Robins' history of women in ancient Egypt is fantastic for Egyptologists and those interested in women's history especially, but even for the lay reader it is a veritable treasure trove of information. What initially impressed me was how Robins is very clear and upfront about the challenges facing scholars examining the role of women: Egyptians were a conservative society seeking to maintain ma'at - the natural balance in the world - a balance that was largely male-dominated, and therefore the historical record is not very rich in terms of explicit evidence. Further, "ancient Egypt" covers a time span of some 3000 years; in any historical discussion there are changes in society, even one as reluctant and slow to change as ancient Egypt's was, which complicates matters. Added to this, the lives of only the elite were celebrated and preserved in tombs, giving us a very one-sided view of what life was like. Even when the common people were portrayed, it was idealized, so the place of the majority of women (working-class women) is left largerly to inference.
What continued to impress was the fact that Robins is intellectually honest enough to point out "grey areas" of our understanding of ancient Egypt and clearly delinate when she is making historical inferences - for example, in her chapter on "Women in Temple Ritual," she states that we never find any female lector priests (priests who would read prayers from papyri scrolls), pointing out that this may be that female priests were illiterate, but it is also feasable that their literacy may not have been "officially acknowledged" (ie., it would have been contrary to ma'at, even as we know that women of the elite classes were taught to read.) I found this both professionally courageous and refreshing.
In spite of working with such limited evidence, Robins provides a wealth of information about women - not only about women and power (the pharoh Hatshepsut as perhaps the best known - but not the only - example of a woman as pharoh), but about marriage, their legal status within society and, what was most fascinating to me, their place as economic beings. Her bibliography is extensive, providing a wealth of other books on the subject that I am anxious to read as well. It is outstanding scholarship, well written for the non-expert (her transliteration of heiroglyphs, for example, do not follow MdC) on a very challenging topic. I give it my highest recommendation.
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