Since the rise of agricultural societies, the idea of ​​women in power has traditionally made people uncomfortable. Even when women manage to obtain high positions and lead their countries to periods of growth and prosperity, men seem to fear women in power. While women advance through various means necessary to navigate male-dominated systems and advance toward the center of power, men move backward in order to eradicate what they see as a threat to the patriarchy that has ruled the world for centuries. centuries. The unease that arises when women gain power is often accompanied by male backlash and vilification of women. By analyzing and comparing the reigns of Hatshepsut and Catherine the Great, we can both understand the methodology used to gain power within a patriarchal system and the ensuing vilification that often follows the ascension of women into positions of power in order to maintain the patriarchy. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Initially, in order to achieve power, Hatshepsut and Catherine the Great had to capitalize on different sources of social power. To ascend the throne, Hatshepsut was able to take advantage of ideological power. One of the characteristics of ideological power that makes it so influential is that it cannot be proven or disproven, making it the most powerful of social powers (Mann 23). Egypt, with all of its divine kingships and ideological belief systems, chose to use Hatshepsut to rule and continue divine succession in place of Thutmose III, who was far too young to rule. Hatshepsut was both the offspring of the ancient family of King Ahmose and the new lineage of King Thutmose which was fundamental to her claim to power (Cooney 109). Not only was Hatshepsut the king's daughter and sister-wife of Thutmose II, connecting her to divine dynastic cycles, but she was appointed high priestess during her father's reign, placing her in a position of ideological authority . Hatshepsut understood how influential the Egyptian priesthood was and how holding an ideological base of power would help her claim to power. Hatshepsut is able to use her position as priestess of Amun-Re to express her own claim to the gods and declare that God wanted her to rule as both regent and king. Hatshepsut's reign was characterized by her multiple claims to ideological power which is very powerful in the Egyptian political and social structure. Similar to Hatshepsut's establishment of the coregency due to her ties to men who held authoritarian power, Catherine was able to take control through her ties to the male head of state, Karl Ulrich (later Peter III ). From a young age, Catherine was chosen to marry Peter III, but when he came to power, he was considered incompetent and incapable of governing. Catherine saw an opportunity to eliminate him and rule Russia herself. Unlike Hatshepsut, Catherine the Great was able to use military might and charm to gain support and ultimately lead a rebellion against her husband and assert her control over the Russian Empire. Catherine had the support of the army and enlightened elements of aristocratic society and led regiments which rallied to her cause and proclaimed her empress, which ultimately resulted in the abdication and assassination of Peter III (Oldenburg- Idalie). By first examining theorigins of their claim to power, we can see the ways in which women must evolve to gain access to the center of power. Once their roles were assigned, Hatshepsut and Catherine the Great had to navigate their respective social systems and use different tools at their disposal to maintain their claim to power. To gain respect, women in power often must both draw on their feminine characteristics while suppressing their femininity and ensexuality leading to a constant struggle between competing self-representations. Women often have to adopt more masculine characteristics to gain respect in a patriarchal power structure. Hatshepsut chooses to express her status as pharaoh through voluntary masculinization. Once she achieved full kingship, she commissioned depictions of her kingship in the southern temple of Buhen where the change in expression can be observed as the consecutive stages are preserved. The first stage depicts her as a female pharaoh. In the second stage, the queen is depicted in female costume with an elongated stride. In the third, the woman is depicted wearing a royal kilt with an androgynous anatomy and, finally, the fourth scene shows the queen in a fully masculinized form with all previously sculpted figures altered to display more masculine features. The manner in which Hatshepsut acquired and maintained power was to gradually downplay the iconographic explicitness of her femininity and to invent a more masculinized image of herself. Hatshepsut had to shape her methodology of government and her representation of herself to match the maturation of Thutmose III. By reinventing herself and assuming the attributes of a male pharaoh, Hatshepsut was able to gain power and assert her claim to authority even as Thutmose III grew up and would be able