History's Ladies

Of all of William Shakespeare’s female leads, Lady Macbeth is perhaps the most powerful. In this year of studying British literature, we’ve seen plenty of famous female leads, but even then, Lady Macbeth stands head and shoulders above the others. She instigates her own revolution and (for the most part) seems to want to stand her ground in the face of adversity. Yet, even then, she has to abandon her femininity in order to take her place.

Could it be that society is so wrapped up in the idea of men as leaders that women have to practically become men in order to serve?

I would personally argue against it. However, history has shown us that society isn't always kind to women adopting a man's role.

Perhaps the best example of this is in King Hatshepsut, and yes, I said King. Hatshepsut was the wife of Tuthmosis II in ancient Egypt. His son, Tuthmosis III, was named heir. However, Tuthmosis III was very young when his father died, so Hatshepsut became regent for him. A few years later, she declared herself king. She played the part, too. Hatshepsut was portrayed (at her request) with a false beard, a male body, and the king’s headdress in all artistic depictions of her. By the time she seized power, she was only the third female Egyptian pharaoh in 3000 years.

But Hatshepsut isn’t the only historical example of a woman taking on a masculine persona. Saint Joan of Arc wore men’s clothing and kept her hair cut short when she led battles against Britain during the Hundred Years’ War. According to some reports, she did this to stave off attacks by from her British guards, both sexual and nonsexual. The British guards found it ridiculous that a teenage girl was leading France’s army, and wanted to attack her to display their dominance over France. In any case, Joan of Arc was forced to assume the role of a man in order to defend her country, and did it quite well.

Queen Elizabeth I was also known for her staunch leadership. She may not have gone so far as Hatshepsut or Joan of Arc, but Elizabeth was one of the most powerful women in recorded history. She clashed with another famous woman—Gráinne O’Malley, an Irish pirate. Gráinne, known sometimes by the more Anglican ‘Grace’, was a revolutionary and pirate who scorned the British government and did not acknowledge Queen Elizabeth as the queen of Ireland as well. She worked on ships at an early age and it wasn’t long before she was active in politics (though not in the traditional way). Richard Bingham called her “the nurse to all rebellions in the province for forty years.” According to legend, she cut her hair short like a boy’s when she was young so that her father wouldn’t be ashamed to take her sailing with him. Because of her nontraditional behavior, she was also said to have a very promiscuous sex life, characteristic of male pirates in that era. Grace, at this point in history, has been branded with the characteristics of a man because of her unconventional and unusually powerful position in life.

Lady Macbeth’s plea that she be ‘unsexed’ doesn’t seem so out of the ordinary now. Women have almost never taken powerful roles, and when they do, they are subject to extreme scrutiny. Margaret Thatcher, first and only female prime minister of Britain to date, is famous for her stern, heavy-handed conservative views which make her a target of ridicule. Hillary Clinton, current United States Secretary of State, is criticized for everything from her politics to her fashion sense. Still, the idea that a woman can’t be powerful in her own right is an antiquated one. In Egypt, women were a powerful catalyst in the revolution that overthrew Hosni Mubarak, and yet they still are not being granted the same rights of the men. Women in the U.S. can’t even fight on the front lines simply because of their gender! Tell that to Joan, Grace, or even Cleopatra; I’m sure they would be all for women fighting.

My parents and grandparents, when I was little, were shocked that there was no kind of gender separation in my honors classes. It’s been the traditional view that men are ‘math and science’ and the women are ‘English and the arts.’ That’s not to say, though, that women are being oppressed. There are plenty of powerful women who don’t adopt antiquated attitudes about how they must behave. You really do not have to be a man to make a difference. Harriet Tubman was a conductor on the Underground Railroad; Amelia Earhart opened the skies to women; Mother Theresa devoted her life to aiding the poor of the world; Sandra Day O’Connor was the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court.  Men today don’t believe that we’re helpless, and neither do we. We’re all people, through and through. An observation doesn’t make the rule, and history can always change.