Wu Zhap and Irene

Irene and Wu Zhao

Many people today are surprised by the amount of women taking a rise to political leadership positions. They think that women are not capable of doing what is considered to be a man’s job. Irene and Wu Zhao were both women leaders in a time when women were supposed to be saintly and submissive. During their reign they both established many great things, but they were both very evil. However, they were able to rule effectively and help destroy the stereotype that women could not rule.

Governing in a patriarchal society as a woman is not an easy task. It takes a certain personality to be able to succeed at such a difficult job. Both Irene and Wu Zhao had very strong personalities. Although they were both courageous and capable politicians, that was not enough to succeed. These women had to be revolutionaries; they had to neglect the legal and moral restraints of the culture. Irene and Wu Zhao were both modern iconoclasts, meaning “one who attacks and seeks to ...