to claim the throne. Women often have to find a balance by adopting masculine characteristics and giving up part of their femininity to gain power and respect. Yet when women rely on both feminine and masculine characteristics, audiences tend to present feminine characteristics in a negative light, while masculine characteristics are presented in a positive light, making femininity a disadvantage . Unlike the desexualization of Hatshepsut, Catherine the Great was often selectively masculinized while also being criticized for her sexuality. James Harris, 1st Earl of Malmesbury, clearly indicates this tendency when he states the following about Catherine in his memoirs: "Her Majesty has a masculine force of mind, the stubbornness to adhere to a plan and the fearlessness in executing it; but she wants the most manly virtues of deliberation, patience in prosperity and accuracy of judgment, while she possesses to a high degree the weaknesses commonly attributed to her sexual love of flattery and her inseparable companion. Vanity; inattention to unpleasant but beneficial advice; and a propensity for voluptuousness which leads to excesses which would degrade a female character in any sphere of life. In their writings, Western authors of the time, such as De Ligne, Ségur, Tannenburg, etc., portray Catherine through two contradictory lenses: on the one hand, some of her characteristics were described as manipulative, deceptive and vain and these appear as feminine traits, while virtues such as strength and intelligence were masculine (Meehan-Waters). Foreign authors who criticized Catherine's reign were often condemned for her femininity andsexuality. Catherine was often denounced as being fancifully influenced by her desires and emotions which were seen as a result of her gender. The Chevalier de Corberon noticed that Catherine submitted to her senses and therefore needed a mentor and that her mediocre lovers demonstrated the bad taste and bad judgment of women. In her eyes and those of many Western male critics of Catherine's reign, Catherine was ruining Russia through lack of morality and extravagance, and would ultimately be seen as "a weak, romantic woman" whose feminine vices limited his ability to govern. According to such reasoning, female domination is regularly condemned by the supposed weakness of women and their tendency to fall under the domination of powerful men (Meehan-Waters). In one letter, a French diplomat in Moscow, Baron de Breteuil, praises his ambition while reproaching him for his love affairs and, in one line, gives a chilling warning to "he who trusts him too much", emphasizing the extent to which men considered women who used their sexuality dangerous. People viewed Catherine's use of sexual power as both manipulation and a sign of weakness. Any weakness in her reign would be considered a failure attributed to the characteristics of her gender. The idea that femininity and power are mutually exclusive is a widely held idea within male-dominated power structures. Hatshepsut's reign was characterized by her attempt to adapt to the male model of government and justify her position as the principal head of state, but in doing so she became despised by those who viewed her power as a subversion of their. It was not unusual for a queen to become regent for a young king, but it was unusual for her to become fully king as Hatshepsut did. It is known that no other king of Egypt had the specific experience of Thutmose, in which a female regent became king and dominated power throughout the co-rulership (O'Conner 6). Additionally, from the beginning, Hatshepsut and Thutmose would have had competing goals, as Hatshepsut was not her biological mother, so her goal was not to protect her kingship. This unique experience defined much of Thutmose III's reign and likely led to a sense of injustice and victimization. After Hatshepsut's death, Thutmose systematically ordered the destruction of Hatshepsut's monuments in an effort to erase her name and memory from history. O'Connor argues that to strengthen the legitimacy of his family line, he had to resort to reducing Hatshepsut's legitimacy by denying her legitimacy. He had to align himself with Thutmose I and II rather than let his image reflect Hatshepsut's rule. Another indication that Thutmose changed his relationship with the long-dead Hatshepsut is the change in her depiction in reliefs and statuary. Images of Thutmose III differ stylistically from his earlier depictions where he begins to mirror the sculpted faces of Thutmose I and Thutmose II and, more significantly, begins to eliminate or downplay earlier depictions that mimic depictions of Hatshepsut. With this new representation, Thutmose I, II, & III and later his son Amenhotep formed a composite image of an ideal ruler and Hatshepsut no longer had a place in it because she did not fit the standardized mold (O'Connor) . Thutmose viewed Hatshepsut's unconventional rule as a threat, as her insertion into the center of Egyptian rule would potentially destabilize the standardized dynastic cycle of male kingship.