When Women Ruled the World

By: Kara Cooney

Narrated by: Kara Cooney

This riveting narrative explores the lives of six remarkable female pharaohs, from Hatshepsut to Cleopatra - women who ruled with real power - and shines a piercing light on our own perceptions of women in power today.

Female rulers are a rare phenomenon - but thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt, women reigned supreme. Regularly, repeatedly, and with impunity, queens like Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, and Cleopatra controlled the totalitarian state as power brokers and rulers. But throughout human history, women in positions of power were more often used as political pawns in a male-dominated society.

What was so special about ancient Egypt that provided women this kind of access to the highest political office? What was it about these women that allowed them to transcend patriarchal obstacles? What did Egypt gain from its liberal reliance on female leadership, and could today's world learn from its example?

Celebrated Egyptologist Kara Cooney delivers a fascinating tale of female power, exploring the reasons why it has seldom been allowed through the ages and why we should care.

©2018 Kara Cooney (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Wow. So good!

This is an amazing listen. The author/narrator is very good at telling the story, immersing you in the environment of these Queens and is astonishingly good at linking it to modern situations. I don't normally write out reviews. I generally just star them and move on, but this one was worth writing out.

I wasn't sure how this would go at first, but once I got into it, I realized that these women were so much more than we ever learned about in school. Once you understand the culture surrounding it, and how the Egyptians viewed their women, you are able to understand so much more. Kara Cooney really does an amazing job of speculating what we don't know with historical backing, and giving you a feel of each Queen in her specific time period. Who was she? What was her rule like? Who were the people around her? The fact that many of them were loved during their reigns and then chipped into non-existence later as though they didn't exist shows you how threatened men were by the fact that their women were able to rule.

Bottom line, it's great. I'm going to include this in my 14 year old's home school curriculum, as it's something I think if we all listened a little more, we'd understand a lot more.

For Egyptian Beginners

I should have read the reviews bet. I didn’t realize that the entire book is about women leaders in Egypt.
The narrator is pleasant, but after the whole book it was kind about Egyptian women. I want to hear about great women among other cultures and time frames.

loved it

I couldn't stop listening. very captivating story telling. I would highly recommend to anyone interested in history, women in history, and their story behind the story.

This opened my eyes, half of I didn't know

Amazing how accurate the views of woman are perceived today. Thanks for the history lesson.

History comes alive

Good book, I love history. I recommend this book. Ancient Egyptian lives brought to life I could visualize the story.

man hater, but interesting

Lots of speculation and assumptions taken as fact, but interesting nonetheless. It's frustrating to hear her compare ancient Egypt with our modern society - POTUS is no Pharaoh. I did appreciate the history though.

6 queens

The historical aspects of this book in regard to the 6 queen rulers was extremely enlightening.
I did not agree with or enjoy the references to HRC as I feel she is not a good representative of a strong and powerful female leader in modern day. Any woman in the modern feminist culture is a terrible role model if she stays married to a serial sexual predator. There are other modern women whose lives would make better comparisons to the ancient female rulers. The political tone of this book was self serving.

interesting and informative.

this book was very interesting and informative. I enjoyed the voice of the woman reading it. The epilogue got a little political, but also did a good job connecting stories from the book to current events.

Giving credit where credit is overdue!

Great insight into the few women who have achieved rule. Author did great job of giving details into the Egyptian society which helped understanding of how these women came into power. Wasn’t much of it but would of eliminated the comparison of then to her opinion of today’s politics as it relates to past societies. Didn’t really add to the book but made it feel more like trying to inject current day opinions (good and bad) into what was otherwise great book on history. Overall definitely worth the listen. Learned a lot.

So Good, So fair

It's an interesting exploration into a history already regarded as fascinating by pop culture so it was bound to be good for at least that reason. On top of that exploration she uses history to comment on current politics and does it quite well. Plus as the author she can speak with confidence when she is discussing the facts rather than a cold separation that could have come from a narrator less familiar with the topic. Her voice is also nice and full with passion for what she is reading to us.