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 AUTHOR
A young girl once cried, “Mama, why aren’t there any women in history?”
The author studied history at her university, and truly, encountered very few women in her studies. Nevertheless, she acquired skills, little dreaming she would ever use them.
After years of tumbling round the world, meeting other peoples, other ways, other histories, she heard the young girl’s cry, which resonated deeply, recalling those woman-barren years of study. Polishing her rusty skills she set about discovering the answer for herself and for all those who had wondered, or cried.
Woman Ruler: Woman Rule answers that young girl: “But there are, my dear, and they are countless. Let me introduce you.”
I have written this book for a woman who earns her living cutting glass and for a lady lawyer who is passionate for history; for a young man who writes tales for children and a retired elevator repairman who loves to read; for a bookseller, for a hairdresser, for you and for myself. I have written it for those looking for inspiration and imagery from the past in order to create the future; for those reconsidering women's place in the world, particularly as leaders of their people; for those in quest of self, wanting to dream, play, create with the many varied images of the feminine.
This book has grown out of my own life. It draws on my love of art, of poetic writing, of travel, of history, of womanhood. Years ago I graduated in history from Berkeley. Later I lived many years in India, England, and Japan, among other countries. In France I translated works by the noted Zen Master and poet Thich Nhat Hanh. Wherever I have lived I have drawn and written, studied and observed. Everywhere the stories of our foremothers have been lost in the shadows. I have sought to bring these twenty-seven women into the limelight and give them voice.
Each woman's song is not history in the usual sense: it does not analyze, criticize or judge, nor does it attempt to report ‘objective truth’. Rather it attempts to present her as she might have presented herself—as she did present herself in her memoirs, letters and speeches, on her monuments, to her contemporaries, or through the legends about her which have passed from generation to generation.
In the songs I have kept my own voice muted. I speak, with the historian’s voice, in the contextual part of the chapter.
I chose the alphabetical structure (plus one for love) because it incorporates a certain element of randomness or ‘choicelessness’; because it intrigues, “Is there really a queen for every letter?” and because it is one of our fundamental ways of organizing information. Within that structure, contingent upon the availability of information, the intent was to be as inclusive of women rulers throughout our human history as possible.
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