The Status of Women in the Pharaoh Civilization: The Archeological Findings of the Era of the New Empire (1500-1000 BC)

Professor Jean Yoyotte, one of the most prominent French Egyptologists, holds that perhaps unlike what the Egyptians themselves maintain, the fountainhead of everything is not in Egypt; yet one has to agree that circa 3000 BC, Egypt was indeed much more advanced than its neighboring states. Indelible relics, architectural masterpieces, and works of art remaining from that era have reached us throughout the eons and for this very reason, Egypt is granted a fame and glory beyond its coterminous civilizations (Yoyotte [ii], p, 112). Much has been written on the pharaohs and the rulers and how they governed the land. This paper, however, seeks to investigate into ancient Egypt from a different perspective: the presence of women in the various spiritual and social layers and their rights and advantages which were and still remain to be a rarity in many countries for women. In the Egypt of the pharaohs, women enjoyed the highest peak of spirituality and they could assume the most important positions in the state; some were even pharaohs and would lead the state themselves.