Women in ancient Egypt

Kitchen model; women workers grinding, baking, and brewing. Bread- and beer-making (made of fermented bread) were usually women's tasks. Twelfth dynasty of Egypt, 2050-1800 BCE. Egyptian Museum of Berlin.

Most women belonged to the peasantry and worked alongside their husbands. Women were known to manage farms or businesses in the absence of their husbands or sons. Among the upper classes of society, a woman usually did not work outside the home, and instead supervised the servants of the household and her children's education. An exception is the textile industry. Here women are well attested as weavers. A letter found at Lahun and dating around 1800 BC names six female weavers.[2]

Female weavers from Tomb of Khnumhotep circa 1897–1878 B.C. Period:Middle Kingdom Dynasty:12th dynasty Reign: reign of Senwosret II

In the Old Kingdom wealthy women often owned their own households. There was working men and women side by side, and it is not uncommon to find in the staff of a women's household other women with administrative titles. Especially in tomb scenes of the periods, men are often served by men, while women are served by women. Here, the separation of sexes is visible.[3]

Women belonging to families wealthy enough to hire nannies to help with childcare frequently worked as perfume-makers and also were employed in courts and temples, like acrobats, dancers, singers, and musicians, which were all considered respectable pursuits for upper-class women. Women belonging to any class could work as professional mourners or musicians, and these were common jobs. Noblewomen could be members of the priesthood connected to either a god or goddess.[4] Women could even be at the head of a business as, for example, the lady Nenofer of the New Kingdom, and could also be a doctor, as the lady Peseshet during the Fourth dynasty of Egypt.

Hetpet (priestess of Hathor), old kingdom ,5th dynasty

Old Kingdom Egyptian princess Nefertiabet (dated 2590-2565 BCE) from her tomb at Giza, painting on limestone, now in the Louvre

There are few preserved examples of women as high officials. Some women are known to have become Pharaohs. One example of a woman in a high state position is Nebet who became vizier in the Sixth Dynasty. The vizier was the highest state official, second only to the king.[12]

Egyptian society of antiquity, like many other civilizations of the time, used religion as a foundation for society. This was how the throne of the power of the Pharaohs was justified, as anointed by the gods, and the holder of the throne had a divine right. Typically, in ancient societies power was transferred from one male to the next. Women gave birth to the heirs, signaling importance towards marriage, as well. The son inherited the power, and in cases where the king did not have a son, the throne was then inherited by the male members of the family further removed from the king, such as cousins or uncles. In this system, daughters did not automatically inherit power.

In Egyptian civilization, this obligation of passing power to a male successor was not without exceptions. Royal blood, a factor determined by divine legitimacy, was the unique criteria for access to the throne. However, the divine essence was transmitted to the royal spouse, as was the case with Nefertiti, wife of Akhenaten.

Egyptians preferred to be governed by a woman with royal blood (being divine according to mythology) rather than by a man who did not have royal blood. Also, during crises of succession, there were women who took power. When this happened, the female Pharaoh adopted all of the masculine symbols of the throne. There even exist doubts, in some instances, about the sex of certain Pharaohs who could have been women.

During the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, when Amenhotep I died, his successor Thutmose I appears to have not been his son, at least he was not the child of a secondary wife of the late Pharaoh; if his wife Ahmes was related to Amenhotep I, this union permitted divine legitimacy. For the following successor, princess Hatshepsut, daughter of Thutmose I and the Great Royal Wife, enabled Thutmose II, son of his second wife and therefore half-brother of the princess, to gain the throne by marrying him.

A bronze statue of a Divine Adoratrice of Amun, from the Twenty-second dynasty of Egypt, in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin.

It became more common for women to gain the throne in ancient Egypt. For example, as with Hatshepsut, who took the place of her nephew Thutmose III. When Hatshepsut inherited the throne from her late husband and became Pharaoh, her daughter Neferure took on a role that exceeded the normal duties of a royal princess, acquiring a more queenly role.[13] There were also the Cleopatras, of whom the best known is Cleopatra VII (69 BCE to 30 BCE), famous for her beauty and her relationships with Julius Caesar and then Marc Antony, the leaders who depended upon her throne.

