Essay Series 2.1: Women have been strong leaders throughout history.

Since the 1970s, research has expanded our knowledge about the history of women’s leadership. This essay shows that men have never had a lock on leadership across the world. Nor have men dominated all societies.

Historians have shown that women were strong and resilient leaders in ancient times, where they sometimes had power or took it after their male relatives died. Men who succeeded these women leaders often tried to erase their accomplishments.

In modern history, many women have gained power through their own merits. However, these women remain a small minority of leaders even now. Progress has been glacial.

Powerful Women Leaders

The research shows that men don’t always control a society’s power structure. Even in kingdoms or countries where men generally do, strong women leaders have led their societies. This has been true for thousands of years.

Some women gained power through connections with powerful men and kept it because of their abilities. Other women gained and maintained power largely because of their abilities and hard work. Those who gained power through family connections tended to do so earlier in history. In my lifetime, some women have gained power by diligently working their way up the political ladder.

One of the earliest recorded examples of a woman leader is Hatshepsut, who reigned peacefully as an Egyptian Pharaoh from 1479 to 1458 BCE.⁵⁴ She eventually came to her position after the death of her husband. First, she served as regent for her young stepson, Thutmose III, and then became a Pharaoh. For about 20 years, she maintained power and focused on strengthening Egypt through trade and the arts, not war. Thutmose III, who succeeded her as Pharaoh, took steps that erased her reign from history until the early 1800s.⁵⁵

Boudica was a warrior queen who shared leadership of the Iceni tribe in Britain with her husband, King Prasutagus. When he died, the Romans attempted to take over the Iceni, and their tactics involved whipping Queen Boudica publicly and raping her two daughters. The Queen led a fierce, yet unsuccessful, rebellion against the Romans around 60 CE. People in Britain still remember and admire her.⁵⁶

In the 700s CE, Queen Cynethryth ruled Mercia⁵⁷ with her husband, King Offa. In this kingdom, women could sign charters and own land in their own names. Several other queens in Mercia secured and held power. Æthelflæd was one of the last of them in the early 900s. She helped lead Mercia’s successful efforts to repel Viking invasions. Her brother, Edward, who gained power after Æthelflæd’s death, minimized her leadership.⁵⁸

Powerful queens ruled in a more modern Europe. Elizabeth I was Queen of England and Ireland from 1558 to 1603 and led her country during a war with Spain. She gained her leadership role after her father Henry VIII, brother Edward VI, and half-sister Mary I died. She remained unmarried throughout her life.⁵⁹ Catherine the Great of Russia ruled from 1762 to 1796. She was a German princess who married into the Russian royal family. She gained her crown after leading a rebellion against her husband, who then was assassinated. Catherine the Great led a cultural and intellectual renaissance in her country and gained territory during Russia’s two wars against the Ottoman Empire.⁶⁰

During my lifetime, some women leaders have gained their power through their own efforts, without having familial connections to powerful men. These women leaders include Golda Meir, Margaret Thatcher, Angela Merkel, and Nancy Pelosi. While I don’t necessarily agree with all their politics, their lives show a path forward for women to gain power equal to that of men.

Golda Meir was prime minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974. She emigrated from present-day Ukraine to the United States, where she became a leader in the Milwaukee Labor Zionist Party. She and her husband immigrated to Palestine in the early 1920s. Once there, Meir became involved with the Labor Movement and became the Minister of Labor in the new Israeli government. She later became Foreign Minister and Prime Minister.⁶¹

Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 through 1990, the longest term of a prime minister in that country. She grew up the daughter of a grocer and mayor of the town of Grantham. She studied chemistry at Oxford and became president of the Conservative Association there. She won election to Parliament and later became Education Secretary for the Conservatives in 1970. In 1975, she challenged the Conservative Party leader and won. Thatcher led the country through a revolution that eroded social protections and changed the United Kingdom’s economy. She also worked with Ronald Reagan to help end the Cold War.⁶²

Angela Merkel was Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. She earned a PhD in quantum chemistry and worked in East Germany in this field before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. She became the deputy government spokesperson for the last democratically elected government in East Germany in 1990. As East and West Germany merged, Merkel became a representative in Germany’s parliament (the Bundestag). Merkel, through her hard work and ability to collaborate with others, became a protégé of Helmut Kohl. He appointed her to Cabinet positions in the new Germany. After Kohl experienced a financial scandal, Merkel took over leadership of the Christian Democratic Union by 2000. In 2005, she became Chancellor of Germany. She led Germany and Europe during a financial crisis and through a refugee crisis. She left office voluntarily in 2021.⁶³

Nancy Pelosi served as the most powerful woman political leader in the United States when she became the first woman to be Speaker (leader) of the House of Representatives. Her father was a prominent politician in Maryland. Pelosi married and raised five children. She worked for years as a volunteer for the Democratic Party in San Francisco and was a very successful fundraiser. She was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1987 during a special election, after the previous representative died in office. Through her political savvy, Pelosi became second in command of the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives and then became Speaker of the House in 2007. She served as Speaker again starting in 2019. Some years later, Pelosi voluntarily gave up this role to make room for a new generation of leaders. She is widely credited as having shepherded President Obama’s health care reform legislation through the House as well as a COVID-19 relief package and a major infrastructure bill.⁶⁴

In April 2025, the United States Council on Foreign Relations’ Women’s Power Index showed that of 193 countries belonging to the United Nations:

1. 25 had a female head of state or government.

1. Nine had women representing at least 50 percent of people in the national cabinet.

1. Six had national legislatures that were at least 50 percent women.⁶⁵

Women’s progress into modern leadership roles has come at a glacial pace. However, the progress demonstrates that women can acquire power and lead their countries through crises.

Matrilineal and Matrilocal Societies

Looking beyond the recent record related to heads of state, we find that matrilineal societies have long existed and still do in some parts of Asia, Oceania, the Americas, and Africa. These are societies where the line of descent in a family goes through the mother. Matrilineal societies’ structures vary. However, their features can include property going to daughters when the mother dies and husbands living with their wives’ families. Women often share decision-making authority with men, and women can act independently of them. Some of these societies have been or are matrilocal, where husbands go to live with their wives’ families.⁶⁶

Reflections

Growing up, I learned that men were natural leaders and women natural followers. These assumptions aren’t true. Men don’t always control our societies. In early history, women became leaders, often by seizing power when a husband or son had little capacity to rule or had died. These powerful women led their countries during peace, prosperity, and war.

In modern history, we have numerous examples of women who have gained and held onto power by being smart, hard-working, politically savvy, and able to compromise to get their priorities realized. I appreciate their talents and drive; especially Angela Merkel and Nancy Pelosi, who are adept politicians. What is particularly impressive is that both left their offices voluntarily after years in power. Their decisions contrast with the women and men who cling to power despite poor health or mental health in the United States and other countries, often to the detriment of their peoples.

The information about the current percentage of women leaders across the world shows that women have a long way to go to achieve power that is equivalent to men’s. Ability isn’t the problem. Women have obstacles to becoming powerful political leaders that men don’t face. The obstacles include sexist assumptions about women’s abilities, sexual harassment, and double standards for women and men.

How much talent have we lost due to the barriers talented women must surmount to gain power? When women get equal opportunities to be leaders, then we will all benefit from the talents and capabilities of humanity’s best thinkers and doers, regardless of sex.

What did you learn while growing up about women’s leadership?