Ruler Archives - Infinite Women

Velu Nachiyar

Born in 1730, Rani Velu Nachiyar was the first Indian queen to actively oppose the British, though she would be far from the last.

Chand Bibi

1500s regent of India’s Bijapur Sultanate and Ahmednagar Sultanate, who defended Ahmednagar against the Mughal forces

Theresa Kachindamoto

Malawian paramount chief and activist who used her authority to dissolve over 3,500 child marriages and advocate for education for both girls and boys

Medb Chruachna

Queen of Connacht and one of the most prominent figures in the Ulster Cycle of heroic tales.

Neithhotep

Neithhotep may have been the first recorded female monarch in world history, circa 3,000 to 3200 BC. She is believed to have been married to either the first or second pharaoh of unified Egypt.

Sobekneferu is believed to be the first female Pharaoh to rule Egypt in her own right, to claim to full titles of a pharaoh, and is also the first woman listed in the Turin King List, an ancient papyrus scroll compiled during the reign of Rameses II in the 1200s BC of all the pharaohs that came before.

Merneith

Merneith ruled Egypt circa 2950. She may also have been a regent for her son after the death of her husband.

Nitocris

Nitocris is a woman who may have ruled Egypt in the 22nd century BC, or who may have been a literary invention centuries later. According to Herodotus, she lured her brother’s murderers into a banquet hall and then killed them by diverting the waters of the Nile to flood the room.