The women Pharaohs who are best known, and of whom historians are most certain, are:

• Nitocris (Sixth dynasty of Egypt)
• Sobekneferu (Twelfth dynasty of Egypt),
• Hatshepsut (Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt),
• Neferneferuaten (Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt),
• Twosret (Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt).

Statue of Sobekneferu,Berlin Egyptian Museum 14475, (c. 1760–c. 1756 bce)

statue of Hatshepsut (c. 1760–c. 1756 bce)

The prenomen (left column) and nomen (right column) forms for Ankhkheperure Neferneferuaten[14][15][16][17]

Pharaoh Twosret holding two sistrums at Amada Temple, Nubia 1191–1189 BC

Many of the Great Royal Wives also played significant diplomatic and political roles:

• Tiye, wife of Amenhotep III
• Nefertiti, wife of Amenhotep IV
• Nefertari, wife of Ramesses II

Elsewhere in the New Kingdom, the Great Wife was often invested with a divine role: "Wife of god", "Hand of god". Hatshepsut was the first Great wife (of Thutmose II) to receive this latter title.

Colossal statue of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye, 1387-1350 BCE; Egyptian Museum, Cairo

Nefertiti bust at Neues Museum, Berlin.

For women holding office in the highest levels of the bureaucracy, one can cite Nebet, a Vizir in ancient Egypt during the Sixth dynasty of Egypt. It is necessary to recognize that a woman at such a high level of authority remained extremely rare and it was not until the Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt that a similar situation can be found. Women did, however, occupy numerous offices such as scribe in the bureaucracy, except during the New Kingdom, where all public bureaucracy posts were filled by men.

There was also the Divine Adoratrice of Amun, granted major spiritual power, but also a power restricted to Thebes.

Fayum mummy portrait, circa 100-200 CE, Louvre Museum, Paris.

Literature of ancient Egypt did include depictions of women as frivolous, capricious, and untrustworthy. However, women benefitted from a status that has been described as rare in the civilizations of the time.

While the painters and sculptors gave to women a serene image as part of a happy family, writers sometimes portrayed women as being the origin of misfortune and guilty of sins.

Gaston Maspero describes in Contes populaires (Popular Tales), there was the fatal misadventure of Bytaou, the humble farmhand at the home of his brother Anoupou. Seduced by the wife of his brother, he succumbs to the charm of her beauty. She does not hesitate to denounce him to Anoupou, lying and never ceasing until she obtains the ultimate punishment for Bytaou at the hands of Anoupou. But she is punished in turn; Anoupou discovers much later that he has been played for a fool by his wife, who he kills, and throws her body to the dogs.

It is important not to interpret this incorrectly: the rarely flattering portrayal of women in Egyptian literature does not reveal for nothing that women were despised. The Pharaoh was often given the same treatment by storytellers who presented the Pharaoh as a stubborn and whimsical character.

Men were invited to cherish their wives. Ptahhotep (Third dynasty of Egypt) expressed this in the following maxim (written in the Papyrus Prisse): "You must love your wife with all your heart, [...], make her heart happy as long as you live".

Romance was present in Egyptian literature, for example, in a papyrus at the Leyden Museum:

I took you for my wife when I was a young man. I was with you. Then I conquered all ranks, but I never abandoned you. I have never made your heart suffer. Here is what I have done when I was a young man and I exercised all the high functions of Pharaoh, Life, Health, Strength, I never abandoned you, saying to the contrary: "That it was by being with you!" [...] My perfumes, cakes and clothes, I did not bring them to another dwelling. [...] When you became ill, I made myself an official of health and did whatever was necessary. [...] When I joined Memphis, I asked for a holiday as Pharaoh, I went to the place where you dwell (your tomb) and I wept deeply. [...] I will not enter another house. [...] But, here are the sisters who are in the house, I did not go to any of them.[19]

statue of princess Nofret, Old Kingdom of Egypt (dated 2590-2565 BCE)

