Hatshepsut - First Great Woman in History
During
the Eighteen Dynasty, something really unusual and extraordinary
happened - a female took the title of King of Upper and Lower Egypt,
and became the first great woman in recorded history.
In ancient Egypt, women had a higher status than they did elsewhere in the ancient world, including the court-protected right to own or inherit property. Yet having a female ruler in her own right was rare. Pharaoh was an exclusively male title. Hatshepsut is unique in that she was the first woman to take the title of King in the absence of a word for a ruler of the female gender, since the title for a queen was that of Great Royal Wife.
Hatshepsut, the eldest daughter of Thutmose I and Queen Ahmose, thus of royal birth, was able to become pharaoh upon the death of her...
