Narrator: What if one of the most successful and long-lasting civilizations in human history repeatedly broke the ultimate patriarchal rule? What if, in moments of crisis, this ancient society didn't turn to a strongman, a general, or a male heir, but to a woman? For three millennia, ancient Egypt stood as a beacon of stability, and its secret weapon was often female leadership. These women were not mere consorts or behind-the-scenes influencers; they were pharaohs, god-kings who held absolute, unadulterated power. Yet their reigns were often seen as temporary, their names were sometimes chiseled from stone, and their legacies were systematically erased. This profound contradiction is the puzzle at the heart of Kara Cooney’s book, When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt. It explores the lives of six extraordinary women who ascended to the pinnacle of power, revealing not only how they ruled but also why their stories are a crucial, and often ignored, lesson for our own time.

Narrator: Unlike almost any other ancient society, Egypt did not have explicit laws forbidding a woman from ruling. This cultural flexibility created a unique political environment where female power could be deployed as a strategic tool. The introduction to the book explains that in times of crisis—such as a king dying without a mature male heir—a woman was often seen as the least risky option. The Egyptians believed that men, particularly uncles or cousins of a young king, were more likely to resort to violence and usurpation to claim power for themselves. A female regent, usually the king's mother, was perceived as a protector of the patriarchal line, a placeholder whose primary interest was ensuring her son’s eventual succession.

This created a deep paradox. As Cooney notes, "The queen’s power didn’t compete with the patriarchy but rather supported it." Women were allowed to rule precisely because their leadership was seen as a temporary, stabilizing force that ultimately served to maintain the male-dominated system. However, the book argues that this power was often an "illusion." Once their purpose was served, their contributions were frequently minimized or erased from the official king lists, ensuring that the ideal of an unbroken male lineage remained intact. This pattern reveals a society that was simultaneously progressive in its use of female leaders and deeply committed to patriarchal norms.

Narrator: The story of Merneith, a queen from Egypt's First Dynasty around 3000 B.C., provides a stark look at the brutal realities of early kingship. When her husband, King Djet, died, he left behind a young son, Den, who was too young to rule. To prevent a violent power grab by ambitious male relatives, the court turned to Merneith to act as regent. Her role, however, was far from ceremonial.

Merneith’s regency involved overseeing one of the most gruesome rituals of the era: retainer sacrifice. To consolidate her son’s future power and honor her deceased husband, she had to preside over the systematic killing of hundreds of people—courtiers, servants, and elites—who were buried alongside the king to serve him in the afterlife. Archaeological data reveals the scale of this practice; King Djet’s burial was accompanied by 328 sacrificed individuals. Merneith herself had 41 people buried at her own tomb site. These were not just ritual killings; they were strategic purges, eliminating potential rivals and sending a terrifying message about the crown's authority. Merneith’s story shows how a woman’s power was used to navigate a succession crisis through ruthless, pragmatic action, securing the patriarchy through bloodshed.

Narrator: Over a thousand years after Merneith, Neferusobek became the first woman in recorded history to formally take the title of king. At the end of the prosperous 12th Dynasty, around 1789 B.C., the male line failed. The king, Amenemhat IV, died without a viable heir, creating a dangerous power vacuum. In this moment of crisis, Neferusobek, his sister-wife and the daughter of a powerful previous pharaoh, stepped forward.

The book explains that "for the first time in human history, we see a royal woman claim the highest office in the land... for the simple reason that there was no royal man to take it." Neferusobek ruled not as a regent, but as a pharaoh in her own right. She skillfully navigated the political landscape, using propaganda to legitimize her reign. She strategically blended masculine and feminine imagery in her statues and feminized her royal titles to assert both her gender and her authority. However, her reign was short, lasting less than four years, and plagued by low Nile inundations that led to famine. Though she provided a peaceful transition of power, her rule highlights the immense challenges a solitary female king faced, especially when confronted with environmental and political instability.

Narrator: Perhaps the most famous female pharaoh, Hatshepsut’s rise to power was the most audacious of all. Unlike her predecessors, she did not take the throne in the absence of a male heir. Instead, she seized power from her young stepson, Thutmose III, and declared herself king. To justify this unprecedented move, she launched a brilliant and sophisticated public relations campaign.

Hatshepsut claimed she was the divine daughter of the god Amun, who had visited her mother in disguise to conceive her. This narrative, carved into the walls of her magnificent mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri, made any opposition to her rule an act of heresy. She ruled for over two decades during a period of immense prosperity, focusing on trade and grand building projects rather than military conquest. Yet, despite her success, her legacy was systematically erased after her death. Thutmose III, once he finally took the throne, had her name and image chiseled off monuments across Egypt. Her story is the ultimate example of the paradox of female power: a woman could rule successfully for years, only to be written out of history by the very patriarchy she had temporarily managed.

Narrator: Nefertiti is known for her iconic beauty, but her political power was just as significant. She ruled alongside her husband, the pharaoh Akhenaten, during the tumultuous Amarna period. Akhenaten was a religious fanatic who overthrew Egypt’s polytheistic traditions to enforce the worship of a single deity, the Aten. In this radical new system, Nefertiti was elevated to the status of co-king, an unprecedented level of power for a queen consort.

After Akhenaten’s death, Egypt was in chaos. The book presents the compelling theory that Nefertiti took on a new identity as a male pharaoh, Smenkhkare, to restore order. As Smenkhkare, she began the process of abandoning Akhenaten’s extremist religion and returning Egypt to its traditional ways. However, her reign was cut short, and following her death, the throne was usurped by non-royal military men. This marked a significant backlash against female authority, demonstrating that even a woman as powerful as Nefertiti could not prevent the patriarchal system from reasserting itself in the face of instability.

Narrator: The last queen of Egypt, Cleopatra VII, ruled at a time when Egypt’s independence was threatened by the unstoppable expansion of Rome. Born into the notoriously violent and treacherous Ptolemaic dynasty, she learned from a young age that survival depended on ruthless ambition and strategic alliances. She famously aligned herself with two of Rome’s most powerful men, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.

Cleopatra was the first female ruler in this story to use her own procreative abilities as a political tool. By bearing a son to Caesar, she linked her lineage directly to Rome’s most powerful figure. After his assassination, she formed a political and personal alliance with Mark Antony, having three more children with him to solidify their shared power in the East. However, her strategy ultimately failed. As Cooney argues, "Cleopatra wasn’t the curse of these men; Egypt’s wealth was." Roman ambition, personified by her rival Octavian, proved too powerful. Octavian used propaganda to portray Cleopatra as a degenerate foreign seductress who had corrupted Antony, turning Rome against them. Her defeat and suicide marked the end of pharaonic Egypt and its absorption into the Roman Empire, a final, tragic testament to the limits of female power against an overwhelming patriarchal force.

Narrator: The single most important takeaway from When Women Ruled the World is that female power has historically been treated as a temporary solution, a conditional authority granted by a patriarchal system only to be revoked and erased once the crisis has passed. The stories of these six queens reveal that while ancient Egypt was uniquely willing to place women in charge, it was never truly comfortable with their power. Their reigns were often born of necessity, sustained by brilliant strategy, and ultimately suppressed by the enduring belief that leadership was a man's domain.

The book leaves us with a challenging question for our own time. The ancient Egyptians, for all their patriarchal norms, recognized that feminine qualities in leadership—the tendency to build consensus, avoid reckless aggression, and prioritize stability—were essential for their civilization's survival. If they could see this value 3,000 years ago, why do we, in our modern world, still struggle to trust women with power?