Blind Herstory

There was once a great emperor, who ruled over the most cosmopolitan and rich empire. This emperor built skyscrapers, palaces, giant statues and ruled for half a century. This isn’t the start of a fairytale, and it isn’t the story you might expect. This emperor was a woman... and she ruled a millennium and a half ago - in China.

The Golden Age was named for Elizabeth I, the great virgin queen of England. During her reign, Shakespeare and Marlowe wrote masterpieces, Sir Francis Drake sailed across the world, the Spanish Armada was defeated, and England reached its apogee. At the centre of it all was Elizabeth, resplendent in jewels, makeup, finery and glory.

Cleopatra VII lived at a great intersection of history... where Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome collided. She was undoubtedly one of the personalities of the age - and a woman of tremendous power and influence. While the story ended in Shakespearean tragedy, to have seen history unfold through her eyes was to have a front row seat to the destiny of the world

Though equally loved and vilified by modern historians and analysts, it is beyond question that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Great Britain remains one of the most audacious women of history. This Iron Lady, who came to be respected by her enemies and friends alike, held firm in the face of strikes, wars, ideology and treachery. Her legacy may still be a controversial one, but even the most chauvinist right-winger or unionist feminist can likely agree that she was formidable on an international scale.

She is revered the world over as a saint, but is there more to her story? Mother Teresa devoted her life to the poorest of the poor in a country that wasn’t even the one of her birth. Intensely pious and dogmatic, she has been criticised in the years since for creating a cult of death and taking money from some unscrupulous characters.