Searching the hive mind for queen bees...
September 16, 2016 6:02 AM Subscribe
With Hillary Clinton favourite to win the US presidency, at which other points in history (if any) could it be argued that the most powerful person in the world was a woman?
Queen Victoria of Great Britain or Catherine the Great of Russia?
I think yeah, any list will be mostly queens.
posted by easily confused at 6:09 AM on September 16, 2016 [11 favorites]
I think yeah, any list will be mostly queens.
posted by easily confused at 6:09 AM on September 16, 2016 [11 favorites]
Cleopatra?
posted by wocka wocka wocka at 6:13 AM on September 16, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by wocka wocka wocka at 6:13 AM on September 16, 2016 [1 favorite]
If you want an Egyptian I think Hatshepsut.
posted by Segundus at 6:20 AM on September 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Segundus at 6:20 AM on September 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
Possibly Isabella I of Castile, for her time
posted by Mchelly at 6:27 AM on September 16, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Mchelly at 6:27 AM on September 16, 2016 [1 favorite]
Töregene Khatun, regent of the Mongol Empire.
posted by Jairus at 6:29 AM on September 16, 2016 [8 favorites]
posted by Jairus at 6:29 AM on September 16, 2016 [8 favorites]
I'll add Roxelana for the Ottoman Empire.
posted by sukeban at 6:29 AM on September 16, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by sukeban at 6:29 AM on September 16, 2016 [4 favorites]
Possibly Isabella I of Castile, for her time
Given the geopolitic results of the Treaty of Tordesillas, it's a fair claim.
posted by sukeban at 6:34 AM on September 16, 2016
Given the geopolitic results of the Treaty of Tordesillas, it's a fair claim.
posted by sukeban at 6:34 AM on September 16, 2016
It's tricky because for a lot of centuries in Europe, the most powerful person in the world was the Pope. Everybody else had power, but they were still mostly jockeying around him.
posted by Mchelly at 6:47 AM on September 16, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by Mchelly at 6:47 AM on September 16, 2016 [3 favorites]
Angela Merkel cmon people
posted by St. Peepsburg at 7:17 AM on September 16, 2016 [8 favorites]
posted by St. Peepsburg at 7:17 AM on September 16, 2016 [8 favorites]
It's very hard to categorize a single woman as "most powerful in the world" instead of "most powerful in their corner of the world" during their time. Queen Victoria (mentioned above) is probably the most likely candidate simply because of the size of the British empire at the time, but even her predecessor Queen Anne had more day to day monarchal power. Catherine the Great is likely next on the list. Empress Wu Zetian (mentioned by griphus above) was powerful and influential, but still "only" the most powerful woman in China -- and Empress Dowager Cixi was as well.
posted by zarq at 7:23 AM on September 16, 2016 [8 favorites]
posted by zarq at 7:23 AM on September 16, 2016 [8 favorites]
The obvious answer seems like it'd be during the reign of Elizabeth I.
I love E1, but England was such a backwater when she was Queen. Or maybe middle power, if we're being kind. Not yet a great power, not until the wars of the early 1700s.
posted by jb at 8:06 AM on September 16, 2016 [3 favorites]
I love E1, but England was such a backwater when she was Queen. Or maybe middle power, if we're being kind. Not yet a great power, not until the wars of the early 1700s.
posted by jb at 8:06 AM on September 16, 2016 [3 favorites]
Edith Wilson (wife of president Woodrow Wilson).
posted by dilaudid at 8:43 AM on September 16, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by dilaudid at 8:43 AM on September 16, 2016 [1 favorite]
Julia Domna or Julia Maesa from the Roman Severan dynasty might fit the bill.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 9:10 AM on September 16, 2016
posted by Huffy Puffy at 9:10 AM on September 16, 2016
Angela Merkel cmon people
We're not just naming very powerful women, though, we're looking for women who were the most powerful person in the world. Does Merkel really qualify?
posted by kate blank at 10:06 AM on September 16, 2016
We're not just naming very powerful women, though, we're looking for women who were the most powerful person in the world. Does Merkel really qualify?
posted by kate blank at 10:06 AM on September 16, 2016
We're not just naming very powerful women, though, we're looking for women who were the most powerful person in the world. Does Merkel really qualify?
