Greatest Woman Ruler/Leader

Who was the greatest woman ruler or leader?

  • Boudicca of the Iceni

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Catherine II (the Great) of Russia

    Votes: 6 7.7%
  • Cixi (or Tz'u-hsi) of China

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Cleopatra VII of Egypt

    Votes: 5 6.4%
  • Dido of Carthage

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Eleabor of Aquitane

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Elizabeth I of England

    Votes: 33 42.3%
  • Golda Meir of Isreal

    Votes: 1 1.3%
  • Homay (Sheherezade) of Persia

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Indira Ghandi of India

    Votes: 3 3.8%
  • Isabella I (the Catholic) of Spain

    Votes: 7 9.0%
  • Jito-tenno of Japan

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Joan of Arc of France

    Votes: 9 11.5%
  • Ku-Baba of Babylonia

    Votes: 1 1.3%
  • Margaret Thatcher of England

    Votes: 5 6.4%
  • Maria Theresa of Austria

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Marie Antoinette of France

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Mary Stuart of Scotland

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Tansu Ciller of Turkey

    Votes: 1 1.3%
  • Other

    Votes: 7 9.0%

  • Total voters
    78

donsig

Low level intermediary
Joined
Mar 6, 2001
Messages
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Location
Rochester, NY
Cast your vote for Greatest Woman Ruler or Leader and tell us why she earned your vote.

This poll was inspired by something I read about Catherine the Great. She was German! (Born in Stettin in Prussia.)
 
But who was the greatest?

I voted for Elizabeth I of England. She presided over England during it's colonization of America. She's got a whole age named after her and everything.

Joan was a close second. If not for her, Shakepeare's plays might have had long runs in Paris...

I mis-typed Eleanor of Aquitaine.:(

I put in representations of as many Civ III civs as I could. Many women on the list were not great leaders - Marie Antoinette is another example.
 
I would have voted Catherine the great, i think that she is the best in the poll.
Ive been reading a lot about her lately,i bought a biography of her written by Henri Troyat and it is a really good book.
But i am an annoying third world boy so i voted other, and my election in Evita Peron (like in the movie of Madonna):goodjob:
 
You have forgotten Wu Zetian of the Tang, the only woman in Chinese history to rule as empress in her own name. Cixi had to maintain her control via an indirect regency of imperial minors thru out her entire 'reign'. ;)

Of the existing choices, it's hard choice betw Elizabeth I and Catherine. I pick Elizabeth since her reign set England off on her course of imperial destiny; one of the many strands of which was the formation of the United States.
 
What about Hatshepsut? Sure, she did it under an alias, but that shouldn't matter much.
 
I voted Ciller because of her amazing political skills in marshalling the kinds of changes she made in modernizing Turkey. She's always amazed me. Her accomplishments took place in the boring committee meetings and backroom deals, but nonetheless she must surely send a shiver of fear down the backs of Islamic extremists!

There were many to choose from though. Woodrow Wilson's wife, Edith, may have been the first female President of the United States, albeit unelected and unfortunately not one of the better examples of leadership. Anna Suchocka in the mid-1990s was Prime Minister of Poland, but had the great misfortune of having that idiot Lech Walesa as President, and because she didn't roll over and do his conservative bidding he made sure she couldn't accomplish anything. :mad:

Hatshepsut was indeed a very effective leader, though perhaps not the best example; a wee-bit too murderous, no?
 
I got the idea for this poll from a book named 'Women rulers throughout the ages'. It's a big encyclopedia type book that has at least 500 entries, so I listed the all inclusive 'other' category.

Elizabeth I is on the cover of the book. Eva Peron is not listed but Isabel is. Hatshepsut has an entry. She would have made I good entry - I must plead ignorance in Egyptian history. I must do the same for Chinese history. Wu Hou (or Wu Chao or Wu Tso Tien - doesn't the English alphabet suck when it comes to spelling?) is in the book and she seems to have been very Machiavellian even before Machiavelli!

I'm surprised that Ciller got a vote already. I am just as ignorant of Turkish current affairs as anything else and the first time I knew of her was tonight: her picture is in the book (the page opposite the Cixi entry). I never knew Turkey had a women prime minister so I included her. (And she looks very nice in the picture!)

So, don't feel you have to be bound by the choices given. Vote 'other' and tell us why. Learning new things this way is fun.:D
 
Eleanor Roosevelt is probably also worth a mention. While she wasn't a national ruler, she served as FDR's eyes and ears and was esentially his chief advisor on social issues.
 
I never thought of Eleanor Roosevelt. Has anyone noticed there is no American women listed? What does that say about us here in the States?
 
Putting Marie Antoinette up there is a joke. She was hated by the people of France, contributed to Louis' natural aversion to reform, wasted money like water, and on top of all that, she was never actually a ruler or anything, and it would be pretty laughable to say she was a leader. She certainly helped the campaign of the revolutionaries, though. :lol:

Btw, it's Margaret Thatcher of Britain, not England.
 
