Duality

Sitting in the corner of the first room of the Egyptian Exhibition is a large granite statue of Tutankhamun and his wife Ankhesenamun. They are depicted sitting side by side, shoulder to shoulder, arms linked as equals, linked forever as they were once in life, making their way through their everyday family challenges as well as larger matters of state. It is a sculpture of two people and a marriage. 

Egyptians viewed their universe as a complete duality of male and female. Giving balance and order to all things was the female deity Maat, the symbol of cosmic harmony, by whose rules the pharaoh was supposed to govern.

In everyday life, Egyptian women enjoyed a surprising degree of financial independence. Surviving accounts and contracts show that women received the same pay rations as men for undertaking the same job, something the UK has yet to achieve in the 21st century. There are records of royal women who controlled the treasury and owned their own estates and workshops, but non-royal women as independent citizens could also own their own property, buy and sell it, marry and divorce of their own volition and make wills.

Royal women undertook military campaigns whilst others were decorated for their active role in conflict. Women were regarded as sufficiently threatening to be listed as 'enemies of the state', and female graves containing weapons are found throughout the three millennia of Egyptian history. Perhaps one of the most famous examples was Cleopatra VII, the last active ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt, known for her intelligence, political alliances with Rome (Julius Caesar and Mark Antony), and her efforts to maintain Egypt's independence. A brilliant linguist, Cleopatra VII endowed the Great Library at Alexandria, the intellectual capital of the ancient world where female lecturers are known to have participated alongside their male colleagues.

Women were overseers, governors and judges. Two women are known to have achieved the rank of vizier (prime minister) and a common 'career' for women was in the priesthood. This is not to overlook their role as 'Lady of the House' which involved running the home and bearing children, listening to music, eating good food and drinking fine wine. 

Neighbouring countries were clearly shocked by the relative freedom of Egyptian women, describing how they 'attended market and took part in trading whereas men sat and home and did the weaving'. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that Egyptians 'have reversed the ordinary practices of mankind' – clearly not a supporter of Women’s Lib.

This freedom seems to have been the case from the very beginning of the Egyptian civilisation. Early records suggest that Merneithh of 1st Dynasty was one of the earliest known female pharaohs, potentially acting as a regent or ruler 5,000 years ago, demonstrating early female authority in the Old Kingdom. 

Ni-Maat-Heb, mother of Djoser (best known as the builder of the step pyramid at Saqqara), is likely to have been a Pharaoh in her own right. Sobekneferu (12th Dynasty) adopted the full royal title of Pharaoh, ruling after her brother's death but broke tradition by ruling as a king. An interesting puzzle to resolve towards the end of the Amarna Period is who was the 18th Dynasty pharaoh Neferneferuaten. There is one theory that she may have been Nefertiti taking on the mantle of leadership after her husband Akhenaten’s death. 

Arguably the most famous female Pharaoh was Hatshepsut (18th Dynasty). She ruled for nearly two decades, establishing major trade routes including funding a mission to the Land of Punt from whence her delegation returned with myrrh trees and other luxuries such as frankincense. 

Hatshepsut was one of the most prolific builders in Ancient Egypt, commissioning hundreds of construction projects throughout upper and lower Egypt, creating temples, monuments and obelisks. Today we all gaze in awe at her temple at Deir el-Bahari but she has been labelled as the pharaoh most accomplished at promoting her own accomplishments which is not really a compliment.  

Only in the last 50 to 100 years have women once more had the legal right to contract, to hold money and property, to have rights over their children, become priests but even now it is only in some parts of the world.