Quite possibly. She's likely the most powerful woman in the world. With Obama on the back-end of his second term and in "almost lame-duck status," Merkel's role as the most prominent of the EU leaders might make her the most powerful person in the world. She was 2015's Time Person of the Year and #2 behind V. Putin on the Forbes "Most Powerful" list. I think that overrates Putin, because I think his hold on power is more fragile than the conventional wisdom admits.
Merkel has the ability to run for a new term in the next federal elections (though that's made more problematic by her currently five-year-low 45% approval rating), so she's not term limited out and is younger than Mrs. Clinton (an advantage, I think). One might argue that even if Clinton is elected president, Merkel might STILL be the most powerful person/women in the world, since she has a degree of control over government policy in Germany's parliamentary system that Clinton will lack in the expected divided government (U.S. House of Reps. remaining in GOP control).
posted by Jahaza at 11:36 AM on September 16, 2016 [3 favorites]
Quite possibly. She's likely the most powerful woman in the world. With Obama on the back-end of his second term and in "almost lame-duck status," Merkel's role as the most prominent of the EU leaders might make her the most powerful person in the world. She was 2015's Time Person of the Year and #2 behind V. Putin on the Forbes "Most Powerful" list. I think that overrates Putin, because I think his hold on power is more fragile than the conventional wisdom admits.
Merkel has the ability to run for a new term in the next federal elections (though that's made more problematic by her currently five-year-low 45% approval rating), so she's not term limited out and is younger than Mrs. Clinton (an advantage, I think). One might argue that even if Clinton is elected president, Merkel might STILL be the most powerful person/women in the world, since she has a degree of control over government policy in Germany's parliamentary system that Clinton will lack in the expected divided government (U.S. House of Reps. remaining in GOP control).
posted by Jahaza at 11:36 AM on September 16, 2016 [3 favorites]
Elizabeth 1's England was an emerging European power. Victoria had little role in governing.
Margaret Thatcher comes to mind as the leader of a nuclear power. No woman before or since has had that kind of power.
posted by justcorbly at 12:05 PM on September 16, 2016
Margaret Thatcher comes to mind as the leader of a nuclear power. No woman before or since has had that kind of power.
posted by justcorbly at 12:05 PM on September 16, 2016
Theresa May is the current leader of a nuclear power. Not that I think she's the most powerful person in the world by any stretch of the imagination.
I came on to say Isabella of Castile, or Catherine the Great. And not Victoria or Elizabeth I but someone earlier and not English speaking. In the last 200+ years it's been US Presidents, Stalin, Hitler, Kaiser Wilhelm II, British Prime Ministers, and Napoleon and they're all men. Before that, English-speaking nations weren't that powerful.
posted by plonkee at 1:41 PM on September 16, 2016
I came on to say Isabella of Castile, or Catherine the Great. And not Victoria or Elizabeth I but someone earlier and not English speaking. In the last 200+ years it's been US Presidents, Stalin, Hitler, Kaiser Wilhelm II, British Prime Ministers, and Napoleon and they're all men. Before that, English-speaking nations weren't that powerful.
posted by plonkee at 1:41 PM on September 16, 2016
Margaret Thatcher comes to mind as the leader of a nuclear power. No woman before or since has had that kind of power.
I'm not terribly sure of the timeline of the Israeli nuclear defense system, but Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi and Benazir Bhutto would like to say hi.
posted by sukeban at 2:07 PM on September 16, 2016 [3 favorites]
I'm not terribly sure of the timeline of the Israeli nuclear defense system, but Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi and Benazir Bhutto would like to say hi.
posted by sukeban at 2:07 PM on September 16, 2016 [3 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by pretentious illiterate at 6:07 AM on September 16, 2016 [15 favorites]