In this chapter,
we're going
to talk about the last 2000 years
of urban development
and some influential women
who have really made an impact,
but ultimately failed at their attempts
for a renewed female control of society.
While a lot of female figures
have been lost, to history.
We can definitely point
to a few notable examples
that made an impact
but were ultimately
almost wiped from the historical record.
The first one I'm going to talk about
is Enheduanna
Enheduanna
was a high priestess
within the Sumerian city state of Ur
This was after Catal Hoyuk
and when our cities were going
through that transition
into that patriarchal
and hierarchical structure.
Enheduanna is probably most famous
as being known
as the first author of any gender
that is recorded in human history.
She was a priestess to the God Inanna,
who was the God of the moon,
in particular within Sumerian culture
as a priestess.
And at one job was essentially to write
and transmute
the messages of the God in particular
through her dreams
to the people in
order to influence society.
In these
writings, which were essentially poems
and had want to not only signed her work,
but also made it an effort
to say that she,
within the writings, was the author.
This kind of first person perspective
as well as authorship
was unprecedented at the time.
And of course,
we only have limited
archeological records
and written records to go off of.
So this might be unique or a first
and maybe a second it might be 100th.
We're not entirely certain.
But at this point,
she's an incredibly important
historical figure for all of us
in our collective human history.
What Maiden had won a
really important in society,
not only as a high priestess,
was also her influence
on the society at large and her focus
not on her God, but on the goddess Nana.
It's a little confusing.
Inanna was the moon God
and Anana was the sun goddess
at the time in this culture.
A female high priestess
was named to a male God at the time
and vice versa.
But and had one a decided
to break the rules
and more ways
than one
and actually
write poems or exhortations
to the goddess in Nana
instead of her deity in particular
that she was assigned to.
In these writings,
she was
essentially celebrating that female ideal
of life,
death and rebirth that was very present
in prior societies,
like with the women of and DAV.
By going against the grain in this way,
she was attempting to revive
that kind of feminine focus.
Despite Inanna becoming relegated
as a second tier deity in society.
Eventually, she was almost killed
for her efforts and was exiled,
but eventually was able
to return to society
and her writings and poems.
One of the reasons
why we still have her writings and poems
is because they were copied
by other priestesses over time.
For the next several hundred years,
she clearly
made a huge
impact on the society in particular
or the very least, in the way
in which women looked to her for guidance
and a revival of this feminine concept.
While her father was waging war
with surrounding cultures
and at one was writing these poems
to Inanna
in a way to revive this female ideal
Another incredibly important
female figure at a later time
was Hatshepsut.
Essentially the fifth pharaoh of
what was known
as the 18th dynasty of Egypt.
She was the second historically confirmed
female pharaoh.
But it is safe to say
that they were
incredibly rare in society regardless.
Most of the time women in this society
would only become rulers if their husband
or sons were unable or died and were
very much unable
to control their rule over the society.
Hatshepsut was no exception to this.
She essentially stepped
into a role by necessity
and was technically
allowed to rule by proxy.
And then, as Pharaoh is very explicit,
After a point,
it's important to note that
this was not Queen, but Pharaoh,
which was the masculine
God King within the culture.
She did not rule as a female
ruler, therefore,
but she actually adopted
male female iconography
including a false beard,
and she ruled
exactly as a male pharaoh would rule
during her time as Pharaoh
Hatshepsut enacted social reform
much in the way
that you would expect
having a woman in charge of a society
that did have a delegation
between women
and male roles in society in particular.
Many of her social reforms
were very controversial.
A lot of her work was in understanding
the egalitarian aspect of the society
as a whole and gender
with regards to gender.
Much of what her steps
did was to try and enact social reform
in order to bridge the gap
between the gender divide in society.
It makes sense
being a female pharaoh
that she would bring this into her rule.
Unfortunately, much of the social reform
that has attempted
to make
Egyptian society
wasn't negated after her death.
The reason that we know
how controversial she was in
some ways is again
looking at the artwork
that survives in Egyptian cities
through the archeological record.
We find examples of her name and her face
being completely scratched out
or being destroyed
which clearly showed an effort
to erase her from history.
We don't know everything that she did
or attempted to do within this culture,
but we know that she clearly
was controversial
and made an impact to some extent
as the society
attempted to go back to normal
after she died.