Upper torso of a woman's figurine. Slit eyes and mouth. She wears an elaborate headdress. Pottery fragment. Ramesside period. From Egypt. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London

Egyptian women were seldom depicted as ageing and wrinkled; there were standards to be met. The women were shown as slender and beautiful, partly so that they could take on that frame in the afterlife. Egyptian art was far from realistic. It shows how much the ancient Egyptians cared about how they were perceived. There were hardly any images of pregnant women or women's bodies after giving birth. The man, however, could be shown as athletic and engaging or old and experienced. These idealistic depictions would reflect the targeted image, such as the physically able king, or the tired king who works day and night for his people. People were depicted at the peak of their beauty and youth, in an attempt to remain so forever. However, in the Third Intermediate Period, scholars see a shifting in the artistic style representing women. A more rounded body type appeared, with larger, more drooping breasts and a thickened body.[20] This depiction was no longer necessarily associated with the ageing of women. There was also a certain "type" to be followed. Women, and children, were represented with an artistic style that would link them to their husband or father. The most obvious example would be the Amarna Period. Akhenaten's Amarna Period hosted great changes in artistic style. However, the most distinctive part was how Nefertiti, his wife, and his children were shown with the same body type as his, which was quite unique for that matter. There are depictions showing Nefertiti with a body so similar to Akhenaten's, that it was difficult to tell them apart; their depictions both contain long chins, round waists, full buttocks, sunken cheekbones and full lips. But there are also other depictions showing Nefertiti completely different, with a feminine face and a slender shape. After the Amarna Period, elite women were occasionally shown with fuller breasts.

Nefertiti with body similar to Akhenaten 's

Osiris and Isis, statuettes at the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

In the abundance of divinities in Egyptian mythology, there existed a large number of goddesses, as was also the case in Greece. By studying their symbolism one can learn the image that women had in the eyes of the ancient Egyptians. As with Greek divinities, many were related to one another, by blood or marriage, such as Isis and her sister Nephthys, both the respective wives of Osiris (the god of the dead) and of Set, themselves brothers.

Women and their image were most often associated with life and fertility. In the case of the goddess Isis, who was associated with many principles: as the wife of Osiris who was killed by his brother, she was connected to funeral rites. As a mother, she became the feminine protector, but above all the mother-creator, she who gives life. Through this goddess, the principles of life and death were closely linked. In effect, while she was associated with funeral rites, these rites were to prevent the deceased from submitting to a second death in the succeeding dimension, which explains among other things, the food found in abundance by archeologists in the tombs. On the other hand, life in its physical aspect meaningful only by death, because these principles are part of a movement of eternal new beginning that is then in a sense more spiritual, the movement of life, or eternal life. A symbol of the goddess is also the palm tree, the symbol of eternal life. She breathed the breath of eternal life to her dead husband.

The goddess represented the era's regard for women, because it was crucial to maintain the spirit in her image, it was this idea of eternal life and of maturity that Isis reflected, venerated as the Celestial Mother. It was in this role that Isis was arguably made the most important deity of Egyptian mythology. Her influence even extended to religions of different civilizations, where she would become identified under different names and where her cult grew, particularly in the Roman Empire.

The most influential goddesses were Isis, goddess of magic and mysticism, Hathor, goddess of nourishment and love, Bastet, goddess-protector of the home, and Sekhmet, goddess of wrath.

Couple harvesting crops

Female musicians

Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye

In many of ancient Egypt's artistic approaches, we see women supporting or clasping their husband, maybe even protecting them. So in some sense, the woman could be the protector, probably associated with the concept of protective goddesses. Women mingled in society, we see evidence of that where peasant women were depicted helping with the harvest;[23] townswomen are shown as professional musicians, dancers,[24] members of temple staff and party guests.

