Constructing a rich narrative using the artifacts that remain, noted Egyptologist Kara Cooney offers a remarkable interpretation of how Hatshepsut rapidly but methodically consolidated power-and why she fell from public favor just as quickly.
Scholars have long speculated as to why her images were destroyed soon after her death, all but erasing evidence of her rule. Just as women today face obstacles from a society that equates authority with masculinity, Hatshepsut had to shrewdly operate the levers of a patriarchal system to emerge as Egypt’s second female pharaoh. Hatshepsut was a master strategist, cloaking her political power plays with the veil of piety and sexual expression. Houston Public Media 'Cleopatra may have ruled more than two thousand years ago, but her reign is still teaching Kara Cooney about the relationship between women and power today.' -Daily Bruin '.full of shadowy stories of murder, incest, political power plays and enough intrigue to satisfy even the most jaded reader. Her failure to produce a male heir was ultimately the twist of fate that paved the way for her inconceivable rule as a cross-dressing king. Married to her brother, she was expected to bear the sons who would legitimize the reign of her father’s family. Hatshepsut, the daughter of a general who took Egypt’s throne without status as a king’s son and a mother with ties to the previous dynasty, was born into a privileged position of the royal household.
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