"Make sure you place his favorite meal in front of him,
Then you will be successful in all your desires.
A husband who is well-looked after
He is a never-ending source of gifts."

Egypt never ceases to fascinate Egyptologists and laypersons alike. So, when the First Lady of Egypt Suzanne Mubarak conceived the idea of a book on the role of women in ancient Egypt and entrusted the director of the Giza pyramids, Zahi Hawass, with carrying on the research, it was a forgone conclusion that the result would be a fascinating product. It was, as Hawass admits, a daunting task since ancient Egyptian women are not as prominent in the records as they apparently are at first blush. As he delved deeper and deeper, the archaeologist thought he was discovering lesser and lesser.

Hawass says, "Nearly all the information that we possess about ancient Egypt has been extracted from sources about, or written by, the other half of the population -- the men. And it was an even smaller percentage of these men, perhaps only ten per cent, who were in a position to decide what to record and how. Not only do our chief sources come from this very small and privileged segment of the population, but they present their own view of the other sex, which, I think, is rightly suspect to be idealistic and very incomplete. To compound this difficulty, many of these sources are best known only from the translations and interpretations of male Western scholars." Nevertheless, he carried on with his research undaunted.

Regarding the abovementioned quote, he says, "The reason why writings by women and addressed to other women do not exist is presumably the low level of female literacy." Education was for boys only, though some women of the aristocracy could read and write. For men wanting a job in the bureaucracy, literacy was a prerequisite. Women were to provide heirs who would look after aged parents. The segregation of women from administrative positions became established especially after the Old Kingdom (which ended in 2181 BC). While modern interpretations of segregated ancient societies that suppression and alienation of females are automatic are based on well-documented sufferings of women in recent history, it is impossible to very the same for ancient Egypt.

Hawass wonders whether the silence of women must be taken at face value as evidence of repression. He says while social restrictions limit individual choices, their absence results in anarchy. He feels ancient Egyptian women may have valued the security of close-knit families over personal independence. The legal rights of women in ancient Egypt are well-documented and contrast favorably with the low status of women in Greece or Rome. Here, legally women were equal to men since they could inherit or purchase land, houses or goods, and dispose of them whenever they wanted. They could initiate court cases and were responsible for their own conduct. This inference comes from the legal texts --wills, property contracts, legal jottings-- that have survived the ravages of time, particularly found in large quantities at Deir al-Madina, the village of workmen who made the tombs at the Valley of Kings.

Throughout pharaonic history, only four women are recorded as having ruled in their own right. Female rules, with one possible exception, came to power only in troubled times. The Isis-Osiris-Horus myth endorses the role of the kind which could not be fulfilled by a woman. Communicating with the divine world could not be delegated to a queen either. Details of early queens are hard to find, but Dynasty 4 (2613 BC to 2494 BC) onwards there are more sources of information. The first woman of importance was Khentkaus, possibly the regent of her minor son. The earliest queen to have ruled Egypt is Nitokerty, the last ruler of Dynasty 6, said to be "the noblest and loveliest woman of her time". It was Nitokerty, said by Herodotus to have avenged the murder of her husband, who erected the third pyramid at Giza.

Sobekneferu, the last ruler of Dynasty 12, had proclaimed herself king, not queen. Since there was not provision of there being a female ruler, she had to invent the concept of a "female Horus" as part of her title. The only women to have rise to power under normal circumstances was Hatshepsut, who succeeded her half-brother whom she had married. Even she had to contend with sobriquets like king's daughter, king's sister and great royal wife, the one that she preferred and used widely was 'god's wife of Amun', presumably for its priestly overtures. Most of her tombs and monuments were destroyed, but all sculptures excavated from the Valley of Kings invariably show Hatshepsut in male garb. The unfinished tomb of Tausret was similarly usurped by her male successor.

Men married in their early 20s, girls when 12-14. Since all books of instructions written during the Old Kingdom and later have been written by men, Hawass finds them biased, though useful in some ways. He attaches more importance to the love poetry that has survived on papyrus and pottery. Though these are literary compositions rather than spontaneous outpourings, he says these present a different picture from those obtained from "wisdom literature". The only thing certain is that young men and women had the opportunity to meet and fall in love before marriage, which meant to "establish a household".

Contracts defining property rights within marriage are first mentioned in the New Kingdom, while the earliest references to these rights date from the Third Intermediate Period. Many of these are between husband and father-in-law, recording the material rights of the wife, at times even specifying the amount of food and clothing her husband should provide annually, and what should happen in case of a divorce. The king could have many wives mainly because of his childbirth fatality rates. Women were supposed to be chaste and allowed one husband. Divorce was permissible and both could remarry. Women had divorce safeguards.

The woman, needless to say, was the lady of the house. But even in the "wisdom literature", the woman's authority was acknowledged:

Do not control your wife in her house,
When you know she is efficient;
Don't say to her: "Where is it Get it!"
When she has put it in the right place,
Let your eye observe in silence,
Then you recognize her skill.

Though no codified law texts have survived from ancient Egypt, Hawass says, "It is easy to paint too rosy a picture of order and justice, especially as applied to women." The closest that one comes to are in the tomb depictions of judgment scenes where a number of papyrus scrolls are usually shown next to the judge. What is known is that there were cases where women are mentioned as members of the court, but it cannot be said that women were regularly included among the judges. Women's signatures do appear in documents like wills and contracts, but are not as frequent as that of men. This may have been because of the low literacy among women than their absence as witnesses.

Kings usually married women of royal blood, but the process of choosing queens was later extended to nobles. The main political role of princesses throughout history was to transfer the rule from one king to another. At some point they could marry outside the royal court, and the title Satnesut (daughter of the king) did not have an official function. Other titles too appear once in a while: Iwat was the "elder heir" or "great heir"; Kherep Seshmut Imat was "the director of harem affaits"; and Ghekret Nesut was "ornament of the king".

There was apparently no restriction on what or how much property a woman could own. It could be property inherited from a parent or husband, or acquired through purchase. Women could accumulate capital to buy property, while unmarried women too were not restricted in buying property. A married woman automatically inherited a third of her husband's property on his death. She did not receive a dime only if she had been repudiated for adultery or a similar offence. The husband could bequeath her all his property in a will signed by witnesses.