So women weren't just traditional stay at home wives, but they contributed to society and sometimes even in untraditional ways. There are scenes of women in weaving workshops, and tomb inscriptions of women's professional involvement. Such titles could range from political to religious to funerary. Some titles inscribed on tombs were mainly honorific; to honor the women after they die. Some examples of titles are: Overseer of Female Physicians, Judge and Vizier, Director of the Dining Hall, and Overseer of Funerary Priests.[25]

Religious positions weren't limited to noblewomen as some would think, in fact, we see evidence of priestesses of major goddesses bearing humble titles like tenant farmer. As history moves from the Old Kingdom to the Middle Kingdom, we see less and less of women in authority which may suggest changes in political and social norms. In the New Kingdom, however, texts show that women had their own legal identity and could even purchase and inherit land without the need for male consent.

During this period, women were portrayed in all shapes and sizes, where their status and wealth were reflected in the size of their statue. Idealistic portrayals were an important part of Egyptian art, mainly because they believed that these representations would follow them into eternity. Egyptian mothers were a significant part of ancient Egypt. Egyptian men, even those of the highest social class, often placed only their mother's names on their monuments. Egyptian mothers were more prominently displayed than the fathers, also in literature. The ancient Egyptians paid attention to size and quantity; large tombs indicated a significance of the deceased.

Some queens of the early dynasties even commemorated tombs as large as their husbands'. The pair statue of Amenhotep III and his common-born wife, Queen Tiye, dominates a room at the Cairo Museum, showing the queen as of equal size as the king. Hatshepsut, unsatisfied with her status as second best to her father, took it to clarifying her divine conception, so as to legitimize her ruling as pharaoh by recording the miracle of her birth on the walls of the second terrace.

Bust of Cleopatra VII, who reigned toward the end of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt. Altes Museum, Berlin.

