The contribution of female leadership in the New Egypt Kingdom

The fact that women played a crucial role in ancient Egypt is not in question. Perhaps this is due to the relative gender equality that existed in Egypt as compared to other ancient civilizations. Unlike in other civilizations like Greece, in Egypt, women enjoyed extensive rights. Women were able to inherit property, manage and even sell it. This property included livestock, portable goods, slaves and servants and even money. It is for this reason that the fact that women played leadership roles in different periods doesn’t come as a surprise. However, it has long been assumed that women’s ascent to power came as a matter of last resort or by chance. According to previous historical researchers, women, only ruled in the final days of dynasties to desperately effort to continue the male regime.¹ However, a keen examination of various women that ruled the New Egypt Kingdom like Hatshepsut, Ahhotep, and Nefertiti, among others disapprove this assumption. This paper shows that other than having been raised as royalties, these women were outright competent, diplomatic and intelligent politicians who managed to steer Egypt through effective leadership.

Hatshepsut

Her birth and family relations

Hatshepsut’s birth is based in a rather complicated family lineage. She was born in 1500BC in Thebes by royal parents, the Pharaoh Thutmose I and his royal wife Ahmose (who was also a daughter of a previous pharaoh). Being female, she could not take direct claim to the father’s throne after his passing. The throne had to be passed to her stepbrother Thutmose II who his father sired with a lesser wife by the name Mutnofret[1]. Hatshepsut and Thutmose II were later to be married, and she would play the role of queen until the husband died later on. By the time Thutmose II died, the two had a daughter, but he had a son with a lesser wife who was named Thutmose III. At this time Thutmose III was the claimant of the throne though Hatshepsut became regent until the rightful king became of age. However, later on, Hatshepsut decided to become a full-fledged Pharaoh delegating Thutmose III had to be side-lined to a subordinate role for 22 years.

Rise to power

Hatshepsut was an assertive, calculating politician and ruler. Having both royal parents, Hatshepsut probably had a better claim to the throne than her husband Thutmose II and his son Thutmose III who were both born from lesser wives and not queens. However, she played as a queen during her husband’s reign and only stepped up to take up the throne when she was regent as Thutmose III was too young at the time.

However, being a female, perhaps she understood the need to prove herself to be fully in power. To do so, she first had to make her birth mythical.[2]She, therefore, came up with a story about how Amun, the mighty god, summoned the other deities and declared the need to create a daughter who would unite and rule Egypt. The story continues with her being ordained to the kingship by the gods. Her confirmation is done on earth when she is born to Thutmose I who declares her his rightful successor. This myth was well choreographed and widely spread, while Thutmose III was still young. This story was probably supposed to justify her rise to power as there was no other evidence that Thutmose I had preferred her as his successor.

Although women had ruled Egypt before, it was an exception rather than a norm. For this reason, Hatshepsut knew that the kinship was identified more with the male gender. She thus decided to portray herself as a man. She made sure that her pictures were drawn in male regalia and donned a false beard commonly used by kings at that time. Her images also exhibited a masculine posture than a feminine one. In temples, she made sure that she was displayed in massive statues as Osiris. Before her coronation as king, her title was God’s Wife of Amun. However, when she became king, she delegated this title to her daughter Nefurura to achieve the crucial feminine aspect to complete the monarchy’s male-female balance as was the requirement of kingship and ma’at.[3] These moves were well calculated, to not only validate her as the anointed king but also to show that she qualified. Consequently, despite Thutmose III being present, he was merely restricted to royal appearances while wielded the real power.

Leadership and Legacy

Even in her rule, Hatshepsut was keen to show that she could lead like a man if not better. For instance, she was active in military leadership. The military leadership was categorized into three aspects. These were direct participation, symbolic leadership and administrative leadership.[4] Hatshepsut was able to showcase all these aspects of military command. Although during her reign, military escapades were led by her stepson and young co-ruler Thutmose III, research has shown that she also took part in leading armies to war. Various inscriptions found to show that she administered over military troops and took led soldiers to fight during the Nubian campaign at least once. At the time, leading soldiers to fight was one of the many roles a king had to undertake to gain full validation. Even though Hatshepsut is not known for her military combat engagements, perhaps she had to do this to validate her claim to the throne further.

Although Hatshepsut undertook military leadership administration, her legacy is more based on her building and construction projects. After ascending to power, she embarked in the extensive restoration of monuments of previous pharaohs and construction of temples in both the Upper and Lower Egypt. This was done in honour of the gods, especially Amun. To do this, she needed to marshal support from various civil servants and most important architects.²The fact that she achieved this further illustrates her political nous. On top of this, she managed to command the construction of her mortuary temple in whose walls her life history was written therefore inscribing her legacy in Egyptian folklore.

