By 1565, two unmarried women – Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I of England – had already been ruling on the same island for years: Mary for four, Elizabeth for seven.
The term prudente Gynecocratie appears in a sixteenth-century text by Pierre de Ronsard, who defended the peaceful and intelligent authority of ruling queens. He directly challenged the belief that men were inherently better rulers simply because they were male. Europe, he argued, was “governed today by princesses whose accomplishments have shamed kings.” It would be better, he wrote, for “a princess of gentle and sharp spirit to reign” than for a “lazy, do-nothing king” to hold power in name alone.
I found it important to return to this historical moment, when a different model of governance was not only imaginable, but already in practice.
Prudent Gynecocratie
By 1565, two unmarried women – Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I of England – had already been ruling on the same island for years: Mary for four, Elizabeth for seven. The term prudente Gynecocratie appears in a sixteenth-century text by Pierre de Ronsard, who defended the peaceful and intelligent authority of ruling queens.…
