September 23, 2016
“She’s the Man”: The Reign of Queen Hatshepsut
Winner of the Fall 2016 StMU History Media Award for
Best Introductory Paragraph
Article with the Best Title
Queen B said it best when she sang the infamous line, “Who run the world? Girls.”1 When looking back to history, men are seen as better and treated better than women. A long time ago, in ancient Egypt, women of the royal family served as guides to young male rulers. But there was one unconventional case where a woman defied the odds and obtained the role of pharaoh.
Queen Hatshepsut was the oldest daughter of Thutmose and his Great Royal Wife, Queen Ahmose. Thutmose, like most males who held power during those times, had another wife with whom he had a son. His name was Thutmose II; when he was at the age of eight and Hatshepsut was thirteen, they were wed, despite the fact of their shared blood line. When their father passed, Thutmose II assumed the position of pharaoh. While he was pharaoh, they birthed a daughter, but every male in power needs a male heir. Since she was unable to produce a son, he and a minor wife, Iris, conceived a son who became Thutmose III. Thutmose II and Hatshepsut reigned in Egypt until his death. The next male in line was Thutmose III, but Hatshepsut’s step child was too young to fulfill the position of pharaoh, so she ruled in his stead. On that note, even when he did become old enough to rule, she refused to turn over the power to him, and she remained in power. That is when she began her transition from Queen Hatshepsut to Pharaoh Hatshepsut.2
The Queen herself had a headdress made that included a beard and some male characteristics.3 She did not go out of her way to keep her gender a secret, for she did include feminine touches to her attire. Masculinity of course was respected more and was associated with power, which is why she sometimes took on such characteristics. Despite being a female ruler, at that time (and still today) people would not expect such a flourishing reign. Beginning in 1473 B.C.E. and ending in 1458 B.C.E., under her control wealth was accumulated. When it came to the protection of Egypt, she engaged in successful warfare against her invaders. She also had an extensive building program in which a temple of devotion to their sun god, Amun, was erected. Prosperity and wealth also came about because she sent ships on expeditions to foreign lands to obtain riches. These included ivory, ebony, gold, and trees. Now, why would they bring back trees? Whenever they had temple ceremonies, trees would be burned by the tons for fragrant incense.4
All good things must come to an end, and this particular ending is death. After she died, successors attempted to erase the fact that a female had become pharaoh.5 Even with this attempt to erase history, she is still known as a successful pharaoh to this day. She brought about protection, prosperity, and plenitude during her time as king. She did not serve as a guide to a young male pharaoh, but she showed how one must rule during her reign.
- Beyoncé, “Run the World (Girls),” in 4, Columbia Records, 2011. ↵
- Ann Macy Roth, “Models of Authority: Hatshepsut’s Predecessors in Power,” in Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh, ed. Catharine H. Roehrig, Renee Dreyfus, and Cathleen A. Keller (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005), 10. ↵
- Roth, “Models of Authority: Hatshepsut’s Predecessors in Power,” 10. ↵
- Rupert Matthews, DK Eyewitness Books: Explorer (DK Publishing, 2012), 8. ↵
- Angela Murock Hussein, “Legacy of a Female Pharaoh,” Calliope 19, no. 1 (September 2008): 48. ↵
Tags from the story
Egyptian Pharoahs
Queen Hatshepsut
Recent Comments
Pamela Callahan
Great title! I think this was a very interesting article. I’ve heard of Hatshepsut before, but I never really knew the whole story behind who she was and what she did. I think she was very brave to assume the role of the Pharaoh, especially because no woman had ever done that before. For the first woman to become Pharaoh, it seems as though she did an excellent job ruling over her kingdom and I would’ve thought that the men in the society would’ve recognized this and been more open to having women continue in the ruling positions.
16/09/2018
5:18 pm
Emily Jensen
I love this story! I didn’t know about Queen Hatshepsut until reading this article, but I really do love her life story. My favorite part about her story is that she was originally ruling in place of Thutmose III because he was too young, but when he became older she just decided that she enjoyed it and wanted to keep on ruling. What a queen.