The Greatest? As in the leader that made the most beneficial decissions for her people, or the most blood-thirsty, eh, one who conquered the most? :confused:

I received an European education and thus don't even know all people on the list :o but I'll give my vote to Elizabeth I for putting the right people in charge to defend England and laying the foundations to build an empire on. Cathrine comes in as a close second and loses by teh margin of a bottle of vodka.

I agree with Hamlet on Marie Antoinette :rolleyes:

Ciller - don't hear much of Turkey's internal policies up here ;) But liberal and reformative aren't the first adjectives that spring into my mind :rolleyes:

Joan of Arc - shouldn't be in Civ3 and neither on this list.

Eva Peron - she wasn't exactly ruling Argentina, now was she?
 
She was not ruling the country as a president, but she was the cause of the high popularity of the government of Peron, she had under her control all the money of the state that was directed to social programs and she was very powerful for example if there was a factory that refused to make donations to the "foundation Evita" she would go to the factory and close it.
And she was going to be the candidate to Vice-president but she died of cancer.
She had a very important influence in the people here, for example my grandmother has always voted for some of the most nefarious peronist candidates just because Evita gave her 40 years ago a "machine for weaving? whats the word for that in English"

It was a faccist government but it was democratically elected 3 times.
 
What? No mention of Hillary Rodham Clinton?

(Ducking bricks and rotten fruit from the right AND the left)

Seriously, I would have voted for Victoria of England. Although she was largely a figurehead in terms of real power, she was a much respected figurehead and inspired a great deal of loyalty and devotion in her subjects. She was the living symbol of the British Empire at its height, and also the "Grandmother of Europe", as so many of her children, grandchildren, and other relatives occupied European thrones in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

One thing that I have noticed in history is that the British Isles have produced more than their share of strong female rulers throughout history. From Bodaciea, through Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, Victoria, and Margaret Thatcher, the British seem more accustomed than most nations to being ruled by women.
 
I came close to putting Hillary on the list. Marie Antoinette - just wanted to see the response I guess. There seem to be more English/British women rulers/leaders but that could be becuase we (westerners) know more about English history than we do about oriental or ancient civilizations.

I think Joan can be considered a leader. Didn't she play a big part in the war against England (not Britain:D )?

We could start a whole new discussion about fascists governments being elected democratically.
 
Indira Gandhi followed by Elizabeth and Joan of Arc.
IG because she had the guts to take on the US bullying during the Indo-Pak war of 1971. She was dismissed as a dumb doll and a political novice when she took over the Congress, but single-handedly managed to get it back to power. She banned several right wing HIndu orgs. without fear of a backlash. The other two I think most people have explained it better than me esp. Shakespeare in Paris;)
 
Originally posted by donsig
I got the idea for this poll from a book named 'Women rulers throughout the ages'. It's a big encyclopedia type book that has at least 500 entries, so I listed the all inclusive 'other' category.

do you know if in that books there is an entry for a woman called Marozia??

i´m looking information about her and i´ve started a thread in this same forum

thanks

I voted for Isabella but his husband was more important that people usually think
guess why?
 
Yes, she is in the book (Women rulers throughtout the ages, an illustrated guide / Guida M. Jackson): (quoted from page 271)

Marozia Crescentii
Ruler of Rome (928-932)

Marozia Crescentii was the daughter of Roman senator Theophylact Crescentii and his wife, Theodora. The patrician Crescentii family was of the landed aristocracy that controlled Rome during the nadir of the papacy. At the time of Marozia, the papacy was a local and secular institution. Italy was without effective native rule. Marozia was the mistress of Pope Sergius III and mother of his son John, later Pope John XI. She married Alberic I of Spoleto, margrave of Camerino, who, with her father, restored Sergius III to the papacy. Alberic and Marozia had a son, Alberic II. After Alberic I died in 928, Marozia overthrew and imprisoned Pope John X, raised her illegitimate son to the papacy, and took control of Rome until her son Alberic II assumed power in 932. Following the death of her first husband, she married, successively, Marquess Guido, Guy of Tuscany, and after he died, his half-brother, Hugh of Provence, king of Italy from 926 to 932. In 932 her son, Alberic II, rose up against her and drove out King Hugh.

References
Langer, William L., ed. World History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1980. p.230
Pevite-Orton, C. W. The Shorter Cambridge History of the Crusades. Vol. 1, The Later Roman Empire to the Twelfth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1952, 1982. pp. 359, 437.
 
Originally posted by Sodak
What about Hatshepsut? Sure, she did it under an alias, but that shouldn't matter much.

Bingo Bango Sodak, I agree with you.

I just read this thread late...hehe

But yeah -- Hatshepsut -- did good stuff.
 
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