• First dynasty of Egypt
  • Merneith, daughter of Djer, wife of Djet, mother of Den
• Third dynasty of Egypt
  • Djefatnebti, wife of Huni
• Fourth dynasty of Egypt
  • Meresankh I, second wife of Huni, mother of Sneferu
  • Hetepheres I, wife of Sneferu, mother of Khufu
  • Meritites I, wife of Khufu, mother of Kawab, Baufra, Djedefhor and Meresankh II
  • Henutsen, second wife of Khufu, mother of Khufukhaf I and Khafre
  • Nubet, fourth wife of Khufu, mother of Khentetenka, Djedefra and Hetepheres II
  • Khamerernebti I, wife of Khafre, mother of Menkaure
  • Khamerernebti II, second wife Khafre then wife of Menkaure
  • Khentkaus I, wife of Shepseskaf then of Userkaf, mother of Neferirkare Kakai and Sahure
• Fifth Dynasty of Egypt
  • Nimaethap II, unknown husband
• Eleventh dynasty of Egypt
  • Neferu, wife of Intef II, mother of Intef III
  • Iah, wife of Intef III, mother of Mentuhotep II
  • Tem, first wife of Mentuhotep II, mother of Mentuhotep III
  • Neferu, second wife and sister of Mentuhotep II
  • Ashayet, concubine of Mentuhotep II, also a priestess of the goddess Hathor
  • Imi, wife of Mentuhotep III, mother of Mentuhotep IV
• Twelfth dynasty of Egypt
  • Neferet or Nofret, wife of a priest in Thebes, Senousret, mother of Amenemhat I
  • Neferitatjenen, principal wife of Amenemhat I, mother of Senusret I
  • Dedyet, other wife of Amenemhat I, possibly also his sister
  • Neferu III, wife of Senusret I, mother of Amenemhat II
  • Itakaiet, daughter or wife Senusret I
  • Neferusobek, Neferuptah, Nenseddjedet, daughters of Senusret I
  • Khenemetneferhedjet I, daughter of Amenemhat II
  • Neferet II, wife of Senusret II
  • Khenemetneferhedjet I, wife of Senusret II, mother of Senusret III
  • Sithathoryunet, daughter of Senusret II
  • Mereret or Meriret or Merit, wife of Senusret III
  • Sithathormerit, daughter of Senusret III
  • Sobekneferu, daughter of Amenemhat III, wife of her own brother Amenemhat IV
• Thirteenth dynasty of Egypt
  • Nubhotepti I, wife of Hor
  • Senebhenas I, wife of Khendjer
  • Senebhenas II and Neni, wives of Sobekhotep III
  • Senebsen, wife of Neferhotep I
  • Tjan, wife of Sobekhotep IV
  • Aya, wife of Intef
  • Sitmut, wife of Mentuhotep V
• Fourteenth dynasty of Egypt
  • Tati, wife of Sheshi
• Sixteenth dynasty of Egypt
  • Mentuhotep, wife of Djehuti
• Seventeenth dynasty of Egypt
  • Noubkhaes II, wife of Sobekemsaf I
  • Sobekemsaf, wife of Antef VII
  • Noubemhet, wife of Sobekemsaf II
  • Tetisheri, daughter of Tienna and Neferu, wife of Senakhtenre Tao I
  • Ahhotep I, daughter of Senakhtenre Tao I, sister and wife of Seqenenre Tao II
  • Ahmose-Nefertari, daughter of Seqenenre Tao II and of Ahhotep I, sister and wife of Ahmose I, mother of Amenhotep I and Ahmose-Sipair
• Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt
  • Ahmose-Meritamon, daughter of Ahmose I and Ahmose-Nefertari, wife of her brother Amenhotep I
  • Ahmes, possible sister of Amenhotep I, wife of Thutmose I, mother of Hatshepsut and Amenemes
  • Mutnofret, second wife of Thutmose I, mother of Thutmose II
  • Hatshepsut, daughter of Thutmose I and of Ahmes, wife of her half-brother Thutmose II, mother of Neferure and Merytre-Hatshepsut
  • Iset, second wife of Thutmose II, mother of Thutmose III
  • Mutemwiya, wife of Thutmose IV, mother of Amenhotep III
  • Tiye, wife of Amenhotep III
  • Nefertiti, wife of Akhenaten
• Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt
  • Satre, wife of Ramesses I, mother of Seti I
  • Tuya, wife of Seti I
  • Nefertari, wife of Ramesses II
  • Isetnofret, second wife of Ramesses II, mother of Merneptah
  • Twosret, wife of Seti II
• Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt
  • Berenice I, wife of Ptolemy I, mother of Arsinoe II and of Ptolemy II
  • Arsinoe I, wife of Ptolemy II, mother of Ptolemy III
  • Berenice II, daughter of Magas, King of Cyrene and of Arsinoe, wife of Demetrios the Just, brother of the King of Macedonia then of Ptolemy III, mother of Arsinoe III and of Ptolemy IV
  • Cleopatra I, wife of Ptolemy V
  • Cleopatra II, wife of Ptolemy VI then of Ptolemy VIII
  • Cleopatra III, second wife of Ptolemy VIII
  • Cleopatra IV of Egypt, wife of Ptolemy IX
  • Cleopatra V, second wife of Ptolemy IX
  • Berenice III, wife of Ptolemy X
  • Cleopatra VI of Egypt, wife of Ptolemy XII
  • Berenice IV, second wife of Ptolemy XII
  • Cleopatra VII, wife of Ptolemy XIII then of Ptolemy XIV, Julius Caesar and Marc Antony, mother of Ptolemy XV
  • Cleopatra VIII, daughter of Cleopatra VII and Marc Antony, wife of Juba II, King of Numidia

• Beauty and cosmetics in ancient Egypt
• Women in Egypt

• Joyce Tyldesley, Daughters of Isis: Women of Ancient Egypt, Penguin (1995) ISBN 978-0-14-017596-7
• Gay Robins, Women in Ancient Egypt, Harvard University Press (1993) ISBN 978-0-674-95469-4
• Carolyn Graves-Brown, Dancing for Hathor: Women in Ancient Egypt, Continuum (2010) ISBN 978-1-84725-054-4

Media related to Women of Egypt at Wikimedia Commons

• Hatshepsut: from Queen to Pharaoh, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF)