Power Women: Lessons from the Ancient World, Book IV China

Without the same freedoms as men, women throughout time have risen to positions of great power-and changed history. But their stories have not been fully told. One of the many power women detailed in CHINA: From Concubinage, Empresses Achieve the Pinnacle of Power is Empress Wu Zetian, 625-705 CE. Empress Wu was such a powerful and effective leader that people actually considered her to be emperor. A free thinker with Manchurian blood and history, the empress empowered women to ride horses wearing trousers, and to view themselves as citizens. Without regard to political correctness, traditional taboos, or the negative expectations of women, Empress Wu stabilized and consolidated the Tang Dynasty at a time when it appeared to be crumbling-a significant achievement, since the Tang period is now reckoned the Golden Age of Chinese civilization. There are many more fascinating facts about Empress Wu and other empresses, like the powerful Cixi, who brought China out of the ancient past into the modern world.