barrel of wine. This event starts the legend of her cruelty, as she is said to have murdered the infant herself and to have framed the murder on the Emperor’s wife. Soon, other members of her family who stood in her way, including her sister, brothers, aunt, mother, etc., also fell victim… She is also said to have been involved in horrific erotic affairs with younger men.
After the Emperor’s death, her sons came and went, and when they were no longer to her liking or weak enough for her to really rule, she got rid of them one way or another. In 690 she proclaimed herself Empress, against all laws, traditions and customs. But Wu Zetian had no equal opponent capable of standing up to her. She even tried to establish a new dynasty and moved the Chinese capital.
Because her personal life was so sensational and full of scandals, few people focus on her as a capable and progressive, even revolutionary, ruler. She supported women’s equality and introduced laws that allowed them to be financially independent, educated, divorced and no longer required to bind their feet. She supported recruitment and promotion on the basis of merit and chose her ministers accordingly. She introduced reforms in agriculture and the tax system and people were very happy living under her regime. She strongly supported Buddhism as it was much more egalitarian and favourable to women.
In the shadows, Wu Zetian ruled through her husband or sons for twenty-three years, and as Empress for another fifteen. She was finally overthrown by a coup organised by her exiled second son and his wife, and died shortly afterwards. Even after her death, she was vilified by men and her tombstone, on which all her achievements were to be inscribed, as befitted Chinese emperors, has deliberately remained unmarked to this day. Like Hatshepsut, they have fortunately tried unsuccessfully to erase her from the nation’s memory.
Eleonora of Aquitaine – the first midwife of Europe
Eleonora of Aquitaine (1122-1204) was undoubtedly one of the most influential figures of the Middle Ages, and her life story is as rich and full of exciting twists and turns as few others. First Queen of France, then Queen of England, participant in the Second Crusade, mother of three kings, including the legendary Richard the Lionhearted and Ivan the Landless, father of the Magna Carte Libertatum (Great Book of Liberties), this first “Grandmother of Europe” shaped the centuries of the European Middle Ages, often by cleverly scheming for her own and her descendants’ benefit. According to some, it indirectly triggered the Hundred Years’ War between England and France.
Born to the progressive-minded Duke William X of Aquitaine, she was brought up on an equal footing in the cultured, liberal and intellectual environment of her native Aquitaine, which in the 12th century encompassed much of central and southern France and was extremely wealthy. At the time of her father’s death, Eleonora, at the tender age of fifteen, was considered to have a general education in literature, languages, philosophy and mathematics, as well as in the strict customs of court life. Her beauty, and above all her rich heritage, made her one of the most sought-after brides in Europe, and her father arranged her marriage to the future King Louis VII the Younger of France before his death. Just a few months after the marriage of these two powerful teenagers, Louis VII’s father died and on Christmas Day 1137 Eleonora became Queen of France.
Her first marriage did not work out, as Louis VII the Younger was not her equal partner. She was a mature, clever and lively girl, he a childish, dull and possessive young man. She said disappointedly, “I thought I was marrying a king, not a monk.” The marriage broke down after the failed Second Crusade, to which the Pope sent the deeply religious Louis, accompanied by the adventurous Eleonora. On the way, she is said to have embarked on a relationship with her charming uncle Raymond of Antioch, but it is more likely that she became strongly attached to him primarily as a kindred spirit and someone who understood her life energy.
In her unconventional style, she annulled her marriage to Louis VII the Younger with the Pope’s consent on the grounds that they were too closely related and should not have married anyway. She lost custody of her daughters, but her inherited territories were restored to her. She soon married the future King Henry II of England of the Plantagenet dynasty. This marriage, too, was not a happy one, despite eight offspring, although Eleanor reigned with full powers as Queen in Henry’s absence.
But in 1173, Henry accused Eleonora of conspiracy and sentenced her to house arrest, where she spent, intermittently, twenty years. This did not prevent her from spreading her influence through her children, who were very attached to her, and this was even more evident after Henry’s death. The most famous of his successors is undoubtedly Eleanor’s son Richard the Lionhearted, commander of the Third Crusade to the Holy Land. In his absence, of course, Eleanor ruled.
She broke taboos until the day she died. She campaigned for women’s equality in society and for women to be better educated, and she supported the arts and, above all, the chivalric troubadour song – her grandfather was one of the first troubadours. She founded her own court in Poitiers in Aquitaine, where she hosted many artists and intellectuals of her time, and supported free love and a relaxed life. Thus the legend of Eleonora’s Court of Love was born.
Eleonora did not die in debauchery, but as a nun in a convent, where she had taken refuge after a stormy and stressful life as a queen.
Töregene Khatun – Progressive Reformer of the Mongolian Kingdom
At the head of the fearsome cavalry of bloodthirsty Mongol warlords who, with Genghis Khan (1162-1227), conquered the whole of Central Asia, from Russia to China, it is hard to imagine female rulers, because of ingrained stereotypes. But even in the Mongol Empire, the bright exceptions proved that women could often be better suited and more capable to lead, both militarily and administratively. Such was the case of Töregene Khatun, the wife of Genghis Khan’s third son Ögodei, who preferred drinking to affairs of state.
