Queen, Empress, Concubine: Fifty Women Rulers from the Queen of Sheba to Catherine the Great

Only a small fraction of people who have reached supreme authority over nations have been women, whether they inherited a throne, won an election, or gained power another way. Yet these rare rulers, from monarchs to elected heads of government, have often been among the most forceful and memorable figures in history. This book profiles fifty such women, arranged across more than three thousand years, from a legendary queen of the ancient Near East to a modern British prime minister. Each portrait places its subject within the customs and pressures of her own period, so that individual lives reveal larger patterns. Taken together, the chapters also offer a wider look at how societies have treated women in public life, and how these leaders navigated power that was rarely handed to them freely.