<p>For thousands of years, women have ruled in remote villages and reigned over major empires. Here, a Mongolian princess poses for a portrait in full court dress in the 1920s.</p>
For thousands of years, women have ruled in remote villages and reigned over major empires. Here, a Mongolian princess poses for a portrait in full court dress in the 1920s.
Photograph by Adam Warwick, Nat Geo Image Collection
From Ancient Egypt to today, these women rule the world
Queens today have their ancient Egyptian counterparts to thank for paving the way to positions of power.
ByNina Strochlic
Published October 26, 2018
• 2 min read
Modern queens and princesses, ruling from the highlands of the Tibetan Plateau to the tiny South Pacific island of Niue, have rarely possessed the type of power wielded by the female leaders of ancient Egypt.
These women were not just figureheads or puppet-masters behind a man, they were powerful and ruthless heads of a highly advanced civilization. In ancient Egypt women enjoyed the sort of human rights that their counterparts today are still fighting for—they worked, owned property, ran businesses, and divorced their husbands. Their society was, writes Kara Cooney, a professor of Egyptology at UCLA, in her new book When Women Ruled the World, "light-years ahead of us in their trust of female power."
"In one place on our planet thousands
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