When Women Ruled the World

Featured Speaker: Professor Kara Cooney

A woman’s power in the ancient world (and perhaps
even today) was always compromised from the
outset, and this discussion will address the root
causes of this social inequality. Given this social
reality in the ancient world, how then did women
negotiate their limited leadership roles? Were they
able to rule “behind the throne”? How are we to find
a woman’s power when it was so habitually cloaked
by a man’s dominance? This discussion will address
those questions and ask how much of this ancient
reality still touches us today.

Presenter Biography

Kara Cooney is Professor of
Egyptology and Chair of the Department of
Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA.
Specializing in social history, gender studies, and
economies in the ancient world, she received
her Ph.D. in Egyptology from Johns Hopkins
University. In 2005, she was co-curator of
Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs
at the LA County Museum of Art. Cooney also
produced a comparative-archaeology television
series, titled Out of Egypt, and has written many
popular books, including The Woman Who Would
Be King: Hatshepsut’s Rise to Power in Ancient
Egypt and When Women Ruled the World: Six
Queens of Egypt.

Coordinator: Joel E. Dimsdale