16/09/2018
5:18 pm
Micaela Cruz
I’ve always admired the story of Queen/Pharaoh Hatshepsut because she took authority despite the fact that men were looked at as the ones having the power. The title suited the article perfectly, I could not have thought of a better title. It’s interesting to learn about all the success that occurred during the reign of Hatshepsut but also interesting how she doesn’t receive much credit or recognition for her ability to reign and maintain the highest level of status in Egyptian society.
16/09/2018
5:18 pm
Raymond Munoz
The thing I found most interesting about this article is how it had no mention of people trying to over throw her as a woman. Now, that just might be some left out information, but as far as i know the people were semi-accepting of her. The only reason I believe “semi-accepting” is because the article states how her successors tried to erase her rule from history , meaning some people must have had issues with her. Though, I would have to say the best aspect of this article is how it doesn’t put emphasis of her being a woman, it just talks of how she greatly benefited the people.
17/09/2018
5:18 pm
Luis Magana
Thinking back on how women were seen as less than men and that men were superior it opens my eyes when I see that a women ruled in ancient Egypt. Even if she looked more masculine at the end of the day she was still a women. History doesn’t really agree with females who had some sort of power, but she managed the keep her throe throughout her lifetime. The article was beautifully written and very interesting I had never heard of Hatshepsut.
17/09/2018
5:18 pm
Indhira Mata
It is hard to believe that a female was actually able to become a pharaoh. In the past and even in today’s time it is rare that a woman is leader over a community, company, organization, and as any other type of ruling position. In Egypt she saw an opportunity since her step son was too young to rule she claimed her self pharaoh because she was the only one able to be in such a high position. It is funny to think she still hid some features by adding a bread but she made sure people knew she was a women. After her death the people tired to hide her truth, but could not since her reign was successful in many criteria like wealth, trade, and war.
19/09/2018
5:18 pm
Sofia Andrade
This article is interesting for it informs the readers about something that is not heard of, and Egyptian woman pharaoh. The story of how she came to be a pharaoh is interesting. Through this article it is important to know that Egypt was successful during her rule. Although Hatshepsut was a successful pharaoh it is sad that she is not as mentioned when learning about Egypt’s history.
23/09/2018
5:18 pm
Kaitlyn Killebrew
We had just talked about this in class so I wanted to look up this article. The majority of us know that no matter the time period, history just wasn’t kind to women, at least in most societies. The majority of them being patriarchal. It’s interesting that even though she had a son that wasn’t of age, they still let Hatshepsut rule instead of finding another man to fill the role until the son was old enough. Even though she dressed in mens clothes and wore the beard, she still didn’t deny that fact that she was woman and I can only imagine the backlash she got from her people for doing so. Even though she was a very successful pharaoh, I wonder why she didn’t hand the thrown to her son?
24/09/2018
5:18 pm
Karina Cardona Ruiz
I knew of Hatshepsut from my art history class and about how she was a pharaoh, but I did not know of how she came to be one. I think your article was fairly short but I feel like you did a good job at explaining how Hatshepsut was able to become a pharaoh. I find it interesting that she was able to hold on to her power and wasn’t forced to give it up.
26/09/2018
5:18 pm
Daniela Duran
This article was very interesting! I love how Egypt became much wealthier and prosper when she came into rule because it demonstrates that, opposite to what it was believed back then, women could also be equally good Pharos as men. I like the fact that she wore the headdress with male characteristics such as bear, because in some way it proves that she was knowledgeable about the stereotypes that were present, but instead of letting herself be defeated by them, she found a way around them! I think it is awesome to think that there was a women pharaoh at some point, especially because, even though they tried to hide it, thousands of years later it is still know that her ruling provided so much prosperity and wealth to Egypt!
15/09/2018
5:18 pm