When Women Ruled the World

[Joséphine]

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

Initial thoughts: I found When Women Ruled the World an entertaining yet educational read for on the go. I was very intrigued by the title, of course, and appreciated the focus of this book: women who became pharaos of Egypt.

Sadly, there isn't a lot of historical material available to back up their lives. A lot of artefacts and records were destroyed, presumably because they were female rulers. This led to a lot of conjecture on the author's part.

I'm sure that as an egyptologist, she knew a lot that helped her make educated guesses about the lives of these women in ancient Egypt. That's the thing though, they're still guesses trying to fill very, very large gaps in history. These conjectures were not only about how history panned out but also about their personal motivations. Those are huge liberties to take while looking through our modern cultural lens in a work of non-fiction.