Powerful Women Who Ruled the Ancient World

By: Kara Cooney, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Kara Cooney

What is power and who is allowed to wield it? Why is female power so rare and, often, so feared? What can the women who gained power in the ancient world teach us about the contemporary world and our modern ideas of gender, authority, and equality?

Listeners will explore these and other questions as you travel back to the ancient world and uncover the stories of remarkable women who overcame a host of barriers to wield power in a male-dominated world. From Egypt and Mesopotamia to China and Rome, you will meet women who worked strategically to gain unprecedented influence and you will see how their stories echo through the centuries, offering surprising relevance to our understanding of gender and sexual dynamics today.

In Powerful Women of the Ancient World, Professor Kara Cooney will share the stories of women who rose to power through ambition; intelligence; skill; and sheer determination. First, you will take a look at what power actually is - how it is defined, how different kinds of power operate, and why women and men are often viewed differently when power is involved. Then, meet the women of the ancient world who challenged the status quo by grasping for and holding authority. Some names listeners will likely already recognize through their “cautionary tales”, such as Cleopatra and Jezebel. Others, though less well-known, will show you the different ways it is possible to be powerful. You will meet rulers like Empress Lü of China and Hatshepsut of Egypt, rebel leaders such as Boudica of Britain, religious leaders like the Hebrew prophetess Deborah, and more.

As listeners will learn, times may have changed since antiquity, but the past has a long reach - and in many ways, our cultural ideas about women and power are surprisingly slow to change.

©2020 Audible Originals, LLC (P)2020 Audible Originals, LLC.

Great Stories

loved it, especially Hopshaptut's story and other women who I have never heard of before. Remarkable stories

Enlightening, Empowering, Enraging

Absolutely love this audiobook. The sequence makes sense, the narration is engaging, and she tempers the history and story telling with just enough questions to keep the listener thinking on this long after the lesson, while reminding the listener that these are historical accounts, not fantastical tales or indisputable facts. It's a wonderfully balanced perspective on some incredible figures in history.

If you are a woman, listen to this

Powerful Women Who Ruled the Ancient World by Kara Cooney, The Great Courses, Audible Original, narrated by Kara Cooney, is a great historical source that concentrates on women of the ancient world. It is excellent to know history to understand our nowadays existence.

Powerful Women and Power

Powerful Women Who Ruled the Ancient World by Kara Cooney absolutely wrecked me—in the best and worst ways. This isn’t just a history lesson; it’s a mirror, and sometimes it’s hard to look into. Cooney dives deep into one deceptively simple question: what is power, and who is allowed to wield it? Through figures like Cleopatra, Hatshepsut, Boudica, Empress Lü, and the prophetess Deborah, she shows how women have always found ways to rise—through strategy, intelligence, and sheer force of will—even in systems designed to shut them out.

What makes this book so powerful is also what makes it emotionally frustrating. As a woman, I couldn’t help but see the same patterns repeating over and over again: the suspicion of female authority, the way religion and patriarchy shape narratives, the way powerful women are turned into warnings instead of role models. It hit hard realizing that despite centuries of progress and the feminist movement, so many of these struggles still echo today. It even gave me a clearer (and honestly heartbreaking) lens on modern dynamics—why women can be so critical of each other, and how those divisions still impact outcomes in ways we don’t always want to admit.

Cooney doesn’t just tell stories—she connects them. Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, Rome… different cultures, same barriers. Different women, same uphill battle. And that’s what stayed with me: the idea that the past isn’t past. It lingers in how we define authority, leadership, and even each other.

This book made me sad. It made me angry. But more than anything, it made me think about the future—about the world we’re leaving behind for the next generation. I have granddaughters, and reading this made me want more for them. More space. More power. More freedom to lead without being feared or diminished.

If you want a book that challenges you, frustrates you, educates you, and stays with you long after the last page—this is it.

Fascinating

Such a great listen to make you think and review not only history but today’s power dynamics.