When Women Ruled the World Book Summary - When Women Ruled the World Book explained in key points

Listen to the Intro

00:00

When Women Ruled the World summary

Name: When Women Ruled the World
Rating: 4.1 (193 reviews)
Author: Kara Cooney

Kara Cooney

Six Queens of Egypt

4.1 (193 ratings)

24 mins

Topics

Gender & Sexuality The Middle East

Table of Contents

When Women Ruled the World
Summary of 8 key ideas

Audio & text in the Blinkist app

Key idea 1 of 8

What’s in it for me? Learn the history of Egypt’s female leaders.

Shrill, bossy, selfish – these are terms you may have heard used to describe women in power. In fact, many sociological studies show a bias against women as leaders that prevails even in our ostensibly progressive society. Hillary Clinton’s 2016 election campaign was, for many women, a particularly painful reminder of the opposition to female leadership that still exists in the modern world.

So it may come as a surprise that in ancient Egypt, a culture preceding ours by thousands of years, women were consistently called upon to lead the country. Royal women repeatedly stepped forward to claim the throne, from the first ruling dynasty of the Egyptian nation-state to the very last. How could women gain and hold so much power in a deeply patriarchal, ancient society?

Using the latest archeological evidence, Egyptologist Kara Cooney traces the stories of six of these women – Merneith, Neferusobek, Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, Tawosret and Cleopatra – through the rise and fall of the Egyptian empire. Take a deep dive into ancient history and discover how these female trailblazers kept their country prosperous and safe – and find out what lessons the lives of these powerful women hold for us today.

In these blinks, you will learn about

the lives, losses and successes of Egypt’s six most important female leaders;
the mechanisms of power in ancient Egypt; and
the value of female leadership in times of crisis.

In times of crisis, ancient Egypt repeatedly called upon women to lead the country.

Thousands of years ago, in ancient Egypt, women ruled supreme. How was this possible? To answer this question, we need to take a look at Egypt’s unique system of power: divine kingship.

In 3000 BC, when northern Egypt defeated the south after centuries of conflict, the Egyptian nation-state was established. Protected by deserts and seas, rich in minerals and nourished by the Nile, Egypt became one of the most prosperous nations in the ancient world. This wealth may be the reason for Egypt’s relative political stability throughout the millennia.

At the same time that the nation was established, Egypt’s tradition of divine kingship was founded with Dynasty 1, the first of 20 royal dynasties. For the Egyptians, their king was a divine representative with incontestable authority – even when “he” was a woman.

Make no mistake: ancient Egypt’s regency system was undeniably patriarchal and authoritarian. Power was meant to transfer from father to son indefinitely, and female rule was an exception. This belief was rooted in the myth of the god Osiris, the primeval king of Egypt, who had passed his title on to his son Horus.

However, Egyptian mythology also has a representative of the divine feminine in the form of Osiris’s wife and sister, Isis. In texts inscribed on pyramid walls, the goddess Isis is portrayed as queen, mother, lover, daughter and nurturer. The titles of royal women, such as Great Royal Wife or King’s Mother, were modeled after these female archetypes. Their job was to protect the kingship, making sure the royal lineage could continue uninterrupted.

Trying to produce male offspring was considered a royal duty and, to maximize the king’s chances of reproduction, he had multiple wives. But despite this practice of polygamy, ancient Egypt faced no shortage of succession crises. Each time a royal family line ended, a new dynasty would arise.

It was often during the uncertain times at the ending of a dynasty that a woman stepped up to take power. Women often pulled strings from behind the scenes, making it even harder to trace their achievements. When a king was crowned too young, his mother would act as regent – as done by Egypt’s first female leader, Queen Merneith.

Though these female rulers often had short reigns as strategic peacekeepers, some of them accomplished as much as any male counterpart. But all too often, their names have been erased and forgotten.

Queen Merneith ruled in her son’s stead, cementing power in ritual sacrifice.

What do you do when your country’s new king is only two years old? You let his mother call the shots. That’s how Queen Merneith of Dynasty 1 came to rule Egypt. We know about her story from inscriptions in royal burial complexes, temples and monuments. The Palermo Stone, a famous fragment of a royal monument, lists her as King’s Mother – right alongside the male kings of Dynasty 1 through 5.

Young Merneith was no stranger to power. As the daughter of the revered King Djer, she grew up in the royal palace in Memphis and observed the king’s duties up close. When her father died, Merneith’s brother Djet took the throne and asked her to be his wife. You read that right: Merneith was now both the King’s sister and his wife.

Neferusobek became the first female king of Egypt – stalling a succession crisis caused by inbreeding.

As we’ve seen, incest wasn’t taboo for the ancient Egyptians. In fact, not only was incest a regular occurrence in the royal palace, but Egyptian royalty considered it the ideal strategy for reproduction – just as it did for patrilineal succession. After all, the myth of Isis and Osiris served as inspiration – a union that produced Osiris’s heir Horus.

And incest was a great way to “keep it in the family” when it came to royal power. Instead of marrying in another elite group who would suddenly want a bigger piece of the pie, wealth and power stayed within a close-knit family circuit.

Ruling Egypt for over two decades, Hatshepsut was the most influential female king of all.

A few centuries after Neferusobek’s dynasty was brought to its knees by the effects of inbreeding, Dynasty 18, led by warrior King Thutmose I, expanded Egypt’s borders into the Levant, crushing the mineral-rich provinces of Nubia and Kush.

Luckily, Thutmose I’s eldest daughter Hatshepsut, whom he appointed to the prominent office of High Priestess when she was just a girl, inherited her father’s determination and leadership skills. When Thutmose I died, Hatshepsut became the Great Royal Wife of her sickly brother Thutmose II. The new king Thutmose II accomplished little and died after only a few years of rule. A toddler born of his harem was then selected to be the next king. But Thutmose III’s biological mother was incapacitated, so Hatshepsut was chosen to rule in the boy’s stead.

Reinventing herself as a man, Nefertiti rose to power during a religious crisis caused by her husband.

Every year, half a million visitors flock to see the bust of Nefertiti at the Egyptian Museum of Berlin. The mysterious queen is revered for her beauty – but recent evidence suggests Nefertiti was more than just a pretty face.

King Amenhotep IV of Dynasty 18 took Nefertiti as his Great Royal Wife when she was perhaps only ten years old. He had inherited a peaceful and prosperous Egypt, whose people bowed eagerly to the will of their divine king. Little did they know that Amenhotep’s maniacal religious agenda would throw the country into disarray.

Tawosret took the throne by force, becoming the first woman to rule Egypt unaccompanied.

Hatshepsut’s enrichment of the elites and Akhenaten’s religious fanaticism led to permanent shifts in Egypt’s balance of power. In Dynasties 19 and 20, politics became more decentralized and the kingship opened up, allowing other families to marry into royalty. This meant less royal inbreeding and more competition among elite families. At the same time, Egyptians tried to curtail female authority, removing previous women leaders from the king’s lists and making sure that no woman held multiple royal titles.

This systematic suppression was the reason why Queen Tawosret had to use unorthodox measures to gain power. Tawosret was born in an internationalized Egypt, where mass migration and foreign influence led to an explosion of complexity in social and political relations. At around 2000 BC, she became the wife of King Seti II, who had just ascended to the throne. There was only one problem: in Lower Egypt, a Theben man named Amunmesses claimed to be king as well. Thanks to superior military resources, Seti II proved victorious in the civil war that ensued.

Cleopatra was a master tactician and used her relationships with Roman politicians to build Egypt’s power.

Egypt’s last queen is undoubtedly its most famous, although she wasn’t actually Egyptian. Cleopatra was a member of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, a Greek-Macedonian family that inherited Egypt after it was freed from Persian rule in 332 BC. The Ptolemies embraced Egypt’s system of divine kingship, combining it with the hypercompetitive political system of the Greeks. As a result, conspiracy and murder were rife.

At 14, Cleopatra was named co-ruler of Egypt by her father Ptolemy XII. When he died, he named his son Ptolemy XIII as successor. But Ptolemy XIII didn’t want to share the throne with his sister, driving Cleopatra into exile in Syria shortly after his accession.

Just as the Egyptians did millennia before us, we should learn to embrace female leadership.

Like many successful women, Cleopatra was relentlessly mocked by the men whose very power she threatened. The Romans ridiculed her for her excessive displays of wealth and emotional outbursts. Octavian accused her of being selfish, sexually manipulating Marc Antony for her own political benefit. She was the perfect scapegoat to convince the Roman Senate to wage war against one of their own. And yet Cleopatra is remembered because she nearly had it all.

Selfishness and emotional sensitivity are still common labels attached to women in power. The author argues that Hillary Clinton’s loss of the 2016 presidential election is a telling example of how women are still held back in progressive Western society for displaying ambition too openly, while men are rewarded for it. Moreover, strong leadership and the emotional sensitivity ascribed to women are often depicted as incompatible. But the ancient Egyptians understood that a woman’s emotionality, even her supposed indecisiveness, could be a political advantage in troublesome times.

Want to see all full key ideas from When Women Ruled the World?

Key ideas in When Women Ruled the World

More knowledge in less time

Read or listen

Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.

Find your next read

Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.

Shortcasts ^New

We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.

What is When Women Ruled the World about?

Ancient Egypt is a historical anomaly: the Egyptians called upon women to lead their country more frequently than any other culture. Tracing their rise to power within the authoritarian system of divine kingship, When Women Ruled the World (2018) tells the stories of Egypt’s six most important female leaders – Merneith, Neferusobek, Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, Tawosret and Cleopatra – and explores what lessons they hold about female leadership for us today.

Who should read When Women Ruled the World?

Folks who are interested in the history of female leadership
Women who want to be inspired by female trailblazers of the past
History buffs who want to learn more about life and death in ancient Egypt

About the Author

Kara Cooney is a professor of Egyptology at UCLA. Her studies focus on afterlife beliefs, preparations for death and gender dynamics in ancient Egypt. Her previous book, The Woman Who Would Be King, is about the life and death of Egypt’s female king Hatshepsut.

Categories with When Women Ruled the World

History

Books like When Women Ruled the World

Ancient Egypt

Ian Shaw

A Very Short Introduction

The Science of Secrecy From Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography

21 min

4.2

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Stephen R. Covey

Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

24 min

4.7

The Great Money Reset

Jill Schlesinger

Change Your Work, Change Your Wealth, Change Your Life

How Your Brain Tricks You Into Expecting the Worst and What You Can Do about It

An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

A 3,000 Year History of Peoples, Tribes and Empires

30 min

4.2

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Friedrich Nietzsche

The Classic That Will Challenge Everything You Know

The Unknown History of Invention from Cathedrals to Soda Cans

A Brief History of Swearing

17 min

4.1

The 1-Page Marketing Plan

Allan Dib

Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand Out From The Crowd

The Science of Changing Your Mind

16 min

4.7

The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money

John Maynard Keynes

The “Keynesian Revolution”—the Masterpiece That Changed Economics

The Key to Earth’s Lost Civilization

And How We Can Get There

26 min

4.4

Understanding Artificial Intelligence

Nicolas Sabouret

A Straightforward Explanation of AI and Its Possibilities

Understanding the New Rules of Language

22 min

4.1

Guns, Germs and Steel

Jared Diamond

The Fates Of Human Societies

New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

30 min

4.5

The Art Of Non-Conformity

Chris Guillebeau

Set your own rules, live the life you want and change the world

Burn Fat, Heal Inflammation, and Eat Like the High-Performing Human You Were Meant to Be

20 min

4.6

Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office

Lois P. Frankel

Unconscious Mistakes Women Make That Sabotage Their Careers

Unlock the Secrets of Existence and Transform Your Perspective

In Search of the Sacred in Modern India

24 min

4.1

Brief Answers to the Big Questions

Stephen Hawking

Hawking's final thoughts on the biggest questions facing humankind

A Guide to What Matters Most

19 min

4.3

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Marie Kondo

The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing

A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity

How to Think and Act Like the Most Successful and Highest-Paid People in Every Field

A Journey Through Middle Earth—A Lord of the Rings Prequel

It's Time to Cheer for Yourself

The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire

A Brief History of Humankind

28 min

4.4

The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee

David Treuer

Native America from 1890 to the Present

The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom

The Science and Secrets Behind 7 Words That Motivate, Engage, and Influence

How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change our Minds and Shape Our Futures

The Secret History of the Religion with No Name

18 min

4.0

Doubt: A History

Jennifer Michael Hecht

The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson

A Four Thousand Year History

30 min

4.1

Until the End of Time

Brian Greene

Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe

28 min

4.5

The Origins of Totalitarianism

Hannah Arendt

Hannah Arendt's landmark work about Europe's anti-Semitic and imperialist roots

The Rise of Tribes and the End of Normal

14 min

4.4

Strategic Project Management Made Simple

Terry Dean Schmidt

Solution Tools for Leaders and Teams

15 min

4.0

The Evolution of Everything

How Ancient Wisdom Can Change Your Life

Discover Your Authentic Leadership

20 min

4.4

Capitalism and Freedom

Milton Friedman

The definitive statement of Friedman's immensely influential economic philosophy

19 min

4.4

That Little Voice in Your Head

Mo Gawdat

Adjust the Code That Runs Your Brain

20 min

4.5

When the Heavens Went on Sale

Ashlee Vance

The Misfits and Geniuses Racing to Put Space Within Reach

16 min

3.6

People ❤️ Blinkist

Sven O.

It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.

Thi Viet Quynh N.

Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.

Jonathan A.

Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.

Renee D.

Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.