Thera 3019
“Okay, we’ve had female presidents,” Vira said. “It took a while, but it happened. Our president right now is a woman!”
“Okay, and?” Tupaarnaq asked.
“What about on Thera?” Vira asked. “What’s the fight for women’s equality like?”
Agalia cocked her head. “I don’t understand. Why wouldn’t women be equal to men?”
Vira’s eyes widened. “Was that not a problem on Thera?”
Tupaarnaq shook her head. “At the peak of our empire, we had a female pharaoh, two women as the generals of the Pharaoh’s Guard, and a female high priestess (fact check Hathor in manuscript).”
“When was this?” Vira asked.
“When Thera was founding Egypt,” Agalia answered. “Horus had his mother crowned as his co-pharaoh when he rose to power. They ruled as equals officially, but I heard that he just did everything she told him to.”
“His co-pharaoh was his mother? What would you expect?” Tupaarnaq asked.
“Sekhmet and Bastet were our generals for quite a while,” Agalia said. “Osiris, Set, Horus, even into Amun and Ra’s reign. When Amun and Ra became pharaohs, they filled Amun’s old position as the general of the Theran military.”
Vira shook her head. “That is amazing. Is this common for alien worlds?”
Tupaarnaq nodded. “Thera’s rival had plenty of women in their military, even in positions of power.”
“That must’ve been difficult for them,” Vira said.
Tupaarnaq cocked her head. “What do you mean? Women shifters are just as terrifying and powerful as male shifters. Only an idiot would underestimate one of their women--or Sekhmet and Bastet.”
“Why do you say that?” Agalia asked. “Is that not the case on Earth?”
Vira shook her head. “It is now in the United States--mostly--but it wasn’t always the case. Women couldn’t even vote until 1920. We didn’t get our first female vice president until 2020.”
“Weird,” Tupaarnaq and Agalia said in unison.