Cleopatra Gender Essay

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Throughout the course of history, women have been greatly underrepresented in both the social and political worlds. This is especially true when looking back at ancient civilizations such as the Roman and Egyptian Empires in which women were to only become homemakers. There, however, were exceptions. One of these exceptions was Cleopatra VII, Queen of Egypt who through great use of her gender accomplished many tasks which other women of her era couldn’t even begging to imagine. In the book Cleopatra a Biography the author, Duane W. Roller argues that Cleopatra’s gender played a huge role in her political career as she used it to ensure protection, peace, and survival for her kingdom.
Cleopatra’s gender played a huge role in her political …show more content…

The single fact that Cleopatra came from a royal family ensured her to be better off than other women of her time period. Being daughter of Ptolemy XII meant that she had access to anything and everything she could ever imagine such as an education, wealth, and social recognition within other empires (Pg. 43-51). Cleopatra was a great orator whom was able to persuade people to do as she wished (Pg. 46). It is also believed that she could speak several different languages which helped her acquire territory and communicate with other empires (Pg. 48). Although this was true, it was strange for a woman to be this educated as Roller states, “Thus when Cleopatra VII came to the throne in late 51 B.C, she was a remarkably educated person. Intellectual royal was common in Hellenistic times, but it was not inevitable – her brother was said to have had little education- and since women often did not have opportunities that men did, even in the Hellenistic period, Cleopatra’s achievement is all the more remarkable” (Pg. 51). Her ability to speak other languages and persuasion skills aided her with maintaining peace within her kingdom and other empires as she was able to negotiate with others as she did when in the Arabian Peninsula (Pg. 47) when she acquired land and established a diplomatic and mercantile negations. Cleopatra used her gender here to

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