6 questions · Society & Everyday
For most of history, power passed down the male line, and a woman on the throne was the exception that needed explaining. This pack brings together six women who were there anyway, separated by thousands of years and whole continents. Hatshepsut had herself crowned pharaoh in the 15th century BC and depicted with the ceremonial beard of the kings; her successor later tried to erase her name from the monuments. Cleopatra, some fifteen hundred years later, played the alliances of mighty Rome to keep Egypt independent, and her contemporaries praised her intellect more than her looks. Joan of Arc never ruled, yet at seventeen she led armies, saw a king crowned and was burned at the stake at nineteen. Closer to our own time, Empress Sisi embodied almost the opposite of power: a woman trapped by court etiquette who fled Vienna on endless journeys and was assassinated in Geneva in 1898. Queen Elizabeth II turned duty and restraint into a profession she practised for seventy years. And Princess Diana, who never became queen, changed the British monarchy simply by shaking the hand of an AIDS patient without gloves, and campaigned publicly against landmines. Six lives, six very different ways of filling a role that was not made for them, and that still left their mark on their time.
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Princess Diana
Known for her charity work, including against landmines.
💡 Did you know? Around 750 million people worldwide watched her 1981 wedding.
Foto: Franz Xaver Winterhalter · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Empress Sisi
Famous for her beauty and love of freedom; she was assassinated in 1898.
💡 Did you know? She kept up extreme beauty and fitness routines.
Queen Elizabeth II
She reigned from 1952 to 2022, seventy years on the throne.
💡 Did you know? She saw 15 British prime ministers come and go.
Foto: The wub · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Cleopatra
She allied with the Roman leaders Caesar and Mark Antony.
💡 Did you know? She was highly educated and spoke several languages.
Foto: Keith Schengili-Roberts · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Hatshepsut
She ruled successfully and had magnificent monuments built.
💡 Did you know? On statues she was often depicted with the ceremonial false beard.
Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Joan of Arc
She claimed divine visions and was burned at the stake in 1431.
💡 Did you know? Nearly 500 years later she was canonised as a saint.
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