EGYPTIAN WOMEN FROM THE PTOLEMAIC TO THE COPTIC PERIOD
4.1 The Ptolemaic period
Cleopatra VII gave more careful consideration than her ancestors to the local Egyptian population (Figure 2a and Figure 2d). Although, she was descended from a family of state decision makers, The Ptolemies, who were not Egyptians by blood, but rather Greek/Macedonian (The rulers succeeding Alexander the Great). She was the main Ptolemaic ruler who learnt the Egyptian language, and adopted all the religious customs to become a genuine Pharaoh. This helped her prominence within individuals outside the Greek-rule either in Alexandria, the capital city of Egypt by this time, or in Upper Egypt; where she was worshiped as a divine being (Jacobs, 1996).
Cleopatra supported researchers and exploration at the colossal library of Alexandria, including well-known researchers and
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Tragically, in recent times the role and impact of Egyptian women declined dramatically because of many erroneous religious and cultural beliefs. Here we argue that profound knowledge of female role models especially in the history of Egypt can improve today’s gender role in Egypt and Middle Eastern countries. According to Bandura’s social learning theory individuals are more likely to adopt a modeled behavior if the model is similar to the observer and has admired status (Bandura, 1977). Therefore, referring to female western pioneers in Egyptian schools and in the Arabic media will certainly not have the same impact as referring to models within the same culture. In accordance with social learning theory, Bussey and Bandura (1984) showed that even children at a lower level of gender conception emulated same-sex models in preference to opposite-sex ones. Thus, this article provides an important review of female Egyptian pioneers which could be used in schools and in the media to compete with the male dominated historical role