Ahhotep

Ahhotep ascended to power as regent for almost ten years and ruled in her son Ahmose’s stead till he came of age. This was after her husband, who was also her brother Seqebebra Tao II died in the war along with their elder son Kamose.³Although being female and restricted her from entirely ruling as king, her exemplary military exploits have led to the belief that she was a principal founder of the 18^th dynasty. Inscriptions by her son Armose, who later came to rule and create the 18^th dynasty, underlines her role played in defeating the Nubians and expelling the Hyksos. She is fondly described as “One who cared for Egypt”⁴. This could be as a result of her role in taking care of soldiers and guiding them and bringing back fugitives during the war.

During her tenure as regent, she also managed to unite Egypt in the absence of a male ruler. In so doing, she also led her army throughout the war and was instrumental in suppressing a rebellion. During this period, she not only got involved in direct military leadership participation but also oversaw its administration. Even after her son Armose became of age, she administered military leadership as he got involved in direct combat. The stele erected by her son was in acknowledgement of her stellar performance in a unique role. The burial goods obtained later on in her tomb contained military gear that had never been associated with any woman before. Apart from her war exploits, perhaps she was one of the very established queens that played the role of a regent and wielded king-like power until her son became of age.

Nefertiti

Nefertiti served as Akhenaten’s  Great Royal great wife. She played a significant religious role alongside her husband as they pursued the worship of the sun god in an era when other gods were set aside.[5]Although Nefertiti did not co-rule with her husband during his reign, the requirement for complete duality in the worship of the sun put Nefertiti in the forefront in performance of Aten rituals. These roles had only been performed by the king hitherto to this. Akhenaten, along with his wife, played god-like roles in Egypt during this change or religion as they were deemed the only direct recipients of life through the rays of the sun. In so doing, the two were the link between Aten and humankind.³Nefertiti thus rose to a very powerful position courtesy of the demands of the new religion.

Unlike previously when offerings and prayers were only the preserve of the king, during this reign, Nefertiti would carry out these rituals as high priest independently. However, this capacity was to be played by a male and for this reason, she called upon her daughter Meritaten to fill the feminine role to complete the male-female duality. In this scenario, therefore just like Hatshepsut before her, Nefertiti managed to install her daughter as Great King’s Wife, a role Meritaten performed well. So great was Nefertiti’s prominence that Akhenaten later had to replace the usual four tutelary goddesses that had existed for ages with Nefertiti’s statues.³ Due to the husband’s significant involvement in matters of faith and the great role religion played during this reign, it has been concluded that in elevating Nefertiti to this position, she can be considered as a co-ruler. It is speculated that Nefertiti might have been the sole ruler after the husband’s death.

Conclusion

Although the kingship of Egypt was predominantly associated with men, it was not uncommon for women to rule. However, it has wrongly been believed that women were used as a stop-gap to wait for the rightful male counterparts to take their place in the throne. This is even though ancient Egypt observed relative gender equality, where females enjoyed their rights. Research indicates that when women ascended to power, it was not always due to a lack of male heirs. There are cases where women occupied the throne, mainly on merit and went on to become very effective leaders. Additionally, there are various cases where as queens, their personalities and sheer willpower to rule forced their husband to co-rule with them. Hatshepsut, for instance, had to rule as a full-fledged pharaoh even in the presence of Thutmose III who was relegated to a subordinate role for about 22 years. It is only after her death that Thutmose III took sole-leadership. Hatshepsut’s dynamic leadership made her the most celebrated female ruler ever to grace Egypt, and her influence could be seen in subsequent female rulers. Ahhotep, on the other hand, ruled before Hatshepsut, albeit in a regent role. However, her military nous put her in good stead until her son, Armose, was of age to take leadership. She is widely considered to have been the most instrumental in the founding and development of the 18^th dynasty. Her military exploits have had never been witnessed in a woman before. Nefertiti, on the other hand, rose beside her husband Akhenaten and served with him as priests of Aten, the god of the sun. Her stake in this position was the first by a woman who was not a pharaoh. She would later go on to replace various goddesses that had existed and probably inherit the throne after her husband’s death.

Bibliography

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Carney, E. D. (2002). Women and Military Leadership in Pharaonic Egypy. Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies, 25-41.

Constitutional Rights Foundation. (2015). Hatshepsut: How a woman took the throne. Bill of Rights in Action, 8-12.

Green, K. (2016). Hatshepsut and Thutmose III – Cooperative Co-rulers or Ruthless Rivals. Academia.

Hamar, R. (2006). The Queens of Egypt: The complexities of female rule in the first through the nineteenth dynasty. Quezon: College of Liberal Arts.

1. Kate Green. (2016). Hatshepsut and Thutmose III – Cooperative Co-rulers or Ruthless

Rivals. Academia.

2. Constitutional Rights Foundation. (2015). Hatshepsut: How a woman took the throne.

Bill of Rights in Action, 8-12.

3. Brian Alm. (2019). Women of Power and Influence in Ancient Egypt. Academia.Edu.
4. Elizabeth D.Carney. (2002). Women and Military Leadership in Pharaonic Egypt.

Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies, 25-41.

5. Hamar. (2006). The Queens of Egypt: The complexities of female rule in the first

through the nineteenth dynasty. Quezon: College of Liberal Arts.