Hatshepsut Research Paper

In the study of ancient history, it can be observed that the gender differences between men and women have always played a significant role in any society’s formation of political structure, cultural tradition, and even religion. Through these observations, it can be concluded that women often got the “shorter end of the stick” when it came to rights and privileges. However, among the male-dominated cultures, some allowed women more freedom than others. Compared to different civilizations that existed at the same time, like Ancient China and Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, although still considered a “patriarchy,” was much more liberal when it came to allowing women equal rights, and this strengthened the country in several diverse ways. The greatest examples of how improved women’s rights made Ancient Egypt stronger can be found during a period of time known as the New Kingdom, when a woman, Hatshepsut, officially took the throne as supreme monarch in 1505 BCE.1 Queen Hatshepsut’s reign as the pharaoh of Egypt represented three major aspects of women’s rights- women in politics, in religion, and in social culture- that were beneficial to Egypt’s stability.

The circumstances that allowed Hatshepsut to become pharaoh were complex. The New Kingdom “was Egypt’s most prosperous time and marked the zenith of its power.”2 Many advancements in trade, infrastructure, astronomy and math accompanied a series of successful and adept rulers. Hatshepsut was born at the beginning of this time and grew up in the royal family. Her husband, Tuthmosis II, unfortunately died of illness, leaving her a widow with two daughters and a six-year-old son, born of the king’s “second wife” (essentially, concubine). This boy, by default, would be next in lin...

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...especially in the patriarchal world she lived in. In a time where Roman women weren’t classified as “citizens” and Greek men outwardly criticized the opposite sex as emotional and cowardly in most of their writings, Hatshepsut established herself as a woman who did have the courage and, more importantly, the ability, to rise to the top. The importance of women’s rights in the areas of politics, religion, and social culture were demonstrated through her time as pharaoh, and the existence of these rights improved Egypt’s political and social structure, contributing to the longevity of the empire and the legacy it left behind. As Hatshepsut herself put it in an inscription one of the obelisks at Karnak, “Now my heart turns this way and that, as I think what the people will say—those who shall see my monuments in years to come, and who shall speak of what I have done.”34