Genghis Khan left his gigantic empire to his four sons and four daughters. Each was given a specific piece of territory to administer, where the steppe tribes and clans he had subjugated lived. The third son, Ögodei, was appointed as the chief high khan. Legend has it that it was not because of his abilities, but because he was the best able to tolerate alcohol. Indeed, all of Genghis Khan’s sons are said to have been heavy drinkers. Before Ögodei died, probably because of his drinking, he managed to go down in history for his cruelty – for example, he subdued his sister’s part of the empire by gang-raping four thousand girls.
During his lifetime, he largely left the regal duties to Töregene, who then ruled legally on her own during the five-year succession period. Her main aim was to put her son Güyük on the throne, and she succeeded in doing so after the unexplained deaths of some of the other legitimate successors.
Töregene used political means typical of the times in which she lived, including intrigue, bribery and contract killings of opponents, but she was progressive in many respects and introduced many social reforms. She first removed the influencers of the previous regime from the administration and then cunningly installed her own people.
She appointed another woman, Fatima, a foreigner and a Muslim, probably a prisoner of one of the war campaigns, as her closest adviser. It was a very bold and unusual gesture, but it was a revenge when, with her help, only her son Güyük was finally appointed Khan. He did not trust Fatima and had her executed after days of cruel torture, when she confessed to having cast a spell on the Töregens. Töregene also died mysteriously shortly after her ungrateful son ascended the throne.
Nzinga – the fear and trembling of the Portuguese colonisers
With the birth of the future Queen Nzinga Mbandi in what is now Angola, Africa began to buckle under the pressures of the Portuguese empire, which, in its insatiable thirst for wealth, was rapidly expanding its power and influence in areas hitherto unknown and unexplored by Europeans. Territorial conquest and grabbing were soon followed by enslavement, first local and then global, as the need for labour grew in parallel with the exploitation of the abundant resources.
Nzinga came into the world with an umbilical cord around her neck, and according to local tradition, this meant that she was destined for greatness in life. And indeed she was a brilliant child in every way, which is why her father, the King of the Mbundu people, took her along on royal errands from a very young age. But her childhood was filled with fear of Portuguese attacks and of local slave-hunters. The Portuguese usurped the kingdom of Nzinga’s grandfather Ndongo and renamed it Angola, with Luanda as its main port city. Nzinga’s family had to leave the court.
After her father’s death, her ruthless brother Ngola took over the throne and, fearing family rivals, had Nzinga’s son murdered and all his sisters sterilised. But he failed to drive the Portuguese out of the kingdom, so Nzinga tried to negotiate peace with them, otherwise her people would soon be on the verge of extinction. To do so, she even renounced her religion and converted to Catholicism. But the peace thus achieved was fragile and the Portuguese did not respect the terms of the peace treaty. When Nzinga’s brother died in unexplained circumstances – perhaps even at the hands of a vengeful sister – and she succeeded to the throne, neither the Portuguese nor all her subjects were happy.
But Nzinga was a fearless warrior and military strategist. She recruited warriors from other tribes and escaped slaves, forged alliances with the Dutch and put fear in the bones of the Portuguese for decades. She subjugated and annexed the kingdom of Matamba, which had a long tradition of female rulers, and made it a powerful, trading kingdom on a par with the Portuguese. She had many lovers who had to dress in women’s clothes, and she trained the ladies of the court in a military spirit.
She herself, dressed as a man, fought alongside her soldiers until old age. She was one of the most successful rebels against the European colonial powers in Africa and the Portuguese only managed to annex Matamba to Angola in the 19th century. At the same time, she challenged the traditional social and gender roles of women and men.
And yet they made history
There are many more women rulers who have left a lasting mark on history, but because of their gender, they are often ignored and forgotten, mere superficial footnotes in thick history books full of details of brave and good male rulers. Such is our own Barbara of Celje (1392-1451), Queen of Hungary, who even Slovenian historians have only recently begun to look at more seriously and in detail. But she was an important and influential medieval European queen, with a great talent for economic affairs and a skill for politics, finance and legislative affairs. For thirty-two years she was the wife of Sigismund of Luxemburg, King of Hungary, Croatia, Romano-Germany and Bohemia, and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
Some, however, have managed to achieve legendary status. For example, we know the African Muslim Queen Amina today from the small screen in her modern image as the warrior Xena, but she was a real person who, during her reign of more than three decades in the 16th century, expanded the boundaries of her great kingdom in what is now Nigeria, and ensured long-lasting peace and prosperity for her people.
In the 6th century, Theodora, a Byzantine of humble origins, became the closest confidante and advisor of Emperor Justinian I and his co-empress. Today, she is elevated to sainthood in the Eastern Orthodox Church.
The charismatic and educated Nur Jahan ruled a vast Mughal empire on the Indian subcontinent in the shadow of her incompetent husband as his twentieth wife. And the list goes on.
Throughout the history of human existence, women have lived in a subordinate role in most areas and in most cultures, and have been almost completely excluded from action and influence in the public sphere in particular. Men have ruled the world and have worked hard to keep it that way. Women have often suffered a far harsher and more unfair fate in their rise to power than they would have if they had been male. This makes it all the more remarkable that they have managed to rise to the top of power, facing not only the challenges of ‘the business’ but also prejudices about their natural inferiority. In many ways, they have paved the way for modern women to have greater equality in the sharing of power at the very top. More importantly, they have contributed to building women’s self-confidence and self-awareness of their rightful place in any position in society.