In future pharaohs, we see a continuation
of prior Pharaoh priorities,
all of which were male dominated,
which unfortunately shows
that her impact was not long lasting,
though we can imagine what it was
at the time.
Another influential female ruler
from Asia
was actually Wu Zetian in China.
The Chinese culture was an incredibly
consistent culture
for thousands of years,
much of which was actually isolated
and therefore able to develop
in that isolation
to remarkable consistency.
The structure was rigid.
There were very clear, top down
hierarchical ideals
that were put in place on society,
which was an incredibly large population.
Also, even for its time was it
then became ruler
because of the incapacitation
of her husband, the ruler at the time,
much as was the case in many cultures
around the world,
as it was with Hatshepsut as well.
She was very adept at the court
before her rule
and therefore
had a lot of clout within society
in order to validate her ability to rule.
But in all fairness,
she essentially took control herself.
She understood the system.
She understood a need,
and she understood her people
and therefore took it upon herself
to be in charge
of the population
and enact social reform.
There was a lot of corruption
in the court
at this time,
as was common in many cultures
around the world.
And so her understanding and ability
to navigate
these systems was a huge strength
to her ability to effectively rule them
during this time period,
and especially her rule.
China was being recognized
at this time of war
as one of the great world powers.
Its economy
and culture
were really recognized
by the rest of the world.
Trade was more common, and her influence
in particular
was to increase that revitalization,
to really improve the quality of life
for the people
that lived there
and to also bridge connections
to other cultures around the world.
While, again,
the record does not show
every impact of her rule in particular
and this was a very large place
on the planet at the time,
we still know that
her impact was widely felt,
even though she was one
of the only female rulers
of this culture in particular
Future rulers,
unfortunately, did not continue
many of her reforms,
as was the case with that as well.
And we don't know
clearly how our influence was felt.
Over time,
though, we do understand
that she was a huge inspiration
for many other women
down the line who came after her
We talked about Crete
and how that had a sort of continuation
of that matriarchal or gender
equitable idea,
specifically with regards to communalism
Vietnam also appears to have kept
many of these matriarchal systems,
including female deities, as priorities
and also a more egalitarian gender
role in society for women.
However, during the Chinese
domination of Vietnam in about 1840
there was a lot of
antithetical social reforms
that were taking place
based on Chinese ideals of society
and the hierarchy
and the structure within it.
One of the ways that society in Vietnam
fought back against
this was the rebellion
of the Trung Sisters.
They were military rulers
that essentially took it upon themselves
to rally the troops
and fight back against these oppressors.
The idea of women and two
sisters taking charge
and starting a rebellion
is really, really rare
in this time period.
It's incredibly exciting
and it's really encouraging
that they were so celebrated
within this culture,
even to today for their heroic efforts.
They understood the changes
that were taking place in society
through Chinese rule,
and they understood that they needed
to fight back in order to keep whatever
they could with their existing society.
They also understood
that women needed to be
at the forefront of this effort,
that they themselves
had to take it upon themselves
to get other people on their side,
which was no easy task.
Men in particular
were a little bit reticent
to fight with them,
but eventually were won over
by their determinism
and their proficiency in battle.
Though
the sisters were ultimately defeated.
Again, their story lives on
and their spirit
for this kind of fight for equality
was an inspiration
for many people
in the society afterwards.
For instance,
there is evidence
that Vietnamese society actually retained
what is called a double kinship system
or a matriarchal system that dealt with
not only the patriarchal line
or the line of males in
regards to genetics,
but also the matrilineal line.
So also paying attention to how women
birthed other women through time
and what that meant for family lineages.
There are very
few societies
in the world
that actually kept a matrilineal system.
And so in that way, it's
not too surprising
that women
led this rebellion,
but there was still a kind of struggle
to get people on their side
as they went through
with this heroic action.
But again, while
they ultimately failed,
they had a huge impact on the society
and helped to create a memory
of these sorts of
pillars of society at the time.
Like in modern day,
it's very clear
that women have always stepped up
and attempted
to regain
this kind of equality of gender,
whether from the bottom
up through protest
or from the
top down in leadership
at the city or state level.
Women have always
understood that there is
an equality within our
genders in our current society.
As we wrap up this course in particular,
I will introduce the following courses
and what we will focus on
as we bring our understanding
of gender equality
into contemporary cities
and again into the future.